Man arrested after emaciated dogs found

BRADENTON -- A man was arrested Monday on an animal cruelty charge after police found several emaciated dogs, some with cuts and sores, at a house here.

The dogs, four male pit bulls and one female, were found in the 700 block of 13th Avenue East. The reported owner, Dennis L. Simmons, 25, was arrested on a felony animal cruelty charge.

"They (the dogs) appeared that they were starving and had not eaten in a long time," a Bradenton police officer wrote in a report. "The bones were easily seen through the skin."