Cops Find Dead, Dying Animals in Abandoned Home

Stench from house alerted neighbors

Police discovered an animal "house of horrors" Tuesday evening on  the Chatham neighborhood on the city's South Side.

"It was horrific, it was really terrible," said Pat Edwards, a neighbor who witnessed police entering a home on the 8200 block of South Rhodes Avenue to find a pack of malnourished animals among decaying animal carcasses, to the Chicago Tribune. "There was a stench, that's what brought our attention to it. There was an overpowering stench."

Upon neighbors' requests officers entered the home with flashlights and saw two dead dogs, two dead cats and four dogs still alive in what seemed to be an abandoned house littered with trash and animal excrement. 

The surviving dogs, a Doberman Pinscher, a pit bull, a Chihuahua and what officials say may be a shih tzu had been without food and water and were suffering from malnutrition and dehydration.  Animal Care and Control officers took the dogs to a shelter for treatment.

Edwards told officials he believes he saw a woman at the home about a month ago and that she would appear from time to time to take care of the dogs and cats.  Neighbors even saw the dogs looking out windows and say they appeared to be healthy. 

But other neighbors say they hadn’t seen anybody at the house in as long as four months.

Some neighbors speculated the house might be in foreclosure but that hasn’t been confirmed.

On Wednesday, Animal Care and Control will head back to finish checking out the house.  Officials told the Tribune they believe there may be more dead animals in the home. 

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