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Cops, humane agents, find deplorable conditions in home
Deplorable Conditions
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Several dogs were found living in deplorable conditions in a Youngstown house.
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Two longtime veterans of law enforcement said late Monday afternoon the conditions they encountered at an Old Furnace Road home are among the worst they have seen.
Dave Nelson, a deputy dog warden with the Mahoning County Dog Warden’s Office, said he was called to the home in the 700 block of Old Furnace Road about 4:15 p.m. for an animal complaint and he found a decomposed dog by the back door.
Nelson then looked inside and thought he saw a body. He called for police, who showed up and then called for the fire department to break the door down.
Before firefighters arrived, however, the homeowner showed up and said the dog had recently died, but Nelson said the dog had been dead at least a week.
As an officer from Mill Creek MetroParks Police arrived to back up city police, Nelson said they spied four other dogs inside but they could not venture far inside because of the stench and the amount of feces.
Nelson said the entire home is covered in feces, in some places a foot high.
“We can’t even get inside the house, there’s so much,” Nelson said. “It’s extremely bad. It’s piled up everywhere.”
Animal Charity also was called in to help with the dogs. No body was found in the home.
Nelson, who is no stranger to finding animals in squalid conditions, said the home is one of the worst he has witnessed.
“It’s definitely on the top 10,” Nelson said. “It’s uninhabitable, as far as that goes.”
Detective Sgt. Brent Gaitanis, the supervisor on the scene for the police department who has been on the force for 16 years, also said the house is one of the worst he has seen.
Gaitanis said the homeowner was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital to be evaluated.
No charges have been filed, Nelson said.
City zoning and housing inspectors condemned the house, Nelson said.
The four live dogs, apparently one German shepherd and three Labrador retriever mixes, are at Animal Charity, where a veterinarian will evaluate them, Nelson said. Two of those dogs look thin, he said.
The dead dog was too badly decomposed to be identified by breed, Nelson added.
In cases like this, Nelson said he wishes people familiar with the situation would call police or the dog warden’s office before conditions deteriorate to this level.