Nineteen dogs are dead, and the person who was supposed to be keeping them safe never told anyone. The Tulsa County District Attorney must pursue this case to the fullest extent of the law, and any sentence must include a lifetime ban on owning, fostering or rescuing animals.

On November 4, Tulsa animal control officers went to a home near 12th Street and Memorial Drive after a cruelty report. The smell outside was so bad that police feared a person had died inside. Firefighters were getting ready to force the door when 44-year-old Marcia Reynolds, who is connected to a reported animal rescue group, answered it.

Inside, investigators described a house full of trash, waste and urine. Crates were stacked from room to room, holding 22 living dogs and two cats. Officers also found about 19 dogs that had already died. According to the Tulsa Police Department, Reynolds blamed the summer heat and a lack of air conditioning for the deaths, but she never reported them.

Reynolds now faces 29 counts of animal cruelty and is being held on a $580,000 bond. These charges are only the beginning. People who hand animals to a rescue are trusting it to give them a second chance. When that trust is broken, the response has to be serious enough to stop it from happening again.

The Humane Society of Tulsa is caring for the animals that survived. They deserve full medical care and a safe new home, and they must never be returned to Reynolds.

Sign the petition to demand full accountability for these 19 dogs and a lifetime ban that keeps this from happening again.