Soddy-Daisy couple face child and animal abuse charges
A Soddy-Daisy couple charged earlier this week with aggravated child abuse are now facing an additional 15 charges each for animal cruelty.
Officers first responded to the home of Staci Tallent, 31, and Dustin Tallent, 24, on the 100 block of Francis Street on an anonymous tip, according to court documents. There they met Staci Tallent and were escorted inside.
Upon entering, the report says, officers saw “the entire residence was covered in household trash, urine, and feces. Most areas were approx. 3 feet in height.”
One child was found in a locked room with trash and feces and two more children were found in a separate room in similar conditions.
Officers also found eight turtles, four dogs, three cats, one rabbit, one python and a lizard, many of which were extremely thin. No food or water was present for any of the animals.
Also found in the home were freezers containing six birds, three dogs and a rabbit, all emaciated from starvation. Five of the living animals were listed as emaciated by a veterinarian.
More authorities were called to the scene, as was Child Protective Services, and the children were taken to a local hospital for evaluation. Staci Tallent was taken into custody, as was Dustin Tallent when he came home from work.
Both defendants are scheduled to appear in court before Hamilton County General Sessions Judge Gary Starnes on July 5.
The charges come just weeks after investigators said a 5-year-old developmentally challenged boy in Evensville, Tenn., was being alternately locked in a room and harnessed to a bolt in the floor of a home over the last several months.
That boy’s mother, Monica Hall, 39, and her boyfriend, Dennis Couch, 42, were charged with aggravated child abuse, neglect and endangerment.
They found the boy in a room with a harness connected by three feet of cable to a bolt in the center of the room. The room otherwise contained only a small mattress.
According to the arrest report, officers could hear the boy yelling “out, out” and “hungry, hungry,” and when the door was unlocked, a little boy ran out of the room to the refrigerator.