MANNFORD, Okla. -- Creek County deputies and the Humane Society of Tulsa seized more than a dozen animals from a home in Mannford on Wednesday afternoon.
Deputies used a search warrant to enter the property and said they found dogs chained up without food or water.
Evan Fadem, executive director with the Humane Society of Tulsa, arrived to help the deputies take the animals. She described the conditions as “deplorable.”
“Its hot out here, so if it’s hot out here, your dogs are probably hot,” Fadem said.
She said most of the pets had fleas, ticks and wounds around their necks from their collars. The grass and weeds the animals were living in were at least four feet tall.
“You can see their ribs.,” Fadem said. “Very very skinny.”
The rescue workers used nets to trap about five cats. Fadem said they were scared.
The owner, Billie Turner, was on the street as deputies and rescue workers paraded her pets off her property. She was visibly upset, saying, “Please don’t let me lose my babies, God.”
Turner said she rescues pets that are abandoned by her home. She called them her “babies” and her “children.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Turner said when asked if she fed her dogs. “I got dog food in the house. My Aunt Betty, she buys dog food if we run out of money.”
Turner said she plans to fight for her pets.
Creek County Deputies and The Humane Society said they were out at the same house in 2016 seizing about 28 animals. Fadem said there was a dead dog on the property then.
“It hurts my heart to see animals like this,” Fadem said. “There are so many resources available to take care of their animals, especially to see the owners out here saying they love their animals and they care about them.”
Deputies do not know right now if charges will be filed. They said that is up to the District Attorney’s Office.
The Humane Society will not put the animals up for adoption until after the owners go before a judge.
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