New Jersey State Police
New Jersey police arrested a 65-year-old woman after 44 dead dogs were found in freezers inside her home and over 100 others were found living in squalor, WABC reports. Donna Roberts now faces charges of animal cruelty after she allegedly kept “all the animals in deplorable and inhumane conditions in and around her” in her Shamong Township home. When police arrived at the home with officials from the Burlington County Health Department, the smell of “animal feces and ammonia” was reportedly potent enough to cause “dizziness and nausea” among authorities.
Forty-four dead dogs were reportedly found “packaged in plastic bags and stored in freezers” throughout the home. The outlet also reported that 130 dogs were found on the property, with four in critical condition. The four dogs were transferred to an emergency veterinary clinic, and the others were treated on-site by animal shelter workers. “Although the circumstances surrounding the demise of the 44 dogs that were discovered inside plastic bags in freezers remain under investigation, the deplorable and inhumane living conditions the rescued dogs were forced to endure is tragic,” New Jersey State Police Colonel Patrick Callahan said.