A 36-year-old Palm Coast woman is facing felony animal cruelty charges after deputies say she abandoned a dog and a cat inside a rental home with no food, water, or electricity following her eviction — leaving the cat so sick it later had to be euthanized. Erin Curley was arrested on Aug. 20 in Geneva, Florida, and booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford on $25,000 bond.
According to Tampa Free Press, Curley left the animals inside the abandoned Palm Coast rental after both water and electricity service were shut off during the eviction process. Palm Coast Animal Control and the Flagler County Sheriff's Office Agriculture/Ranch Unit responded to the home on Waybourne Place on July 12 after neighbors reported that a dog could be heard barking and crying inside, and that Curley had not been seen for several weeks since her eviction.
What deputies found inside was grim. The residence was covered in urine and feces, with an overflowing litter box left in the bedroom, and no food or water anywhere for the animals. Investigators believed the dog had been forced to drink from the dry toilet bowl as its only water source, the report notes.
A Cat's Suffering, A Dog's Uncertain Future
Veterinarians determined the cat was emaciated and dehydrated, suffering from severe health conditions including extremely elevated calcium levels. The cat was ultimately euthanized after its veterinary evaluation. The dog was found to be in fair physical health and was transferred to the Flagler Humane Society, though officials stated it is expected to be ineligible for adoption because of trauma from the abandonment — the animal had also torn apart a couch inside the home, per the same account.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said Curley reached out about her dog roughly a month later, on Aug. 5, contacting deputies by text and email — but she never mentioned the cat at all. “She left her pets hungry and thirsty with no place to use the bathroom,” Staly said. When investigators tried to schedule an in-person meeting with Curley on Aug. 12, she did not respond, and a warrant for her arrest was issued two days later.
Charges and What Comes Next
On Aug. 14, Curley was charged with two counts of felony cruelty to animals and two counts of confining animals without sufficient food or water. She was ultimately taken into custody nearly a week later by the Flagler County Sheriff's Office Fugitive Apprehension Unit in Geneva. Staly said the county does not tolerate animal cruelty in any form.
Under Florida Statute § 828.12(2), aggravated animal cruelty is a third-degree felony that can carry up to five years in state prison and a fine of as much as $10,000 per count when a person intentionally causes an animal's cruel death or excessive suffering, according to Goldman Wetzel. Separately, Florida Statute § 828.13 makes abandoning or confining an animal without adequate food, water, or shelter its own first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and fines up to $5,000 per violation, as outlined by the City of Palm Coast.
A Legal Gray Area After Eviction
Cases like this one sit at a messy legal intersection. Once a sheriff executes a writ of possession, pets left behind in a rental are technically classified as personal property under Florida civil law, according to Adams & Reese, a framework built around inanimate belongings rather than living animals. That ambiguity forces landlords, animal control officers, and law enforcement to navigate overlapping statutes just to justify an emergency rescue.
The Flagler County Sheriff's Office operates a specialized Agriculture/Ranch Unit dedicated to investigating livestock neglect and felony domestic animal abuse cases, working alongside Palm Coast Animal Control on residential neglect reports, per WFTV. The Flagler Humane Society, which took in the surviving dog, also partners with the sheriff's office to house shelter animals at the county detention facility through its SMART inmate rehabilitation program, pairing rescue puppies and kittens with inmates for care and socialization.
City Urges Renters To Surrender, Not Abandon
Palm Coast's Animal Control Division advises residents who are losing housing or can no longer care for their pets to surrender them directly to the Flagler Humane Society or a private rescue group rather than leave them behind unattended. The Flagler County Sheriff's Office encourages anyone who suspects animal neglect or abuse to come forward and report it at 386-313-4911.
This is not an isolated case in the region. In July 2025, deputies and Palm Coast Animal Control removed 96 cats from a single Palm Coast home after an elderly resident became overwhelmed, according to FOX 35 Orlando. In February, an Orlando man was arrested after leaving an emaciated dog behind in an evicted home without food or water, and Flagler deputies investigated a severely infected pit bull puppy dumped in a roadside ditch in April. In July, an 18-year-old Palm Coast resident was arrested after a puppy starved to death locked inside an unventilated garage.
