Police removed 9 animals from a home on Old Mill Road after finding them living in squalor.

An attorney and a sheriff went to the mobile home at 1 Old Mill Road to evict the husband and wife living there, a 31-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, Lee police Sgt. Tom Dronsfield said.

When authorities found no one home, they planned to padlock the residence, but noticed a host of animals inside, he said, leading them to contact Lee police and the NH SPCA. The home was locked and officials returned the next morning to do a search, he said.

   (Photo courtesy of EJ Hersom/Fosters Daily Democrat)

Officers and an SPCA official found detestable conditions inside, Dronsfield said.  “The officer who went said the conditions were horrible, the stench, it was just nasty,” he said.  Dronsfield said there were feces throughout the house, in a hallway and on a bed.

Nine animals found at the home included three dogs, a ferret, two birds, an adult cat and two kittens with their umbilical cords still attached.

Dronsfield said officers also found a dead turtle inside the child's bedroom and a dead cat decaying outside the residence.

Despite the poor living conditions, Dronsfield said none of the living animals appeared to be in particularly bad health. “It didn’t appear that they were starving,” he said.

  (Courtesy photo provided by Union Leader)

No one has been arrested or charged in relation to the incident, Dronsfield said, but officers are continuing to investigate.

He said the SPCA is expected to issue a report on the condition of the animals, including whether or not they were mistreated. Once that report is issued, police will determine whether animal cruelty charges are necessary, he said.

“Our main concern was the health and welfare of the animals,” Dronsfield said.

  (Photo courtesy of WMUR News 9)

Lee Police Department Sr. Patrolman Michael Lyczak said the house was a mess.  "The inside of the house was trashed: trash was all over the house, animal feces was all over the house" Lyczak said.

Investigators said they were unsure of how long the animals had been locked inside the house.

Police stated the home was a mess, with full litter boxes and animal waste on the beds.

All of the animals were being housed at the New Hampshire SPCA in Stratham, where they were receiving food and healthcare treatment.

SPCA spokeswoman Dianna Currier said the organization was in need of donations to help cover the cost of helping the animals.

"Any donations would help. You can always come in and fill out an application that we can keep on file. We have wonderful animals. Donations would definitely help us out," she said.

Because of their custody status, the pets were not up for adoption yet.

Police said the owners had already called about getting the animals back.

Update 8/18/11:  Police said they went to serve an eviction notice from the homeowner with an attorney and padlock the house.

When police arrived, they noticed dogs had been left outside of the home. They contacted the New Hampshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NHSPCA) and were told to put the animals inside the home for the evening.

"The officer could smell what he thought was something dead," said Sgt. Tom Dronsfield of entering the home. "He wanted to make sure there wasn't a person in there, and he checked the house."

After determining there were no people inside, police locked the dogs inside until they could come back with NHSPCA officials in the morning and have permission from the homeowner to remove the pets.

"We have no idea where they are or how long they were gone," Dronsfield said. "They didn't come back overnight and still no one was at the home when they got there in the morning."

On Wednesday morning, officers and NHSPCA officials began removing the pets from the home and found the conditions were unsuitable for the animals.

"Once they got inside the house, we found it was an absolute mess," Dronsfield said. "We found a ferret in the cage without food, a couple of birds, three dogs and an adult cat with two kittens."

Officials were able to remove three dogs, two birds, an adult cat, two kittens and a ferret from the house, said NHSPCA Humane Agent Steven Sprowl.

"The animals weren't in that bad of shape condition-wise," he said. "But we won't know 100 percent until they are checked by a vet (Thursday)."  Some of the animals were underweight, including the ferret, he said. The NHSPCA will be checking the animals

In the yard, police also located skeletal remains of an adult cat that appeared to be there for awhile and a dead turtle inside an aquarium in what appeared to be a child's room, police said.  "The turtle didn't have any water or anything," Sprowl said. "There were a couple of rocks in the bottom of the aquarium."  He said it appeared the turtle could have died from dehydration, but he wasn't sure.

When police or NHSPCA officials feel animals have been neglected or abused, the animals can be taken into protective custody, Sprowl said. After being removed from a residence, animals are cared for by the humane society until there are medical records on the animals and a court makes a decision on if the animals can be released.

Sprowl said if an owner is convicted of animal cruelty, they could be barred from owning pets for four to five years. There is no New Hampshire law that restricts the number of animals an individual can own, which Sprowl said adds to the probability that someone could own so many animals, they cannot be cared for properly.

Sprowl said the NHSPCA sees 60 to 70 animal cruelty complaints a month in the state.

Police said the man and woman who were living at the house could face charges for animal cruelty, but they are waiting for a report on the condition of the animals before moving forward with any potential charges.

Police are still investigating the case.

Update 8/25/11:  An area resident says she is “an animal lover” and that the police are lying about the condition of the house and animals in a potential animal cruelty case.

The tenant of the home, Amie Nason, said she was in the process of moving out when her landlord unexpectantly served her an eviction notice. Nason said she has lived in the home for the majority of her life but that recent problems with the home and a wish to move to another town were causing her to look elsewhere.

