METAIRIE, La. — Dozens of animals have been rescued from what authorities are calling deplorable conditions. Jefferson Protection and Animal Welfare Services (JPAWS) says the dogs they rescued were caked in their own waste, with little to no food and water.
California, the puppy's journey began on the roughest of roads. Layla Chandler with JPAWS said, "We had received a call from JPSO that they were executing a warrant and they seen what appeared to be 25 dogs and they were requesting our assistance."
Little did she and her team know, there were far more animals inside the Metairie home. "There was feces and urine everywhere, within the kennels of these dogs were pounds of feces, they were caked, so you could tell they had been walking and laying all over it," said Chandler.
42 dogs in fact were inside this house, and they were living in makeshift kennels. "It looked to be plywood and some chicken wire some of them had makeshift litter boxes with pine shavings at the bottom but others were on the cold ground."
Our partners at Nola.com report that 48-year-old Jason Stoltz and 50-year-old Andrea Corass were arrested. Chandler says a juvenile hawk was also found inside the house. "We found it in a cage, and when we were transporting it to the unit it flew away."
One neighbor told WWL Louisiana there was a constant odor of animal feces, another neighbor said they'd only ever seen three to four dogs in the house. Chandler says there were no previous reports of animal cruelty at the home, and no one even knew there were that many dogs inside the house.
She says some of the dogs rescued were aggressive, saying, "We would have to humanely euthanize, we cannot adopt out animals that are not only animal aggression but also human aggression, it's too much of a public safety issue."
Councilman Hans J. Liljeberg said, “I’m happy that JPSO was able to uncover this situation. As I understand it the parish is working hard to keep the animals safe and place them for adoption. Our Property Maintenance and Zoning Department will do its part to cite for any blight violations.”
Court documents show Corass was released because of jail crowding, and Stoltz appears to still be in jail.
JPAWS says the puppies will be looking for forever homes as soon as they're fixed. If you're interested in adopting or fostering you're asked to contact JPAWS.
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