Over 100 dogs and cats seized from Kentucky shelter after dead pets found in freezer
MOREHEAD, KENTUCKY: Police have seized 90 dogs from a no-kill shelter in Kentucky due to its poor living conditions after several cats and dogs were discovered in the facility's freezer.
The Trixie Foundation in Elliott County had advertised itself as an "Eden" for animals and the "best-kept secret in animal welfare" on its website but was exposed over the weekend when authorities rescued 104 dogs and cats from its premises.
Animal advocate Julia Sharp told WIFR some of the animals who were rescued were in a horrific condition, with one dog so sick she couldn't even stand up.
"She is beyond filthy," Sharp revealed. "She is matted. She has advanced, advanced dental disease. It looks like her jaw is literally rotting out. She is blind and she is deaf, and she is caked with mud, so this little one has been laying there, waiting to die."
Melissa Bowman, president of Kentuckians Vote for Animals, had accompanied the police during the raid and similarly said the dogs had suffered "medical neglect." She said some were found with tumors and that others had to be tranquilized before leaving the facility.
She also shared that one dog had to be euthanized at the facility because of its condition.
Penny Menz, another who assisted in retrieving the animals from the Trixie Foundation, branded the situation the worst thing she'd ever seen.
"There was a dog that they had to call the vet for immediately. She had to be euthanized. She was lifeless but still breathing," she recalled. "They’re suffering and we need to put them down."
Sharp said that the Trixie Foundation's founder, Randy Skaggs, 68, had managed it for three decades and that questions about his treatment of the animals at his shelter have followed him the entire time.
Skaggs, who was reportedly scheduled to stand trial this June on misdemeanor animal cruelty charges from 2018, defended the foundation and said he provides medical care when the animals need it.
He claimed he neglected to bury the seven cats and five dogs found in the freezer because of a high workload. "I’ve not intentionally done anything except try to help these animals," he said. "Everyone makes mistakes, and I’ve made plenty of them."
Skaggs has been cited for 12 counts of not meeting requirements for disposing of dead animals, with further charges pending.
He has blamed critics of his no-euthanization policy with influencing this latest raid on his foundation, to pressure him to plead guilty to earlier charges. He struck a defiant stance and insisted he intends to fight all his charges.
"Justice would be him in jail for the rest of his life," Sharp said.
She said this particular case was just one example of a statewide problem. Kentucky has, in the past, been ranked the worst state for animal protection laws for 12 years by the U.S. Animal Legal Defense Fund.
"I have taken dogs so many times out of rescue, out of horrible conditions, and they get a slap on the wrist and nobody monitors this, and so it's got to change. It's got to change. This can't happen again," she said.