9 dogs found dead; owner blames AC unit

WESTFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Nine dogs were found dead on a woman's farm in Westfield.

The dogs owner says an air conditioning unit is to blame.

Brenda Coggin says she's not sure if they overheated or were poisoned by the air conditioner, she just knows she found her 9 Aussie show dogs bloody and dead.

"It's pretty traumatic, I'm still having a pretty traumatic time with it," Coggin told the 22News I-Team.

It's almost a week since Brenda Coggin, owner of Coggin Creek Stables in Westfield, says she found her 9 Aussie show and breeding dogs dead in their kennel.

"They were in the kennel with the air conditioning on and they were perfectly fine at 10:30 in the morning and when I went in later in the afternoon the air conditioner had tripped its reset button and they were all dead," Coggin said.

She said she didn't call police about it because at that point there was nothing that could be done for the dogs.

What she did do, she says, was bury them here in her yard that night.

"We got done at about 11:00 Thursday night, I didn't want them laying there all night," she added.

Coggin told the 22News I-Team the dogs bled out through their nose, making her question if they overheated or were poisoned by the air conditioner.

The MSPCA is now investigating while Coggin deals with the loss of nine show and breeding dogs she's invested in for years.

"One of them I spent $8,000 dollars on saving her life, I lost her too, it was tough. I was pretty devastated. It was pretty shocking to see them that way," she added.

She does have about 30 horses on her farm as well as other animals.

None of them are being kept in the kennel where the dogs died.