Snellville Woman Finds Truck Filled With Malnourished Pit Bulls

A man was arrested last month on an animal cruelty charge involving several pit bulls being found in the back of his pickup truck. 

The woman who found the truck is Snellville-area resident Colleen Lazenby, who also runs the local nonprofit Diva's Pit Bull Rescue. She told Patch that on her morning run in her neighborhood Sept. 10, she noticed the red truck at a home off Mountbery Drive. 

She spotted a pit bull in a carrier, and a blue tarp was concealing the bed of his truck.

"It was like he was covering up something," said Lazenby, who owns eight pit bulls herself. 

She later ran into one of her neighbors, who told her about the rest of the pit bulls. 

"When I ran by a second time, I just heard this god awful grumbling noise," said Lazenby through tears. "I was like, 'Oh my god, how many dogs are in there?'"

She ran home and told her husband to call 911. Gwinnett County Police officers came out and spoke with a man named Jeffrey Rhem, the owner of the truck and dogs. The man from Stone Mountain explained that he was visiting his daughter at his her house before going to Virginia.

Officers checked out what was under the tarp and saw five adult dogs and several puppies in three large crates. 

The report says one of the adult females looked malnourished and emaciated, with thin hind legs and her ribs sticking out. She appeared starved and weak, and her side had an infection that was aggravated by multiple gnats. 

The suspect explained to police that the female pit bull had just delivered puppies and they were "taking everything out of her." When the officer asked when was the last time he fed the dogs, he only said, "My dogs eat," and didn't provide a specific time. 

His reason for having the dogs is that he sells the puppies for $25 each. He was homeless, and he uses the money he earns to buy gasoline and food, he explained. 

The officer told him he found it hard to believe that he could properly care for the dogs since he was homeless, and Rhem said that's the reason why he was leaving for Virginia, so that he could care for the dogs there. 

Animal control came out and recommended that the dogs be impounded and the owner be charged with animal cruelty. Rhem was arrested at the scene.

When Lazenby went by the shelter to visit the pit bulls, she couldn't believe how many dogs there were or how malnourished they were.

"I had no idea there were that many when I reported it. It just made me sick," she said.

While one of the female dogs had to be put down due to cancer, Lazenby was able to save four puppies with her rescue group, which has saved more than 75 pit bulls since the organization started last year.

According to what shelter workers told her, they believe the man breeds and sells the dogs so that they could be trained to fight. 

Lazenby also said the same pickup truck has been at the same house twice since the incident: once a few weeks after and also since Monday (Sept. 30). Since the pickup has been kept in the backyard to conceal most of the body, she's unsure if any dogs were in there. She called police the second time she saw the truck since she saw a crate and tarp, but jail records indicated Rhem was not arrested a second time.

"I'm trying to keep a close eye out," she said.

Lazenby added, "I just wish there was a way that there could be some kind of justice for these dogs. This man just got a misdemeanor, and I just don't understand. It's so unfair."

Inside the Police Reports does not indicate a conviction.