200+ animals rescued at Christian County home

CHRISTIAN COUNTY, Mo. — On Wednesday, Ozarks First reported a massive pet rescue in southern Christian County, where the Humane Society says they rescued nearly 150 dogs.

The group's effort was not completed with Crews on the scene at the home, as they were rescuing more pets.

"This is the second day that we've been here on the property. Yesterday, we removed 140 dogs and transported them back to the Humane Society's headquarters in St. Louis, and so far today, I believe we have rescued or we've put on our truck for transfer about another 25 or so and some other animals," Laura Keller said. "Cats, kittens, a rabbit. There's some birds that we'll be taking back to the Humane Society."

The final tally resulted in 211 dogs, three cats, four kittens, four birds and a rabbit.

In a text to Ozarks First with the updated numbers, Keller said it's safe to call it one of the largest rescues in Humane Society of Missouri history.

"We know that it is just heartbreaking when we see this kind of situation. Heartbreaking for the animals, but also heartbreaking for the people that are involved, especially when, you know, you have to believe there was no ill intent, but still, we need to come out here and rescue these animals so that they can get a second chance," Keller said. "This was definitely a hoarding situation."

Ozarks First spoke to several neighbors off-camera who many said they didn't know the homeowners very well, and were shocked to hear the number of pets in the home.

"It's a pretty typical animal hoard where there's a lot of feces on the ground and in the cages. The animals really didn't have any way to get away from that. There's certainly some, you know, flies and insects in the house. There's some mice that we find in the house. It's just not a good environment for any living creature to have to live in," Keller said. "The dogs that we have rescued do have severe matting in their fur, obviously have never been groomed, so in order to do a full health assessment, we'll have to start taking care of that first."

Christian County Sheriff Brad Cole spoke to OzarksFirst while his deputies were helping with the situation.

"Over the last 31 years of my career, I've seen a lot of cases similar to this. I can't recall any that came to the magnitude of what we're looking at here. It's my estimate from what I know that once we're done here, we're going to have probably over 200 animals come out of this house," Cole said. "Our main concern is getting these animals out of here and getting them the care and medical treatment they need after that has been done and successful. We will be submitting a report to the prosecutor with the facts that we've gathered and it'll be up to the prosecutor to determine whether charges are filed."

At the time of our interview with Sheriff Cole, the owners had been voluntarily surrendering the pets.

"As you can imagine, giving up these animals is like giving up their kids. It's been difficult, but they understand, I think, that what's happening is in the best interest of the animals at this point. It is voluntary surrender. It's been a little difficult from time to time and we've had to stop and talk with the owners," Cole said. "When you start taking people's property away from them and affecting their lives and I mean, this is a huge impact on their lives that affects people's judgment sometimes, and emotions do stir from time to time. We're prepared to go the other direction if needed and take care of the situation through legal means if we need to do that."

Cole and deputies had to go in that other direction shortly after Cole said that.

"At this point, the owners have revoked their consent, and we were prepared for that situation if it did happen. We have just served a search warrant to make sure all the other animals are removed and to get them the medical treatment they need, just like all the rest," Cole said.

Keller says they'll work on getting the animals ready to be adopted to new homes, but it could be some time depending the health issues.

"Every single animal is going to be assessed on its own health issues. I can tell you that we've seen already just in the triage process, we've seen some issues, some dental issues, obviously skin issues with that, with that matting. Each individual animal will be assessed at will get the medical treatment that it needs. Once that has taken place and the animal has been spayed or neutered and is cleared behaviorally to go home, they will be made available for adoption," Keller said. "If someone is interested in adopting one of these animals is to watch our website that is updated every single hour, I would imagine it'll be a few weeks before these guys start appearing there. Tis is most definitely a large rescue and it is going to put a strain on our shelter and on our staff and on our you know, our assets that we need to be able to take care of them, so we're asking the public to help us if they can, and for their patience as we prepare these animals for adoption."

Ozarks First will continue to follow this story and update the status of the animals and if charges are filed.