47 dogs, five horses removed from house in Placitas

Forty-seven dogs and five horses have been rescued from a Placitas home.

“We received a call from a concerned neighbor. Animal Control went out there and discovered that there were a large amount of dogs,” Sandoval County Undersheriff Joe Gonzales said. “We didn’t know the amount, but we started to look into that situation. Because there were a few circumstances regarding care of the animals, we obtained a warrant and served that warrant. The initial warrant, we were able to receive 21 dogs, and the investigation continued after that.”

The three-bedroom home in Placitas was filled with trash, debris and animal feces. The owner of the property is now facing charges of animal cruelty and animal at large.

“The way it was described to me was a very foul, foul odor,” Gonzales said.

All told, 47 dogs, in varying degrees of health, were removed from the property. The horses were sent to an animal rescue in Edgewood.

Jayme Espinoza, the director of Community Services for Sandoval County, said the county’s Animal Services division received 21 dogs Feb. 16, the day of the first warrant. Since then, dogs from the house have trickled in daily.

“So there are various conditions. Some are deaf, some are blind, some infections, some have skin issues,” Espinoza said. “It looked like they had been fighting each other. So there were different injuries and different stages of healing.”

Espinoza said some of the dogs were taken to Espanola Animal Humane, Aztec Animal Shelter, Bernalillo County Shelter and Sandoval County Shelter. Also, several community members have stepped in to help out with the new rescues.

“We’ll get veterinarian care for all of them just to ensure everybody is in good health, but here at Sandoval County, we only have three remaining shepherds,” Espinoza said. “So that’s where we are. Espanola Animal Humane took the majority of them and got a great response from their community with more applications than dogs they had for adoption.”

Sandoval County Manager Wayne Johnson emphasized that no shelter is prepared to handle an influx of 47 dogs, but he is proud of how it was handled in Sandoval County by the sheriff’s office, Community Services and the Planning and Zoning Department.

“We handled it very well considering the volume of the property, the livability of the property; quite frankly, I think we handled it real well,” Johnson said. “We received the complaint, we took immediate action. The situation was understood. We went the extra mile; we didn’t have to go to get a warrant.”