Nine puppies found living in squalor among 200 other dead animals will soon be looking for a new place to call home.
Willa Bagwell, executive director of Animal Friends of the Valleys in Lake Elsinore, said the orphaned pooches would be ready for adoption in about a month. The 5-week-old puppies are currently in foster homes and will stay there for three weeks. After that they'll be spayed and neutered and will be ready to find new homes.
"(The puppies) are really flourishing," Bagwell said.
The dogs were recovered Friday from a Temecula home. Inside, officials also found 204 dead and decomposing animals and 115 feral cats and dogs. Those animals were later euthanized.
"It was gruesome. It was the most disgusting thing I've seen," Bagwell said of the scene.
Animal control officers had to go through 100 bags of feces to make sure no human body parts were on the property, Bagwell told the Times.
The resident and owner of the animals, Elisao Jimenez, 66, was arrested Friday by Temecula police on suspicion of animal cruelty. He posted bond on $5,000 bail Saturday and was released from jail the same day, according to the North County Times. The Times reported that Jimenez is scheduled to be arraigned in late February, however the Riverside County district attorney's office has yet to formally charge him.
One adult dog found on the property was already adopted.
Officers were alerted to the property after receiving a call that two vicious dogs were running loose at the address on Liefer Road. When animal control officers arrived, packs of dogs were attacking each other and killing one of their own. About 70 dogs circled officers and threatened to attack, forcing authorities to kill them.
