Home Littered With Animal Feces – Father Arrested For Child Abuse

Cleaning up after a pet is bad enough, but Las Cruces police said 27-year-old David M. Lanning forced his two young children to live with animal feces inside their home along the 1800-block of Bellamah Drive.

Lanning was arrested Thursday, and is charged with one count of negligent child abuse.

The outside of the house is not the tidiest, but no one would have guessed the kind of deplorable conditions inside the home.

Lanning, his wife and two kids shared the home with 17-cats and 4-dogs, police said. Every inch of the floors were covered with animals feces and urine, police said.

The young children suffered breathing problems from the rancid stench, and often went to school wearing clothes visibly stained with animal feces, police said.

“From my understanding, the animal feces was never picked up really,” Dan Trujillo, spokesperson for the Las Cruces Police Department, said. “The animals were left to urinate and to conduct their business in the home. The waste was never collected, was never picked up.”

Lanning admitted to having anger management issues and a drug problem, police said.

The mother and children are staying at a safe, undisclosed place, police said.

Lanning is currently held at the Dona Ana County Detention Center on $10,000 bond.