21 dead dogs inconsequential as Flake connection gets cover-up

Sen. Jeff Flake’s son and daughter-in-law, Austin and Logan Flake, in charge of kennel when heat related deaths occurred, not even worthy of mention in Arizona Republic

The Arizona Republic newspaper never ceases to amaze. The reliably left-wing disseminator of sap and pap does have a soft spot for a few Republicrats. Case in point?  Today’s coverage of the exhaustive search of the Gilbert kennel where 21 dogs died miserable heat-related deaths. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies have served search warrants and collected evidence in the ongoing investigation, including parts of the air conditioning unit and even sending tissue samples to the University of Arizona and the University of Michigan. 

The dogs, crammed in a small room overnight at the Green Acres Dog Boarding facility, were found June 20. Initially the home-based kennel owners Jesse Todd and Maleisa Hughes, who were out of town at the time the deaths occurred, lied to the pet owners about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of their family dogs, saying the dogs “ran away.” A veterinarian performing necropsies on the pets said the deaths were not inconsistent with suffocation, though further testing will be done to determine the exact cause.

 Sheriff Arpaio, whose affection for dogs is well known, created an Animal Crimes Investigations Unit over a decade ago and to this day, it remains one of the only units of its kind in existence inside a law enforcement agency. Here is the MCSO’s initial press release on this horrific crime and another unrelated case that occurred earlier this month. That man, responsible for the heat related death of his own one-year-old dog, has been arrested and booked into jail.

Today’s newspaper report fittingly continues to the back of the Valley and State section, just above the obituaries. 

Omitted entirely from the report is the fact that the animals were under the care of the Hughes’ daughter Logan and her husband, Austin Flake, the son of U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake. The two not only have refused to talk to investigators, directing them to contact their lawyer, but they left town as soon as her parents, the kennel owners returned.

When the atrocious deaths were first reported, the Arizona Republic took to editorializing against Sheriff Arpaio with these words,”But Maricopa County’s flamboyant sheriff needs to focus on the facts, not the drama. This high-profile connection should not matter,” the editorial opines, “but it will raise public interest and attract enhanced scrutiny. Such are the wages of politics.”

It’s clear such are also “the wages” of a reporting shutdown on pertinent facts.

This is the FOX News raw interview footage with the arrogant Maleisa Hughes, who declared that the kennel provided “awesome care.”

Seeing Red AZ reported on the Republic’s biased coverage in this post: AZ Republic uses dead dogs to bash Arpaio, give pass to Flake. Obviously, nothing has changed.