The sight at Dodge Boarding Kennels on Dodge Road was as horrifying as it was bizarre.
Dogs locked away in crates were living in around-the-clock darkness.
Doves with no feathers on their necks were packed into a tiny cage.
The teeth of a Chinchilla had grown so long the animal starved to the brink of death.
“This is textbook hoarder behavior,” said Gina Browning, spokeswoman for the SPCA Serving Erie County. “In some cases, the dead animals were better cared for than the live animals.
“The people in this establishment were working to care for these carcasses.”
Browning said charges are expected in the case but are pending a thorough investigation by both SPCA officials and the state Department of Environmental Conservation Police. Officials declined to release the names of the operators until charges are filed. Browning said officials were still trying to sort out the business owners, property owner and owners of the animals.
Public records show the property is owned by Maria L. Faricellie. It remained unclear late Friday what, if any, role Faricellie had in the operation of the kennel, however.
Neither Faricellie nor anyone at the kennel responded to repeated telephone calls Friday.
The kennel’s website advertises that it offers a place “where your pet becomes a part of our family” and accommodates “traditional and non-traditional pets” for day care and overnight boarding, walks, bathing and grooming, around-the-clock supervision and other services.
As horrific as the scene was, Browning said it is unlikely felony charges will be filed in the case.
“This isn’t like setting a dog on fire,” Browning said. “I know it’s perverse. For them, this is a form of love. This is a person who believes they are caring for and providing for these animals.
“Are you going for a case like where someone put an arrow through a cat? No, it’s different.”
But, Browning said, by state law, it is still defined as animal cruelty.
Hello. You charge them the maximum. They had intent. They knew that the animals were dying left and right. They hid them away. They knowingly continued this house of horrors for their own desires. No, no one really expects them to be sent off to prison but you file the maximum charges and get them on probation for YEARS to prevent them from doing this again.
In total, rescuers took away 77 live animals. The DEC took a half-dozen of them. Those were different turtles, tortoises and frogs that were illegally possessed under state law. The other animals – which included dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, at least one chicken and the chinchilla – went to the SPCA’s Town of Tonawanda facility.
Officials later decided to retrieve the freezers kept at the kennel with the dead animals, which also included a dead raccoon. Those animals were taken to the SPCA.
SPCA investigators needed a search warrant from Amherst Town Court to get onto the site Friday and conducted the raid with DEC officials and assistance from Amherst Police.
“We were out there twice last week and were denied entry to the premises,” Browning said.
The rescue was based in part on information received from anonymous sources, Browning said, possibly former customers.
Online reviews of the kennel varied. Some, including testimonials on the kennel’s website, praised the facility.
“The girls that work there go out of their way for all the animals and you can tell that they love each and every one of the animals as if they were the only ones there,” wrote Donna of Ransomville last December on the website Yelp.
However, Macie of Massachusetts, who said she dropped off her beagles only to pick them up a short time later, cautioned: “When you go to the facility, you can immediately see signs that the place is dirty and not well kept. The outside is bad, the inside is worse. As soon as you walk through the doors, you are hit over the head with the stench of dirty animals.”
Browning said the animals seized Friday appeared to be suffering from myriad ailments due to maltreatment, neglect or squalor at the kennel.
Cats were sick with upper respiratory infections. The nails on the chicken grew so long, they began to “corkscrew,” Browning said.
The doves were packed so tightly in a cage, they began pecking each other’s necks until the feathers fell off.
The chinchilla was fighting for its life late Friday at the SPCA, but officials weren’t optimistic it would survive.
The animal was grossly dehydrated and malnourished and, although SPCA officials were administering fluids late Friday, may already have been into organ failure.
Other animals were malnourished, had pressure sores or severe matting or were existing in unsanitary conditions, Browning said.
“They were suffering in means consistent with their species,” she said.
Most of the animals seemed to be owned by the operators of the kennel, according to SPCA officials. In at least one case, however, Browning said the SPCA was contacted Friday by a dog owner who dropped a pet off there Thursday and was seeking to recover it. The animal was in the SPCA’s custody.
Officials could not say exactly how long the abuse was occurring, but one clue suggested it may have been at least three years.
A tag on one of the frozen carcasses dated from early 2011.
Browning said the bagged and tagged animals were found in three separate freezers.
“Mice, rabbits, guinea pigs, cats, dogs and a raccoon were in the freezers,” Browning said. “We also found a turtle shell and skull.”
Hoarders often have a need for control over the animal in life and in death, she said.
“When an animal is dead, they are carefully bagged and tagged,” Browning said of the Getzville situation. “The variety of the deceased animals is surprising. That’s unusual. I’ve seen dogs and cats and some rabbits, but there’s quite a variety here.”
Initial attempts to survey kennel conditions by SPCA Officers Jessica Coughlin and Christina Vitello were rebuffed Oct. 27 and 28, Browning confirmed.
At that time, Coughlin and Vitello reported an overwhelming odor of urine and a littered yard and hearing dogs and cats from inside the kennel.
“On Tuesday, they invited us back, and it was clear they were making an attempt clean the premises, but things were too far along,” Browning said. “The floor was still soaked from just being washed, and the water bowls contained feces to the extent it had the consistency of mud.”
(Buffalo News - Nov 7, 2014)
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