HORNER, W.Va. (WBOY) — A woman has been charged with child neglect after deputies seized more than 60 animals from a Lewis County home with “feces on the floor throughout.”

On July 12, deputies with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Department were contacted by Lewis County Animal Control in reference to an “incident in which dead animals were laying in the yard” of a residence on Skin Creek Road in Horner, according to a criminal complaint.

When deputies arrived to assist animal control, they made contact with a woman who “stepped out of the residence holding a baby,” and learned that Joyce Mayo, 30, of Horner, was “inside sleeping,” deputies said.

Deputies then entered the residence to speak with Mayo, at which point deputies noted “the living conditions to be deplorable” with “animal feces observed on the exposed sub-floor” and “very prominent” “fly activity,” according to the complaint.

When heading from the living room to the kitchen, deputies “observed two piles of blood and one pile of presumed dog feces with what appeared to be traces of blood on this kitchen floor”; deputies also learned that there were multiple people living in the residence, including the 6-month-old infant and a 9-year-old child, deputies said.

Deputies performed a walkthrough of the residence, during which time they “observed animal feces on the floor throughout,” and that “the bedrooms were practically inaccessible due to the amount of clothing and trash that was piled up”; deputies also noted “the bathroom toilet was filled with presumed human feces and was inoperable,” according to the complaint.

Inside the home, deputies seized “a total of 67 animals” … “approximately 15 that had been living inside the residence”; deputies also reported the home’s conditions to CPS, due to deputies believing “the minor children residing here were at substantial risk of serious bodily injury” due to the “deplorable” conditions, deputies said.

Mayo has been charged with child neglect. She is being held in Central Regional Jail.

Charges against other individuals living in the residence have not been posted on the West Virginia Regional Jail website at this time.

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