Jodi Rank was charged with animal cruelty after 16 dogs were found in "deplorable conditions" according to the sheriff's office.

NEWPORT, Tenn. (WVLT) - A Newport woman is charged with animal cruelty after the Cocke County Sheriff’s Office said they found 16 dogs in a “deplorable condition” at a home off English Mountain Road.

Jodi Rank, the woman accused, said she’s lived at the home for about five years.

“I am not an animal abuser or neglector; those dogs were not emaciated,” said Rank.

Rank said she left her home for two weeks to prepare a new one for her family in Georgia. She enlisted her son to watch after the dogs while she was gone, and she said the dogs were fed and given water every day.

She acknowledged that her son wasn’t home often. Rankin said she had several bags of trash in the shed where the dogs were. When a storm rolled through, she said it flooded the shed. She believed the dogs ripped open t