17 dogs taken from filthy house

YOUNGSTOWN — Deputy dog wardens wore protective white coveralls and breathing apparatus to rescue 17 dogs from a feces-polluted West Side house that has been red-tagged as unfit for humans and animals.

John Hall, Animal Charity humane agent, said he will confer with the city prosecutor about filing cruelty charges against the renters of the two-story house that is now on the city’s demolition list.

A few neighbors came outside in the cold wind Tuesday afternoon as vans from Animal Charity and the Mahoning County Dog Warden’s office, along with marked and unmarked police cruisers, lined Oakwood Avenue. Relief that something was being done about the smelly house at 1810 Oakwood was evident on the onlookers’ faces.

The renters, a mother and her 42-year-old son, stood in the driveway while their dogs were taken out and placed in vans for transport to Animal Charity on South Avenue. They had no objection to the dogs being taken away because they knew the situation had gotten out of hand, Hall said.

Most of the dogs were carried from the house by Sean Toohey, deputy dog warden, and Nikki Hartley, an Animal Charity caretaker. “You have no idea,” Toohey said, shaking his head as he came down the driveway with a dog in his arms.

For more, see Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com