Three puppies huddled together after surviving a terrifying ordeal.
Police said the dog owners, two teen boys, tried to bury the puppies alive.
"Luckily some concerned neighbors saw what was going on and called us up," Sgt. Glen Grundeis, Bakersfield Police Department, said.
A witness who didn't want to be identified because she is afraid of retaliation said the boys told her they were just playing.
"They knew what they were doing because I mean they thought it was funny and they did say the dad sent them to do it," the witness said.
Police said the boys took the 8-week-old pit bull puppies to a dirt lot on East Planz Road near their home in Southeast Bakersfield. Police said one of the teens hit a puppy with a stick and started to bury it in a hole.
"Apparently the puppies got into some mischief or something like that," Sgt. Grundeis said.
The teen's father told 17 News the boys wanted to get rid of the puppies because they ate eggs from the family's chicken.
"In Mexico when the animals eat the eggs people usually get rid of them and there is no law against it," Jose Carvajal, the boy's father, said. Carvajal said the teens were born in the United States, but raised in Mexico.
The boys, ages 15 and 17, fled when neighbors confronted them. They later returned when police arrived. Police arrested them on animal cruelty charges, but neighbors said the boys told them it was their father who ordered them to get rid of the dogs. He denies it.
"On one hand it's good they got punished because these are innocent animals, but on the other hand they are my kids," Carvajal said.
The puppies appeared to be in good health, but a vet later diagnosed one with parvo. Police said if you have an unwanted animal, there are better ways to deal with them, such as calling animal control or taking them to a shelter.
