300 animals rescued from illegal kennel in El Dorado County, filling up 2 local shelters
Animal services and law enforcement officials busted an illegal kennel operation in Shingle Springs last week, rescuing roughly 300 animals from a residential property and finding nearly two dozen others dead in freezers, according to El Dorado County officials.
El Dorado County Animal Services and El Dorado County Sheriff’s deputies responded Thursday to a property in the 4700 block of Lonesome Dove Drive, where a search warrant was served to evict and relocate the animals to shelters, the county said in a news release..
Sheriff’s officials determined that the situation constituted a non-licensed kennel with clear animal neglect, according to the county’s news release.
The live animals included more than 100 dogs, as well as cats, horses, pigeons, ducks, roosters, hens, and goats.
Another 22 other animals were found dead in freezers at the property, county officials said.
The rescue took five days, flooding the county’s shelters in Diamond Springs and South Lake Tahoe with the neglected animals, which are now receiving veterinary care. Both shelters remain closed Tuesday after being shuttered Friday, Saturday and Monday, according to the news release.
“This is one of the largest animal removal operations that I’m aware of in El Dorado County,” Henry Brzezinski, chief of El Dorado County Animal Services, said in a statement.
A criminal investigation remains ongoing.
This story was originally published May 7, 2019 at 7:11 AM.
