Florida: Naples greyhound rescue owner Darlene Izzo fined, neglect investigation ongoing

FLORIDA -- New video has been released from inside a Naples Greyhound rescue where volunteers say the conditions were shocking.

The animals were living in feces and urine, held in cages too small, and left for months with untreated injuries.

It's an investigation ABC7 brought you Wednesday, and we've received new information about the non-profit on Thursday.

The owner, Darlene Izzo, is being fined $107 for not having a permit. And while Domestic Animal Services continues to investigate the greyhound rescue, we spoke with two more volunteers who say the dogs were in deplorable conditions.

The volunteers sent us video and say you can hear the sound of a dog howling in pain.

"Those dogs were suffering," said Elizabeth Judge

Judge and Dawn Brown each say they worked at 45 mph Couch Potato Greyhound Adoptions for about a month, claiming it was severely under-staffed.

"The dogs were covered in urine and feces and blood," said Brown.

Judge said there were so many dogs, it took hours just to clean and feed the dogs, with little time left over to walk or play with them.

"There's not enough to time to get to all 30-plus dogs, clean all their crates, refresh their water, there's no running hot water in the facility," said Judge.

Last month, DAS found the owner, Darlene Izzo was operating a Naples facility without a permit and had too many dogs in cages that were too small.

"We didn't do our background information properly, unfortunately," said Izzo.

We caught up with the rescue's owner, Darlene Izzo, at home.

"Never in my life had even had a problem," she said.

But according to an adoption program in South Carolina, that's not true as that they banned Izzo from their events in 2008 telling us:

"Eventually, we were forced to hire an attorney to represent us when her lack of control and questionable choices put our volunteers and dogs at risk, resulting in very serious injuries multiple times."

Volunteers said dogs had severe injuries with no veterinarian care.

"I had them bring the dogs to the vet, and I paid for it, for Aspen and Sally because it had gotten to the point I was afraid they weren't going to make it any longer," said Brown.

An official report from the animal services organization says Sally was found to have a leg fracture that was four weeks old.

DAS also checked Izzo's home as well but say her personal pets are OK. Investigators say more fines are possible based on what they're finding in their investigation.

All of the dogs that were at Izzo's rescue are now at other rescues and in foster care.

(WZVN-TV - Feb 4, 2016)