Licking County Humane Society rescues 80 dogs from Newark house – The Newark Advocate

The Licking County Humane Society rescued nearly 80 dogs from a condemned Newark house Friday afternoon.
It’s the largest rescue in the organization’s history, said Elycia Taylor, the humane society’s program and communications director. Staff members were still counting all the animals Friday evening. 
It took the humane agents hours and multiple trips to transport the dogs, which were all small breed mixes, Humane Society Executive Director Lori Carlson said.
The house, Carlson said, had one person living it as well, but did not have running water. 
“Obviously with that many dogs in a house had horrible, you know, sanitary issues,” she said. 
The dogs were brought to the humane society’s Heath shelter Friday afternoon and were evaluated by veterinary staff. The dogs have numerous health issues, including severe skin infections, Carlson said. 
“The officer described it as their skin bleeding in places,” she said. 
All the animals are infested with fleas, and will be treated for them. They will also be vaccinated and microchipped, Carlson said. 
The dogs range in age from just a few weeks old to adults. As part of the exams, staff members will determine the age of each animal.  
Staff members were at the shelter into Friday evening as they did medical evaluations, which takes about 15-20 minutes for each dog. 
The shelter began preparing for the animals Friday morning to determine where they would be housed. 
“No matter how new our facility is, we aren’t set up to take in a hundred new animals in a week, so we’re kind of having to do some shuffling,” Carlson said. 
The shelter also rescued 52 cats on July 18 from two different neglect cases. Eleven adult cats came from a Newark property, while 41 cats came from a hoarding case. Of those 41, Carlson said many were still nursing kittens. 
Staff members were cleaning spaces and finding places to set up kennels for the dogs Friday evening so each would have space. 
While the dogs who were brought in Friday will not be available for adoption yet, Carlson said those looking to help can make donations, buy items off the shelter’s wish list or adopt other dogs at the shelter to make sure the new animals have space. 
“We have about 50 foster families who are currently approved fostering with us that we’re going to make a big plea out to,” Taylor said. “We’ll probably reach out to our volunteers as well because they’re approved through the same system and we have, you know, over 100 volunteers, so we’ll reach out to that base.”
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Taylor said the humane society will also reach out to other rescues within the community that could help because the shelter is now beyond it’s capacity. 
Carlson said like most shelters in central Ohio, they’ve been at capacity for most of the summer. 
Part of the reason the organization has taken in so many animals is because of the new contract it has with the city of Newark. Earlier this year, Newark approved contracting with the humane society to respond to animal abuse complaints. 
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