WALKER, Mich. (WOOD) — Seventeen dogs were seized after being found living with their owner in a truck in Walker, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Kent County Sheriff’s Office said animal control officers were sent to a strip mall along Alpine Avenue north of I-96 on Monday afternoon after someone expressed concerns about “several” dogs living in a pickup truck.
Retired therapy dog goes back to work after Hurricane Milton “Part of animal control’s job is to ensure the care of each animal in our county. We are very appreciative that the citizen noticed something wasn’t right and called us. That way, we could address it and give the dogs the proper care that they need,” Sgt. Kailey Gilbert told NewsNation affiliate WOOD.
The officers found 17 dogs living in the truck. They were all taken to the Kent County Animal Shelter, where deputies said they were doing OK as of Tuesday.
Sgt. Gilbert told News 8 that animal control has investigated a total of 28 animal cruelty cases since January. That is down about six cases since this time last year.
“We just really never know what is going to show up at our door and an additional 17 dogs definitely puts a strain on our resources and all of our space … we make it work,” Director of the Kent County Animal Shelter Angela Hollinshead said. “At this time, they are being cared for by our staff and our medical team. We provide really great care to everybody, every animal that comes into our shelter.”
But while the numbers are down, the Kent County Animal Shelter said that it’s situations like these that start small and often compound to get much worse over time.
DeSantis says owner of dog abandoned in viral Hurricane Milton video arrested “When you get into 10, 11, 12 up to those 17, 20 dogs, I imagine the Veterinary care itself is thousands and thousands of dollars a year,” she said. “I don’t know a lot of families that are really set up to keep that many pets. So I think it probably starts small with a lot of people, then sometimes it grows and I think some people tend to get overwhelmed.”
Hollinshead added that the shelter offers a variety of resources to help ease some of the stresses of caring for your pets, but said that people have to ask for seek out the help they need.
“If you are struggling to provide for your pets, whether it’s one pet or 10 pets or however many pets, reach out and see if there are any resources that we can provide,” she said. “The best way to prevent this from happening is to really identify and help provide those resources,” she said.
A wild cat native to Africa and Asia is captured in a Chicago suburb The shelter said the dogs — of “various sizes and ages — were all receiving “appropriate care,” though it could not provide more specific details about their conditions because of the ongoing investigation. It was not immediately clear whether the dogs would go up for adoption, the shelter said.
As of Tuesday, prosecutors had not yet reviewed it to determine what, if any, charges are appropriate.
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