The dog pen . . .

Sneed's tip on spotting a huge pit bull being transported in asmall cage on the open back end of a car in freezing weather a monthago paid off.

An arrest was made and charges of cruelty to animals were filed asthe result of a follow-up investigation of the Sneed spotting by theChicago Police Department's Animal Abuse Control Team (AACT). (Thearrest was made by Sgt. Phil Brownstein, who heads AACT, and officerJuan Aguirre.)

The charges allege that dogs, which were housed in a basement inincredibly small cages, had no water, and had skin lesions and skinpierced by ultratight prong collars. Rodent droppings were reportedlyfound in a bag of food outside the cages, which …