Animal Rescue Corps and Hamblen County officials rescue more 60 animals from a home in Northeast Tennessee.CLEVELAND, Tenn. – A recent raid on a cramped “house of horrors” animal shelter near Morristown, Tenn., saved some dogs that earlier were removed from the Cleveland Animal Shelter by a local rescue group.
More than 70 animals, almost all of them dogs, were seized at the Puppy Patch by the Morristown Hamblen Humane Society and later taken by the Animal Rescue Corps of Lebanon, Tenn. Seven dogs and 15 puppies from Cleveland are thought to have been sent to the Puppy Patch in December 2013 and in January, according to a Feb. 16 posting on Cleveland for a No Kill City’s Facebook page.
“These animals have been living in a house of horrors, with an overwhelming stench of ammonia and an unbelievable buildup of feces all over,” Animal Rescue Corps President Scotlund Haisley said on that organization’s website.
Rescuers had to wear masks while removing animals from the home. They found dogs housed in stacked crates, sometimes more than one puppy or dog in a crate. The animals were living in filth.
The owner of the Puppy Patch, Melissa Turner, was arrested Friday and charged with animal cruelty. Kimberly Turner also was arrested. Each woman is charged with 63 counts of animal cruelty, according to the website of WATE-TV in Knoxville.