County Seeks Foster Homes For Animals After Georgetown Slaughter

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX — County officials on Wednesday issued an urgent plea for residents willing to foster animals after nearly 40 creatures were seized from a Georgetown home where another 14 were fund dead this week.

Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter has taken in 38 animals rescued by the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office late Tuesday night from a residence outside of Georgetown, Texas, officials said. The animals are being cared for by the shelter until the case goes to court, so they are not available for adoption, officials said.

Shelter staff will conduct health checks on the animals that include 15 dogs, three cats, two cockatiels, one parakeet, roosters and chickens and a peahen with her eggs, officials said.

"Right now, we really need people to adopt or foster so that we have space to maintain these animals while they go through the court process,” Cheryl Schneider, animal services director for the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter, said. “We also could use some newspaper and chicken and bird feed for those animals that are not typically held at our shelter.”

Anyone interested in adopting or fostering a dog is invited to the Canine Corral, 425 E Morrow St., in San Gabriel Park in Georgetown. Available animals also can be viewed on the website at www.wilcopets.org. A locator map to the Canine Corral appears below:

The urgent plea for foster homes comes after a late-night tweet issued at around 10 p.m. Tuesday night by Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody describing the grisly discovery of several dead — some of them beheaded — at a home in a rural setting near the county seat of Georgetown that night. The dead animals included dogs, cats, chickens, roosters and ducks, the sheriff said.

Chody originally reported the discovery of 50 dead animals, but the total was subsequently lowered to 14. The rest were rescued.

Neither the exact location of the mass animal killings nor the circumstances surrounding the slaughter have been released. It's also unknown if arrests have been made.

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