Forty-one dogs were rescued from horrific conditions at a Tennessee animal shelter and the owner of the facility has been charged with animal cruelty, authorities said.
David Gosselin was arrested on Tuesday when police seized the animals from his Happy Endings Animal Rescue in Madison, Tennessee.
More charges will be forthcoming, said a spokesman for the Davidson County district attorney’s office.
The animals were living in a single room surrounded by feces “inches thick” and with scant food, WTVF reported.
“These 41 dogs in the heat with no electricity, no air, no water that we could see, and very little food. Deplorable conditions, no one had been inside for years,” Katie Ladefoged, a prosecutor with the district attorney’s office, told WNEM.
Many of the animals were suffering from “severe medical issues,” according to a statement from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
“You can hear it every night, beating dogs, this in the middle of the night,” Jamichael Alexander, who lives across the street from the facility, told WNEM. “You shouldn’t be woken up at your house from dogs crying.”
The rescue facility, which described itself as “no-kill,” had been operating for 19 years, according to WTVF.