The son and daughter-in-law of an Arizona senator pleaded not guilty Thursday to multiple charges of animal cruelty, stemming from the deaths of 21 dogs at a Phoenix-area kennel that they were looking after in June.

Austin Flake, the 21-year-old son of Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona), and his wife Logan, also 21, were taking care of the 28 dogs staying at Green Acres Dog Boarding in June. The facility is owned by Logan’s parents, Todd and MaLeisa Hughes, who were on vacation when strategy struck.

Deputies from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office were called to the kennel in Gilbert on June 21, where they found 20 dead dogs piled into a shed on the property. The investigators found that the canines had been crammed in a poorly ventilated 9-by-12-foot room for hours on end. The “slumber room” was cooled separately from the rest of the home. The animals died of heat exhaustion and suffocation, the New York Times reported.

“Owners claim the air conditioning was cut off after a dog chewed through some electrical wiring,”Sheriff Joe Arpaio said in a statement two days later. “But it seems unreasonable that dogs could be healthy at 11PM at night and dead by 5:30am the next morning as the owners suggest. Even the veterinarian I met with today agrees that the timeline given by the owners and caretakers is highly suspect.”

RT