Dozens Of Dogs Found In Taylorsville Home; Owners Could Face Charges
Aug 24, 2018, 2:00 PM | Updated: 9:20 pm
TAYLORSVILLE, Utah – An investigation was underway after 115 to 125 dogs were found inside a Taylorsville home.
City Attorney Tracy Cowdell said the dogs are in pretty good condition. He said an elderly couple was living in the Easton Street home where they were discovered. Cowdell said recently neighbors had been complaining about the smell. He said the city never had any idea about the number of dogs inside the home.
Investigators continued to pull dogs out of Taylorsville Friday afternoon, August 24, 2018.
“The fact of the matter is we just didn’t know about it. In fact, even when animal control came over yesterday we thought initially there was about six or seven chihuahuas in the home. In fact, they’re really well trained, so they’re not barking, they’re not causing problems in the neighborhood. They didn’t go outside, so we didn’t know about it. The neighbors were complaining about the smell and that’s what led to our investigation,” said Cowdell.
“We knew something weird was happening over there and then we had the rats move in,” said Robert Fullerton, who shares a backyard fence with the home where the dogs were found.
Fullerton said the smell coming from the home got especially bad this summer, leading him to call Taylorsville City to complain.
“It kind of smelled like death, really,” he said. “To the point where we’ve actually gotten up and just went in the house because we couldn’t the smell anymore.”
He didn’t know how his complaint was being handled until he saw firefighters cutting a hole in the roof of his neighbor’s home Thursday evening. The health department confirms they cut the hole in order to ventilate the home.
Firefighters suit up before heading into a home where dozens of dogs were found Thursday, August 23, 2018.
Some neighbors we spoke to say there have been complaining for years. Others say the couple couldn’t have been sweeter and there was no ill intent.
Director of Animal Services says they have not received complaints about this year about this home. The city attorney says the city received complaints of a smell. I’m trying to figure out who received complaints & when. @laddegan will continue our coverage tonight on @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/Zywe0EF3vT
— Caitlin Burchill (@newsyCaitlin) August 24, 2018
Cowdell said the couple has had some code enforcement and other issues over the years, but they have always been “incredibly responsive” and continue to work with investigators.
He said the couple felt like they were rescuing the dogs, but things got out of hand. The dogs were reproducing.
“We have to be careful. I mean people can mostly live their lives in the community the way that they want to live their lives and the only time we can be involved if there is a problem, and they’ve always been really responsive every time we’ve encountered an issue and so they have a really good track record being response to us. In fact, they were really responsive about letting us in once we went up to the door and realized what we were dealing with,” said Cowdell.
Sixty-eight dogs were taken out of the home Thursday night. Investigators left water and food for the other dogs overnight before returning Friday morning.
Officials told KSL the house is not livable. Cowdell doesn’t know where the couple is currently, but he has said they’ve agreed to give the dogs up for adoption.
“If anybody is interested in adopting Chihuahuas or these types of animals they should contact West Valley City animal Control,” he said.
He said they were looking into criminal charges.
Reporter Ladd Egan contributed to this story.
