36 Dogs Rescued From 'Deplorable' Hoarding Conditions In South Jersey

PENNSVILLE, NJ — Dog owners surrendered 35 of their animals from a Salem County property to an animal rescue in Delaware earlier this week, the rescue said.

A team took the dogs from the "dilapidated" property in Pennsville earlier this week. The dogs of "Project Green" had never been to a veterinarian, the rescue said in a Facebook post.

Renée's Rescues volunteers trapped a final dog, who was running loose, on Thursday according to founder Renée Martini.

These dogs, mostly Chihuahua mixes, were covered with fleas and had overgrown nails, Martini said.

"Over half of them had double ear infections," she added. "They were not in stable condition."

Some also had skin sores, and/or bloody scratches on their bodies.

Renée's Rescues staff took the dogs immediately to a veterinary center, saying they had been in "deplorable" conditions. The rescue is in Hockessin, Del.

Martini said one dog, an eight-week-old puppy, is in poor condition. The number of fleas on his body caused him to get anemia, she said.

Martini said police decided not to file charges against the owners, because they were willing to work with the rescue.

Martini told Patch the owners surrendered 29 dogs on Monday, and six on Tuesday.

"We have some as young as five weeks old," she said. "The oldest one is just under seven."

The dogs are in foster homes and need to recover. They should be available for adoption "if the fosters don’t fall in love and adopt the pups themselves," Renée's Rescues said.

You can see adoptable dogs at the rescue here.

Care for the dogs "will be well over $10,000 by the time they are adopted," the rescue said. The Renée's Rescues donation page is here.

Veterinarians are taking care of spay/neuter surgeries, and the dogs got a full workup including dentals, blood work, and treating infections and injuries.

Martini founded her rescue in 2014, working to get dogs out of puppy mills.

"Most recently we've been taking on these larger cases," she said. "One week prior to this Pennsville project, we took in 40 (dogs) from another situation."