Jennifer Lee was woken up in the middle of the night by the sounds of a dog in pain coming from the condominium above her unit. She had heard the noise before and she thought a dog was being tortured. She called the police. They went upstairs and spoke to Keith Chung through a crack in his door. Chung denied having a dog. The police asked for permission to search his residence. He refused. They invited him into the hallway. While talking to him one of the officers heard a dog whimper. Without getting a search warrant the officers entered the condominium. They found a nearly dead dog on the patio and a dead dog in the freezer.

Chung challenged the search. The Fourth Amendment requires a search warrant, supported by probable cause to search a residence. There are a limited number of well defined exceptions to the rule. One of the exceptions is where exigent circumstances exist. Generally exigent circumstances only exist where there is threat of serious injury to people or property. The question facing the California Court of Appeals in this case is whether exigent circumstances can involve injuries to animals. The Court ruled it can. It found that there was sufficient evidence that an animal was in distress and that it is a proper governmental duty to protect animals. Therefore it upheld the search and the sixteen month prison sentence.