Famous people seem to be having a lot of issues with dogs lately. There’s Ving Rhames dogs who were found near their caretaker’s dead body (though probably weren’t involved with his death) and the atrocious Michael Vick dog fighting thing. Now rapper DMX has had his dogs taken away by the Maricopa County sheriff, under allegations of cruelty. The dogs weren’t being given food and water – and DMX claims not to have been to the property in two months. Supposedly there was a caretaker who wasn’t doing his job – so it could have been as long as two months that the animals weren’t being cared for properly. In all the sheriffs took away twelve pit bulls. That’s a lot of dogs and would be challenging to care for – that’s not an excuse for not caring for them, but it’s a good reason not to have twelve dogs. For some reason authorities dug up the backyard as well, and found the remains of three other dogs, one of which had been severely burned.

“Sheriff’s deputies raided the home of rapper DMX on Friday, seizing several pit bulls and finding the remains of three other dogs but making no arrests. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office received a tip more than a week ago about dogs being kept in inhumane conditions at the Phoenix-area home, said Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Detectives visited the home and then called one of the rapper’s lawyers and told him that the conditions for the animals at the property needed to be improved or deputies would take action, Arpaio said. The dogs were not being fed or given water.

“Authorities returned to the home Friday. The 36-year-old musician and actor, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was not at home during the raid. Simmons’ lawyer, Murray Richman, said Simmons hasn’t been in Arizona for at least two months and was ‘extremely disturbed’ to hear the animals weren’t being cared for properly. ‘We had a caretaker that wasn’t taking care, that’s what happened,’ Richman said. ‘He loves dogs – he loves these animals. Those dogs are practically his family.’

“Richman said he hadn’t been notified of problems at the property until he learned of the raid Friday. Sheriff’s officials said they had contacted another lawyer who works for DMX. Arpaio said the deputies who served a search warrant at the home Friday seized 12 pit bulls tied up on the property and took them to an old jail that has been converted into an animal shelter.

“Deputies found the buried dogs when they dug up the back yard. One had apparently been burned and the cause of death on the others was unknown because the bodies were decomposing.”

[From the Washington Post]

Earlier this month we wrote that DMX was ordered to pay a quarter million dollar settlement to a company he had a merchandising deal with – for dog clothing and accessories. It was called Boomer 129 – named after DMX’s favorite dog. If there’s any truth to the statement that DMX had a caretaker that hadn’t been taking care of the animals, why weren’t they taken care of a week later? Basically the sheriff came in and said they couldn’t keep animals in these types of conditions, and they had a week to fix it. And they didn’t fix it. The excuse about the caretaker doesn’t hold any weight, because they had a week to fire the guy and at least get some food and water to the dogs, and they didn’t. Can you imagine how miserable those poor animals must be in the hot Phoenix sun without water? It’s heart wrenching. Blaming it on the other lawyer is bull. If DMX hasn’t been around to check on his animals in two months, he shouldn’t have them. I hope they find their way to better homes.

Update by Jaybird: Apparently this is NOT DMX’s first run-in with the law due to his dogs. Crazy Days & Nights says “This is not the first time DMX has had a problem taking care of his ‘pets.’ In 2002, DMX plead guilty to animal cruelty for neglecting 13 pit bulls. As part of that sentence he was required to film public service announcements speaking out against animal abuse.”

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s DMX’s back tattoo, done in memory of his pit-bull Boomer, who was killed by a car. Picture is by Michael Schreiber and was found at Altpick.com. Header image of DMX performing at the House of Blues in Chicago on July 26th. Image thanks to PR Photos.