A 30-year-old wanted in connection with a second-degree rape was arrested Sept. 2 and faces separate charges of animal cruelty for alleged dog fighting.

    Police began actively searching for Terah Moore, who also goes by the name Terah Smith, after the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl on Aug. 29. According to documents released by Justice of the Peace Court No. 7, the girl said she had been drinking brandy and vodka with Moore and they went to her house and bedroom.

    After the girl’s mother walked in on the pair, Moore allegedly apologized, grabbed his clothing and quickly left.

    Though the rape charges took precedence, Dover Police said they had been looking for Moore in connection with dog fighting and animal cruelty charges a few days earlier.

    “On Aug. 26 a jogger was passing by his house and saw a dog they believed had been abused,” said Lt. Steven Getek, spokesman for the Dover Police Department. “We were looking for him after that and picked him up Sept. 2 at Kent General Hospital.”

    Getek said he did not know why Moore was at the hospital.

    An officer took a male pit bull from Moore’s West Denneys Road home and turned it over to the Kent County SPCA. There, court records state the veterinarian examined the dog and determined it was underweight, fly-bitten and had wounds and a collar indicating it was a fighting dog.

    The next day, officers impounded more than a dozen pit bull dogs and puppies from the West Denneys Road address.

    Court documents state the officer “observed the 15 canines living in inhumane living conditions. Some of the animals were forced to live in crates filled with large amounts of urine and fecal matter while others were in small, enclosed areas in which the floor was covered with urine and fecal matter. Many of the adult canines were found to have scars and wounds consistent with wounds that would be found on a dog used for dog fighting.”

    Additionally, the officer found items used to train dogs to fight, a scale used to weigh them before a fight and a video of an actual organized dogfight. The animals are being held at the SPCA.

    Moore has been charged with second-degree rape without consent, 16 counts of cruelty or neglect to animals, six counts of keeping or using an animal for the purpose of fighting, second-degree conspiracy and other charges. He was committed to the Vaughn Correctional Center in default of $20,750 secured bond.

Email Melissa K. Steele at melissa.steele@doverpost.com