On the morning of Friday August 9, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office received a call referencing a dead dog in a cardboard box in Guadalupe. The dog had been placed inside a cardboard box and left near a block wall of a residence.
The cardboard box was tied shut preventing the dog from being able to escape.
A witness told Sheriff’s deputies he had seen Ricardo Ramirez Cupis carrying the box on Saturday August 3, along the street. The box fell to the street and a small brown and tan dog escaped. Cupis captured the dog and placed it back inside the box, secured the bindings and continued walking down the street.
The witness noticed the box sitting against his block wall fence on Wednesday, August 7, but did not investigate it until Friday when he took his garbage cans to the curb for pickup and noticed a foul odor coming from the box. The witness investigated and found it to contain a dog as he could see the dog’s nose poking out of the box at the bottom.
A Sheriff’s deputy interviewed Cupis who admitted placing the live dog inside the box and placing it near the fence where it was found. Cupis said that the dog was very sick and he did not want it to die at his house.
Cupis was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on one county of Felony Animal Cruelty charge.