800 dogs and 82 birds ... geez. what a mess. i have three dogs in my house and that is enough. how does one acquire that many dogs? unless the couple was running a puppy mill.

How does that happen!?!? I can't imagine what that house looked like inside.

I would have gone to the authorities first chance I got after seeing that. I feel so bad for all those animals. People who hoard aren't psychologically sound, so I'll refrain from passing judgment. I just hope those animals all find loving, caring home where they can get the attention and affection they deserve.

Unfortunately things like this happen all the time. I volunteer for a dog adoption group and we often have to rescue dogs from places like this and try to find homes for them. We call them "collectors" because they usually start out with good intentions, but get so many animals and then they don't want to let them go, which ends up being detrimental to the health of the animals when there are too many of them. While it is great that people want to help, there are definitely limits to how much you can do alone.

"first alerted by a woman who _bought_ a Chihuahua there and reported these conditions." It sounds like they were running a puppy mill ... how awful. PLEASE REMEMBER TO EITHER ADOPT YOUR PETS (the best option, IMO ) OR PURCHASE THEM FROM A REPUTABLE BREEDER!

Oh I would have reported it the minute I saw it!

how awful for those pups.
well thank goodness someone stepped in and reported them.

and yes, i have reported animal cruelty in the past, and i would do it again in a heartbeat...no question.

I would have called the authorities from my car before I even left. They were collectors and just did not know how to fix the problem and are elderly. I think a lot of times when this happens they just don't realize that there is help for them. It doesn't make it right but when you are mentally ill it is hard to know what to do.

I live in Tucson and made a donation to the Humane Society yesterday. Everyone in town is really stepping in to help out, it was a zoo down there! All 40 of the dogs that were put up for adoption yesterday were adopted. They had to set up a tent outside to help take in all of the supplies that people were donating. The newspaper this morning was saying it will take about $400,000 minimum to care for these dogs because of their high medical needs.

This is so sad. I cannot even imagine the unsanitary conditions these people and animals were living in. 800 dogs. Man, that is a lot of dogs. How is that no one around them noticed this? Were they totally isolated?! Didn't they have to buy dog food from the grocery store? I don't know, you would think there would have been some red flags earlier.

At least it was a triple wide!

That's disgusting. Maybe the couple had good intentions, but those conditions are completely inhumane. I would have alerted the authorities immediately.

That's just so sad. I wish that we didn't have to hear stories like this.

Not that I don't think that you should post it, PetSugar, it's just that I wish things like this didn't happen.

If I was willing to guess, nobody probably ever did go over there, they sound like an isolated couple that probably have mental health problems. I've interned with environmental court and looked at countless cases where people collect/hoarde obscene amounts of animals, and become repeat offenders - the city tells them they are NEVER allowed to own a pet again, and when they do their random sweeps, they've gotten more and more. Coming in and taking the animals and prosecuting probably won't fix the problem - they need psychiatric help. So sad. In my city, we have one social worker that works with the dept. of health to follow up with people like this and try to make them see they need help.

this is a tragedy for sure.

hopefully these animals will have a better chance at life now.

i'm sure they have better homes now. the real tragedy is in iraq.

I live in Tucson and the authorities have been hit pretty hard lately with reports of this 800 dogs and a few weeks earlier, a 150-dog fighting ring (I think 150 dogs were at just one of the houses). I'm getting prepared to adopt another dog to join my puppy, he needs a friend and those dogs need help.

"missing paws"?? WTF?

People are afraid to call the ASPCA on people who mistreat their dogs because they're afraid someone's dogs will be taken away.

Well, that only happens if the dog is in serious danger or shows signs of serious abuse. Otherwise, the authorities will watch out for the animal and check in. If more people would report things when they START to get out of control, things would NEVER get this bad.

TAKE CONTROL. ACT.