Coggon woman accused of letting dog starve to death

COGGON - A Coggon woman is accused of abandoning her dog and allowing it to starve to death.

Linn County Sheriff's Office Col. John Stuelke said Thursday that deputies arrested 24-year-old Chelsea Bodenhofer Wednesday on a warrant for animal neglect. The offense is a serious misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.

Stuelke said deputies responded to a residence in Coggon on Feb. 21 and found a dog - a female pit bull - dead inside the back door of the residence. Neighbors reported last hearing the dog barking on Jan. 29, Stuelke said.

An investigation found that Bodenhofer moved out of the house at some point, but did not leave food or water for her dog 'for an extended period of time,” Stuelke said. The dog eventually starved to death.

Bodenhofer was in the process of being evicted from the residence where the dog was found, Stuelke said.

Stuelke described the incident a 'terrible case of neglect.”

'You don't just leave a dog in a house without food or water and allow it to starve over several weeks,” he said. 'How you do that to an animal is beyond me.”

Stuelke said the situation could have been avoided had Bodenhofer taken the dog to an animal shelter, contacted a rescue agency or posted to social media that she couldn't care for the dog.

'There were options available and she didn't take them,” he said.