Two pet dogs were left trapped inside an Oklahoma apartment for approximately one week after ICE agents detained their owner and failed to notify anyone the animals remained inside.
The detention occurred last January, when the Department of Homeland Security fell under the leadership of Kristi Noem, who has publicly admitted to shooting one of her own dogs dead.
Agents departed the scene without alerting animal control, leaving the two pets confined with no food or water as days passed inside the locked unit.
The rescue came only after a neighbor noticed something was wrong and an apartment manager placed a call for help to an animal welfare officer, who later shared footage of the rescue online under the name “Animal Welfare Guy.”
The officer asked that his name and city remain anonymous but spoke to PunchUp, a reader-supported investigations Substack, detailing what he found and expressing continued anger over the incident.
“ICE deported the owners and then left, with the animals locked in the apartment for about a week,” he told PunchUp, adding that neighbors had witnessed the detention firsthand.
Inside the apartment, the scene told its own story, with the dogs having chewed through furniture and dug through trash in a desperate search for anything to eat while severely stressed and likely starving.
The officer found both dogs cowering in the back bedroom, barking and trembling, though neither showed any aggression, and he walked each one on a catch pole to kennels in his truck before transporting them to a shelter.
He noted that law enforcement is generally expected to contact animal control when arresting someone who has pets in their care, but that call never came from the agents involved in this case.
As Axios previously reported, the Department of Homeland Security stated last summer that “ICE does NOT impound property,” and the agency offered no established protocol covering animals left behind following a detention.
The gap in policy appears to be producing measurable consequences across multiple cities where ICE has been operating at increased intensity throughout 2026.
St. Paul Animal Services recorded a 38 percent jump in stray, seized, and surrendered cats and dogs in January 2026 compared with the same month a year prior, tracking directly with Operation Metro Surge activity in the Twin Cities.
In Los Angeles, the situation was even more acute, with dog surrenders more than tripling during a single week last June as enforcement operations accelerated across the region.
A DHS spokesperson, responding to inquiries, said the agency was unable to identify the specific case but maintained that ICE gives those it detains “every opportunity to arrange care for their pets after their arrest.”
The spokesperson further stated that people in the country illegally “have the option to leave freely with their pets by self-deporting using the CBP Home app,” and that “by choosing to self-deport, illegal aliens can ensure they get to keep their pets.”
The animal welfare officer was careful to frame his criticism as non-partisan, noting he had previously come down just as hard on county sheriffs who refused to assist an injured horse.
Regarding Noem, who wrote in her memoir No Going Back about shooting her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer Cricket at a gravel pit, stating “I hated that dog,” the officer offered a measured but pointed response.
“It [the dog] very well may have needed it, but it shouldn’t have happened like that,” he said, drawing a line between necessity and the manner in which the act was carried out.
Noem was fired by President Donald Trump in March after 14 months leading DHS, with the episode involving the Oklahoma apartment dogs unfolding during her tenure at the department’s helm.
