Pit bulls rescued from 'horrific' Oakland home
Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
Oakland police Officer Sarah Whitmeyer talks to Amarylis while exercising the rescued dog at the animal shelter.
San Francisco Chronicle January 27, 2011
Oakland animal care officers were struggling this week to find homes for dozens of pit bulls rescued in one of the largest animal cruelty busts in decades.
"It was horrific, absolutely terrible," said Oakland police Officer Sarah Whitmeyer, who helped lead the raid on a squalid East Oakland home. "The smell was so bad even a mask didn't help. All of us were coughing and trying to breathe."
Police found 33 bloody and terrified pit bulls at the two-bedroom Sobrante Park home owned by Arthey Yancey when they swept through with a warrant on Dec. 9. The dogs were in crates stacked three high in a makeshift storage room. Some of the crates were so caked with excrement that the dogs had dug holes to lie in it and had skin stained yellow from urine.
Yancey, 68, was charged in Alameda County Superior Court with felony animal cruelty. He is free on his own recognizance.
Some of the dogs suffered from severe cuts, evidence of fighting, while others appeared to be in relatively fair condition, said Oakland's animal service director, Megan Webb.
Several of the dogs were in such bad shape that they had to be euthanized. Some of the others were acquired by rescue groups, and the rest are at the Oakland shelter undergoing treatment or awaiting adoption.
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