QUAKAKE - Seventeen poodles and a cat were removed from a home in Rush Township after someone responding to a newspaper advertisement reported deplorable conditions to police.
Rush Township police Sergeant Duane Fredericks and the Hillside SPCA, Pottsville, rescued the animals shortly after 11:30 a.m. Tuesday from the home of Elizabeth Shickora at 101 W. Main St., Quakake.
"The conditions were horrible," Barbara Umlauf, director of Hillside SPCA, said Tuesday. "It was only two weeks that we took all those animals out of that home in Pottsville. These are horrific episodes we have been dealing with."
Fredericks said police were called earlier that day from someone who went to the home after seeing an advertisement for the poodles that Shickora was giving away. Fredericks said a search warrant had to acquired to get the animals from the home.
"I think it just got out of the control," Fredericks said. "I think the dogs she had just kept having puppies."
Shickora gave away some of the dogs before they were taken from the home Tuesday, Fredericks said.
Fredericks said he will file charges for animal cruelty, which is a misdemeanor, and various other dog violations.
Janine Choplick, humane officer for the SPCA, said the dogs were all poodles, some as young as six weeks old. Choplick said the dogs were matted and covered in fleas and some had medical conditions. They will be taken to the veterinarian as soon as possible, she said.
"I think they are all going to make it," Choplick said.
Eventually, they will be put up for adoption at the Hillside SPCA.
"They need a lot of tender love and care," Choplick said. "They are nice little dogs."