If you’re an animal lover, this story is really going to make you angry.The son of Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake, Austin Flake, and his wife Logan Flake are facing multiple animal cruelty charges for their role in the deaths of twenty-one dogs at a suburban Phoenix kennel.Austin and Logan Flake, both twenty-one-year-olds, were made responsible for the operations of the Green Acre kennel while the owners, Logan’s parents, vacationed in Florida. During the period of time the Flakes were managing the kennel something went terribly wrong and twenty-one dogs died.A state grand jury investigation was launched and last month Austin and Logan Flake were each charged with twenty-one felony and seven misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. The Flake’s entered not guilty pleas in court on Thursday.The owners of the kennel Jesse Todd Hughes and Maleisia Hughes, Logan’s parents, have separately pleaded not guilty to twenty-two felony charges and seven misdemeanors counts of cruelty to animals and one count of fraud each.How on earth does a tragedy like this occur?Reuters reports:

Sheriff’s department investigators say the canines likely died from suffocation and heat exhaustion after being confined in a small room. The authorities were told the air-conditioning was knocked out, possibly by a dog chewing through an electrical cord, but the investigators could not confirm that.The civil lawsuit against the owners and caretakers alleges the dogs were kept in cramped quarters and faced “neglect, mistreatment, physical injury and psychological abuse.”The lawsuit includes the twenty-one dogs that died in the incident, and two others that survived.The owners are also accused of lying to several people about the death of their pets, including some who were initially told that their dogs had run away.

Austin and Logan Flake have declared their innocence referring to the incident as a “tragic and unforeseen accident, nothing more.”Maybe I’m missing something here, but this does not appear to be an incident that was the result of an accident. An example of an accident would have been the roof of the kennel collapsing or bad wiring causing a fire. The events that unfolded under the care of the Flakes seem to be too nefarious an oversight or too intentionally cruel to be categorized as an accident.We will keep a close eye on this case and see if the Flakes receive any special treatment due to their relationship to U.S. Senator Jeff Flake. The felony charges carry penalties of up to ten years in prison. Often defendants receive probation for animal cruelty, but in a case this brutal I would hope the defendants, if convicted, spend some time behind bars.Check out our past editions of Felony Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+