Dozens of Dogs Rescued From a Home in 'Possible Animal Cruelty Situation'

Dozens of animals have been rescued from a home in Williamson County, Texas, according to officials. On March 10, 2022, the Williamson County Sheriff's Office Animal Control Unit seized 41 animals—39 dogs and two cats—from a private residence that was involved in a "possible animal cruelty situation," a spokesperson said in a statement Friday. Authorities safely impounded the animals, with the assistance of the home owner, and transported them to the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter. The case is under investigation. "This was a multi-agency response to the location which led to the successful impoundment of the animals without incident," the spokesperson said. The animals are being assessed by staff at the shelter to determine their overall health and what kind of medical care they need. Unfortunately, the shelter was already overfull and had no more space so the 41 new arrivals are being kept in wire crates in the lobby of the facility, officials said.

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"Now, we have no place to put the 39 dogs until we can free up kennel space through adoptions or fosters for the dogs we already had," the shelter said in a Facebook post. Misty Valenta, the shelter's animal services director, appealed to people to come forward who could give dogs already at the shelter a new home. "What we need are adopters and fosters for animals already in our care... The medium and large dogs you see on our website need to find a home," she said in a video posted to Facebook. "We have 150 dogs at our shelter, not including these dogs that just came in. Think about adding a dog to your family, whether that's just for spring break or whether that would be permanent." Adopting a dog from the shelter will cost $15 and can by arranged via appointment. If you want to foster a dog from the shelter, you can fill out this form and then stop by the facility to pick up the animal. Dogs available for adoption can be seen on the shelter's website. The dogs that were seized recently by the Sheriff's Office are not yet available for adoption. A spokesperson for the shelter, April Peiffer, told the Austin American-Statesman that most of them are medium-sized and include a variety of mixed breeds. "Just on first impression without having made a full assessment, they looked to have been in decent care. Some were kept in the home and also some were kept outdoors, but all were kept in crates," Peiffer said. In an update, Peiffer told Newsweek that the dogs received from the home are in various states of health. "We have some with skin issues, eye issues, and injuries," she said. "Others seem to be a little underweight, and other seem to be relatively healthy." "Over the past three days, since that group of dogs came in, the community has helped out by adopting 28 dogs and fostering 12," Peiffer said on Monday. "Unfortunately, we've also had 25 new dogs come in as lost dogs or dogs given up by their families. So we are still very much in a crisis situation with the number of dogs we have here at the shelter." Last month, animal services seized more than 70 dogs, many of which were in poor condition, from a home in Santa Rosa County, Florida. And authorities also seized more than 150 dogs from an alleged "puppy mill" in Pickens County, South Carolina, in February.
Update 03/16/22, 11:30 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include additional comments from April Peiffer.