On September 2, 2026, Emporia Police Department officers searched a home on Lakeview Street in Lyon County, Kansas, and found dozens of animals living in filthy, unhealthy conditions. Officers removed 41 animals in total — 31 dogs and 10 cats — from the property. Two residents of the home, 44-year-old Matthew Carver and 37-year-old Sarah Carver, were arrested and now face animal cruelty and neglect charges, according to the Emporia Police Department. The investigation is still active.

Forty-one animals is not a stray complaint or a misunderstanding — it's dozens of living creatures left in filth long enough for officers to obtain and execute a search warrant. When a case reaches that scale, it means neglect was allowed to continue for however long it took someone to notice and report it.

The Lyon County Attorney's Office now has the chance to make sure this case results in real accountability — not a quiet plea deal that treats the neglect of 41 animals as a minor matter. Cases involving dozens of animals rescued from a single property are exactly the kind of severe neglect that the charges already filed were written for.

Justice here means two things: full prosecution of the charges as filed, and a public commitment that a case this size doesn't get resolved behind closed doors. The animals who were rescued can't speak for themselves in a courtroom. The people who are supposed to speak for them are the prosecutors handling this case — and they need to know the public is watching.

Sign this petition to demand the Lyon County Attorney's Office pursue full accountability in this case — before another animal in Lyon County pays the price for delay.