She said she recently had refused to pay rent because the faucets in the house and a toilet were not working. She claims a water pipe under one of the sinks was broken and leaking underneath, causing mold issues. She said the landlord has refused to fix it, since the house was “so old” and they had made an agreement she would be moving out of the home.

When police arrived last week to help issue the eviction notice, they said they noticed three dogs were left outside the residence. Officers said they put the animals in the home before locking it for the night. They returned in the morning, saying they removed the animals from unsuitable conditions that included full litter boxes and animal feces on the beds.

The claim of full litter boxes is false, Nason said, adding that the cat is an outdoor animal and there were no litter boxes in the house.

Nason said the animals were not left unattended for “several days,” as police said was possibly the case. She had been at the house earlier in the day but, upon returning that night from looking at her new residence, was locked out.  “We came back later that day seeing notes on the door saying an eviction was served, and we couldn’t get in,” she said.

She said she could hear the dogs barking in the house but worried if she entered she would be arrested for not following the police order to stay out. Nason said she called the phone number listed on the door and was told by police she would have to talk to the lawyer involved in the eviction case, which could take several days.

The inside of the house was a mess because the police officers had been moving things around when looking to see if there were any other animals in the home, she said. The pictures officers released were taken after they had “ripped through stuff” and moved things around.

She said the boxes and bags around the house were there because the tenants had been in the middle of moving. She said her 10-year-old daughter had not been living in the house for the last month because of the move and had been staying with family.

“The other thing was they were saying the dogs had gone to the bathroom in the house,” she said. “They were there for hours. I’m sure they had to go to the bathroom. I’m absolutely sure they did go to the bathroom.”  She said the dogs also may have rummaged through things while locked in the house, because they tend to “trash things” when left alone.

According to the NHSPCA, the dogs and cats are being treated for flea infestations. Medical tests on the 3 dogs also have come back positive for Lyme disease and anaplasmosis, another tick-borne disease.

As 2 of the 3 cats are newborns, NHSPCA staff have to be cautious of the amount of antibiotics they can give the kittens.

The ferret is eating regularly but still underweight. The 2 birds are being treated with antibiotics, as NHSPCA staff said they are mite-infested and overweight.

The animals were not all hers, and Nason claims she had taken many of them in after family and friends no longer could care for them.

Nason said she took in the ferret about a week before police locked down her house. She claims a neighbor had given her the animal because they no longer could care for it and would have had to kill it.

Two of the 3 dogs were not hers originally, and Nason said she already has taken one of the dogs to the veterinarian for an eye issue but couldn’t pay the bill to get it fixed.  “They said nothing would come of it,” she said, adding that they would have taken care of the issue if they believed it was going to harm the animal.

She said the previous owner’s child had hit the dog in the eye with a toy, and it had caused the issue. Nason has had the animal for about a year.

She said the only animal that she personally purchased and is hers is a poodle and Shih Tzu mix.

Her response to the dead turtle is that her daughter had found it alive on the side of the street and had wanted to bring it home. They had put it in an aquarium with water, but Nason said her daughter had cleaned out the tank sometime before the eviction notice and had not put water back in the tank.  “That could be my fault,” she said. “I should have been in there and checked up on it.”

As for the dead cat in the backyard, Nason said she believes it was her cat who had run away and hadn’t been seen for days. She believes the animal died of old age.

Nason said police are expecting her to sign over the remaining animals to the NH SPCA, but she intends to fight any potential claims of animal abuse.  “Asking me to sign over my dogs is like asking me to sign over my kids,” she said. “I’m not going to do it.”

Her new residence, whose location Nason did not reveal, can have animals, she said.  “My whole thing is we are people who love animals,” she said. “And the whole thing put us out there to be completely not who we are.”

Lee police said they are continuing their investigation before determining if there will be any potential charges for animal cruelty. If someone is found guilty of acts of animal cruelty, they could be barred from owning pets for up to 5 years.

Update 8/30/11:  A warrant for 9 counts of animal cruelty has been issued for Nason.

The New Hampshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has determined the animals taken into custody have varying ailments, including Lyme disease and flea infestation.

The pets are currently in NHSPCA custody.

Police are asking 27-year-old Amie Nason to turn herself in on the warrant because they no longer know where she lives.

Police said she is charged based on the NHSPCA's veterinarian report that indicated medical tests for the 3 dogs came back positive for Lyme disease and anaplasmosis, another tick-borne disease. Both the cats and dogs were treated for flea infestations.

Each count relates to each of the surviving pets. Police said they decided to focus on the living animals. Police said it would have been difficult to determine how the turtle and the cat had died.

Though the ferret is eating regularly under the care of the animal shelter, it was underweight when brought in from the home. The 2 birds are being treated with antibiotics as well, as they are infested with mites.

Sgt. Tom Dronsfield said Nason has yet to contact police, despite being told of the warrant. Her address is currently unknown, police said.  "We have no idea where she is living," Dronsfield said.

Nason said that she is an animal lover and that the new apartment she is moving into is suitable for the animals. She did not say where that apartment is located.  She said the claims of animal cruelty are untrue and that police are lying about the condition of the house and animals in relation to the case.

If someone is found guilty of acts of animal cruelty, they could be barred from owning pets for up to 5 years.

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