NEW YORK – The upstate New York home of a couple arrested and charged with beating their teenage sons – one fatally – left behind a filthy, garbage-strewn house with seemingly neglected dogs kept in cages, an animal advocate who rescued them said on Sunday.
“Conditions in the house were abhorrent; it smelled to knock you out,” said Kimberly Strong, founder of Lainey’s Army, an animal advocacy group based in central New York.
She told The Associated Press that the two members of the Word of Life Christian Church now under arrest – the teenagers’ parents – kept four neglected dogs, three birds and several cats in and around their home. Feces and urine were everywhere, she said.
Strong said neighbors concerned about the animals called earlier this week and she alerted authorities. On Thursday, a few days after the couple was arrested and charged – she walked through the home with Clayville animal control officer Gordon Chafee and a New York state trooper, she said.
New York State Police did not return calls for comment on why authorities did not make arrangements for the animals earlier.