Full Notification

Duanying Chen, age 19, of Santa Barbara, was arrested for the felonies of domestic battery and animal cruelty.  The victim of domestic battery was Chen’s 21-year old cohabitating girlfriend and the victim of animal cruelty was her 5-month old male miniature pinscher puppy.  The dog was severely abused and is suffering from multiple life-threatening injuries.  Due to its deteriorating condition it may be euthanized.

On May 14, 2014 at 11:02 p.m., SBPD Officer Josh Morton responded to a local veterinary hospital to investigate a possible case of domestic violence.  Earlier in the evening Chen’s girlfriend had brought her puppy to the hospital for treatment.  The clinic staff saw that the animal had multiple injuries consistent with having been abused.  Further, upon questioning the dog’s owner they suspected that she was also the victim of domestic violence.  The Police Department was subsequently notified.

Officer Morton conducted the preliminary investigation and SBPD Animal Control Officer Stephanie Turner and Crimes Against Persons Detective Charlie Katsapis conducted the follow-up investigation in this case.  Their investigation revealed the following.  Around the beginning of May Chen and his girlfriend had been involved in a heated argument during which, the girlfriend stated, she was manually strangled by Chen until she nearly lost consciousness.  On the morning of May 14, 2014 the girlfriend left her puppy in Chen’s care; at the time the dog was uninjured.  When she returned home at approximately 8:00 p.m. she found the puppy hiding underneath a table, unable to walk.  Upon closer examination she saw that the dog had additional injuries all over its body and subsequently took it to the veterinarian.  Chen explained to his girlfriend that the dog sustained its injuries from a fall from the top of a Ping-Pong table.  Examination however revealed injuries consistent with abuse, rather than a fall; the animal was suffering from multiple broken bones, multiple lacerations and burns, neurological damage, and wounds to its rectum and genitals. 

On May 20^th, 2014 Detective Katsapis obtained a $75,000.00 felony arrest warrant for Chen for the crimes of domestic battery and animal cruelty.  He also obtained a search warrant for Chen’s residence on the 2000 block of Monterey Street.  At 6:00 p.m. that evening detectives executed the warrants and arrested Chen.  Chen was booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail on the aforementioned charges.