All the dogs were infested with fleas and many appeared to have serious skin infections, he told Carlson. None had been spayed or neutered and several litters of puppies had been found covered in feces, urine and waste.
Carlson, director of the shelter, said the officer told her to rescue the animals immediately.
“I sent all three of my Humane Society agents out and we soon found out that wasn’t enough,” she said.
“First we were told there were about 30 dogs,” Carlson said. “But that number grew to 50. And then we found out it was actually 80.”
“Our officers had to crawl through the rubble to find all the puppies and get them to the right mother,” she added.
The smell in the house was unbearable, Carlson said, noting that it took her employees and animal controllers five hours and multiple trips to transfer the dogs to the Humane Society shelter.
The dogs ranged in age from 1 week to 12 years old, she said.
“The people in the house had no idea how many dogs there were — they’ve been breeding and multiplying for a long time,” she said. “We’ve made many saves over the years, but never one like this.”
It was the largest rescue in the shelter’s history, Carlson said.
After the dogs were washed and treated by a vet, Humane Society staff faced a new dilemma: Where to put them all?
“We’re not a big shelter — our typical capacity is 40 dogs and 60 cats,” Carlson said. “Luckily we had just built a new medical and isolation center so we could put some kennels there.”
It didn’t help that the shelter had rescued 52 cats from two animal-saddle situations a week earlier, she added.
“With this great dog rescue, I knew we would need some help from the community,” she said.
Carlson contacted the local newspaper, the Newark Advocate, to let them know that donations were needed for the dogs’ medical care – including spaying, neutering, dental work and microchipping – before they could be put up for adoption.
She also posted a wish list of supplies, including dog food, bleach, digital thermometers, trash bags, and puppy training pads.
Then she called some of the shelter’s regular foster volunteers and asked them to take in the five nursing dogs that had puppies.
She said the response from the public was overwhelming.
“Wish lists on the way!!! Thank you for all you do,” one person wrote on Facebook.
“Thanks for the rescue – pray they all find a loving home. I’d love to take them all,” wrote another.
Kris Mitchell, a Newark foster volunteer, volunteered to take care of Mimi, a Chihuahua mix, and her four puppies. Mimi was found with a piece of PVC pipe around her neck.
“They’re doing well, but the mother dog is pretty exhausted, as you can imagine,” said Mitchell, 55. “She’s very sweet and a little meek, and her coat is still a little blotchy from the flea infestation.”
“I am happy to provide Mimi and her puppies with a quiet and calm place to recover until they are all ready to find a loving home,” Mitchell added.
Bethany Stickradt of Newark offered to adopt a chihuahua named Lucy and her litter of four 1-week-old puppies.
“I already have three dogs so I can’t keep any of these, but we’ll work to socialize them and put them in good homes,” said Stickradt, 33, who placed them in teacups for a photo to show. how small they are – and also because it’s cute.
She said Lucy is extremely protective of her newborn babies, but now allows her to pick them up, pet them, and weigh them.
“It’s inconceivable to me that anyone would have so many dogs in the house,” Stickradt said. “It certainly didn’t happen overnight. I keep asking myself, ‘How do we keep things like this from happening again?’ ”
Animal hoarding is a growing problem, according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, with as many as 250,000 pets suffering annually from hamster abuse, such as malnutrition and untreated medical conditions. Hoarders “keep abnormally large numbers of animals for whom they do not provide even the most basic care,” according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund site.
In many cases, the people collecting the animals suffer from mental illness, Carlson said.
“It’s very sad, but it’s also hard not to be angry about it,” she said. “Something like this is so preventable and so unnecessary. These dogs lived in horrible, unsanitary conditions with very little – if any – care.”
The dogs had no names, Carlson said, so her employees named them all.
“The people [in the house] were trying to come up with names as we brought each dog to the door,” she said.
When the medical evaluations for the dogs are complete, Carlson said, she will forward the information to the Licking County district attorney, who is responsible for filing any criminal charges in the case.
“I will be suing for violating pet laws in Ohio, with a fine of up to six months per charge,” she said. “We’d like an allowance for each animal, so that’s 80 counts.”
Some of the dogs have already been put up for adoption, Carlson said, and she’s looking forward to finding happy homes for the others.
“They deserve to have families who treat them with love and kindness,” she said. “When everyone came through our door, I said to them softly, ‘Your life just got better.’ ”