This is a terrible story of suffering and neglect. If you choose to click the links, be aware that some of the images on the videos may be disturbing to sensitive readers.
On Thursday night, police officers stormed into the Purple Hearted Puppies Animal shelter in Summerdale. They were on a rescue mission.
Officials said inside were more than 200 dogs, cats, and horses which had gone without food and water for two weeks.
The mother and adult daughter who reportedly operated Purple Hearted Puppies left town 2 weeks ago, leaving hundreds of caged pets to fend for themselves. There was plenty of food in bags and cans right outside the cages, but no one came to distribute the food. Dozens of pets starved to death with food in sight:
On a bag of food, claw marks were clearly seen where cats desperately tried to open it.
Outside, dogs resorted to eating grass and digging holes to allow water to pool, so they had something to drink.
When officers got inside the place, they started throwing food into all the cages as fast as they could. Some of the dogs had resorted to cannibalism.
Many of the animals were found lying on their own feces. Some had to drink their own urine.
One dog was found in a pool of blood.
The owners say they had a worker who was supposed to be caring for the pets and had been checking in daily to let them know all was well. Police checked out the story and say the worker quit 3 weeks ago and has documented evidence proving the women were aware he wasn’t taking care of their pets anymore. Both women have been charged with animal cruelty and additional charges are expected. A number of pets had to be euthanized due to the neglect.
In one of the videos, you can see an officer trying to pour dry cat food into a cage and the cats are desperately reaching out and mewing – it’s heartbreaking.
Several organizations are helping the pets including the Baldwin Co Humane Society and Red Rover. I’m sure they could use donations and fosters/adopters to help these poor pets.