Michele Keech
/ Courtesy State Police
GREENE (AP) -- A 62-year-old New York woman has been charged with arson and animal cruelty after police say she started a fire in the basement of her upstate home, killing 33 dogs she kept there.
State police say troopers responded yesterday to a report of a despondent woman at a home along Route 206 in the rural Chenango County town of Greene, 50 miles southeast of Syracuse.
Troopers say Michele Keech set fire to her basement, causing extensive damage and killing the dogs.
Police say Keech was charged with felony counts of arson and aggravated cruelty to animals. It isn't known if she has a lawyer.
State police don't information on the type of dogs killed or why Keech had so many.
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