A hazmat team have removed 180 dogs and cats from a home in New Jersey, reports FOX News.
Officials reported that the animals were being kept in “horrible and inhumane conditions”. Brick Township police reported that officers entered on Friday night (Dec. 2), and came across stacks of dogs and cats in crates. However, due to the conditions of the property, they had to leave and ask a hazmat team to save the animals.
Officers responded due to a complaint that Michele Nycz, 59, and Aimee Lonczak, 49, were running a puppy mill.
A 10-Hour Mission
It took around ten hours for the hazmat team to remove the animals from the property. In total, they rescued 135 dogs and 45 cats. Sadly, two of the dogs had died by the time the animals were rescued, and about eight animals were taken to receive emergency care.
According to police, “the home was full of animal waste and the animals were living in horrible and inhumane conditions”. The property was “subsequently condemned” by the building and code department of the township, and Nycz and Lonczak were arrested on animal cruelty as well as child endangerment charges, as a 16-year-old was living at the property too.
Previous Police Visits
At present, the animals rescued are staying at various shelters. Dozens of organizations and agencies have been helping with the rescue and its aftermath.
One such shelter was the Associated Humane Popcorn Park Shelter in Lacey. “It was a mess. They had to have masks because of the odors and the stench inside”,” said John Bergmann, the shelter’s executive director, to New Jersey 101.5. “They got the dogs out of the house and put them in crates and transported them away.”
Sharon Beaton, a neighbor, told News 4 that “we’ve been calling about this for months”, and indeed police had visited the home in 2019 and 2020 after complaints. “Occasionally I’d smell something,” said one neighbor, “But never suspected more than a hundred animals inside. Never suspected more than 10”.
