70 dogs rescued from 'animal hoarders'

GREENE COUNTY (WISH) - 70 dogs living in unimaginable conditions were rescued from a small home in Greene County this week; The couple keeping the dogs had big hearts but ended up with a big problem.

The story of how these dogs ended up here began with a tip call to the Monroe County Humane Association.

"A lot of the dogs were running loose, very loud and chaotic, down to the plywood floor with newspapers," says Sarah Hayes from the Monroe County Humane Association. She visited the Greene County home.

There, she found 70 dogs living in a mobile home retrofitted with chain link fencing for walls, most all of them living inside with two people.

They range in age from puppies to old, faithful companions; many of them suffering health problems along the way.

While they all appeared well fed, they had fleas and worms, lacked vaccinations and most weren't spayed or neutered.

The dogs are now living in a temporary shelter at a law enforcement training center on Bloomington's south side.

The makeshift shelter is supplied by a semi truck sized donation from PetSmart. Volunteers are getting the dogs ready to be transported to other shelters both in and out of state. The original owners say they meant well, but Hayes says they were showing obvious signs of what's known as animal hoarding.

"It's the belief that nobody can love these animals as much as they do. They don't want to part with them, they have a huge emotional attachment to them as all of us who own animals do, but theirs is kind of out of check and not based in reality," Hayes explains.

The couple agreed to give up the dogs, and the Humane Association agreed not to identify them or their home.

There were a couple of dogs they were allowed to keep so that was part of the deal that we would get them spayed and neutered and pay for their vaccinations if they would relinquish them," said Hayes.