Simone WilsonWe've seen a lot of shady shit go down in the legendary RV community of Venice Beach. But Santa Monica — its cleaner, more stuck-up neighbor to the north — has taken pains to ensure that mobile-home dwellers steer clear of its residential areas.
Still, one veteran Hollywood anti-hero allegedly got past city regulators…
… and has been hosting a menagerie of pomeranians in his street-parked RV. Though not for long, says the Santa Monica Police Department:
Cops arrested Texas Chainsaw Massacre star Andrew Bryniarski — who played Leatherface in the 2003 remake and has appeared in dozens of other TV shows and films, generally very dark ones — on the night of September 8 after getting calls from concerned neighbors in the 2300 block of Third Street, says SMPD spokesman Richard Lewis.
“At least two residents heard numerous dogs… yelping, barking and whining” inside Bryniarski's mobile home, according to Richard Lewis.
When they searched the RV, police say they found 25 pomeranians, a stench of urine and a bunch of trash. So they arrested Bryniarski and his girlfriend, 34-year-old Jennifer Abram, on one count each of misdemeanor animal cruelty.
The dog lover, sans leatherface.; Credit: Andrew Bryniarski via Facebook
Not exactly the crime you'd expect a menacing, hulkish horror actor to be arrested for, and in Santa Monica no less. But hey — this is the same city where Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger was able to take seaside strolls, free of hassle, for upward of a decade. And the only complaint his senior-citizen neighbors had, when speaking with reporters in the aftermath of his epic FBI takedown, was that he never pet their dogs or let his fugitive girlfriend Catherine stop for “girl talk.”
Bryniarski argues to TMZ that he had some deal with a local animal-rescue facility that the RV would serve as a sort of “mobile adoption center,” and the facility reportedly confirmed his story.
Upon bailing out of jail, the actor also showed paparazzi cameras around his former place of pomeranians, to show them that it does not in fact smell like dog piss, and is in fact “stocked with water, food, and other pet care essentials.” (However, notes TMZ, “it's entirely possible he cleaned the RV and bought a bunch of supplies after the fact.)
A little background on his pet obsession: The L.A. Times reports that in a 2003 interview, which we assume concerned the just-released Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake…
… Bryniarski said he liked spending Friday nights at home with his menagerie. At the time, he said he had a yellow-headed Amazon parrot, a trio of Pomeranians, two cats, two Eastern box turtles and four giant African sulcatas (tortoises).
Guess the pomeranian count spiraled a little out of control since then. And thus the Santa Monica Animal Shelter just got 25 orphans richer.
[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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