July 28, the Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) rescued 22 dogs and four cats from a property on the west side of Sealy.

“It was one of the worst cases of deplorable living conditions Houston SPCA Animal Cruelty Investigators said they have seen in their many years of field experience in animal welfare,” a Wednesday press release said.

Chief Investigator Adam Reynolds said in a July 29 phone interview that the Austin County Sheriff’s Office contacted SPCA about the case and was planning on issuing a civil seizure warrant. However, the owners of the property complied with the surrender and the animals were evacuated from the property.

“Even outdoors, we still had high ammonia ratings,” Reynolds said. “Some of them were locked into kennels and crates with no access to food and water. The ones that did have food and water, it was full of debris and not clean.”

All of the animals are currently under the care of SPCA where they received inoculations and evaluations to start their road to recovery.

“The plan is to get as many as we can with a positive outcome to get them well enough to be adoptable,” Reynolds said. “Those that can’t, they’ll be here with us for a while until they are.”

Reynolds said there was no telling exactly how long the animals had been experiencing the living conditions.

“We’ve heard from Austin County his has been an ongoing event … from what I understand they had been out there for some time,” he said.

As of Friday, July 30, the Austin County Sheriff’s Office had yet to provide comment.

Reynolds said the public’s help is appreciated when it comes to reporting cases of animal cruelty either online (houstonspca.i-sight.com/external-capture) or over the phone (713-869-7722).

“We always rely on our citizens to report, that’s the best thing they can do,” Reynolds said.

This is a developing story, stay tuned for more details and quotes. Pick up the August 5 print edition of The Sealy News for the full story.