Chiefs’ Isaiah Buggs arrested and released in animal cruelty case

Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Isaiah Buggs turned himself in to the Tuscaloosa County Jail on Thursday after allegedly abusing two dogs.

A Tuscaloosa police spokesman confirmed to WIAT in Birmingham, Alabama, that Buggs turned himself in to jail on Thursday, a day after two misdemeanor warrants were issued against him.

Buggs was arrested and released on $600 bail. He refused to answer a reporter’s question as he left the jail and got into a truck.

According to court documents, Tuscaloosa police received a report that two dogs were left on the porch of a home rented by Buggs. Officers and animal control officers found a gray and white pit bull and a black Rottweiler on a screened porch with no access to food or water.

Both dogs appeared malnourished and neglected, and the house appeared abandoned. Witnesses told police that Buggs had recently moved out. Both dogs were confiscated and the pit bull was eventually euthanized.

Buggs’ agent Trey Robinson denied the allegations on Wednesday, claiming his client was the victim of an ongoing “subversive campaign” to force the closure of his hookah lounge in Tuscaloosa.

“Under no circumstances does Mr. Buggs condone the mistreatment of any animal,” Robinson said in a statement. “The dogs in question did not belong to him and he was not aware that they were still on the property in question.”

Robinson said in his statement that Buggs was arrested for a misdemeanor at his hookah bar “on two separate occasions in the last two months, but each time no public report was made of those arrests.” Robinson added that the city was using the allegations against Buggs as “leverage” to get him to surrender his business license.

Buggs, 27, played three seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and two with the Detroit Lions before joining the Chiefs as a practice squad player in January. The Chiefs re-signed Buggs in February.

This report used information from ESPN’s Adam Teicher.