Police: More than 70 animals, many dead, found in back of pickup truck in New Jersey
FLANDERS, N.J. -- An animal cruelty investigation is underway in New Jersey after dozens of dogs and cats, many of them dead, were found in a pickup truck.
Investigators say the live animals were filthy, while the deceased were wrapped up carefully and place in cookie tins.
For Alvin, Theodore and Simone, basking in the sunshine on Thursday after being saved by Eleventh Hour Rescue was truly a treat.
"They are under-socialized but friendly," volunteer Jamie Hall said.
They were a part of a harrowing rescue, found in a filthy blue truck on Monday afternoon in Hampton Township.
"We saw a beat-up pickup truck with dogs. It was a clown car," Hall said.
Hall described what she saw in that truck.
"Dogs everywhere, filthy feces and dead animals," she said. "It was rotten. It smelled like death."
State troopers and the animal rescue used slip leads and bite gloves in what seemed like a neverending process.
"You would take one out and there would be five more. They were under the seats, in the bed of the truck, carriers," Hall said.
And it gets worse, the discovery of dead animals methodically wrapped.
"She had whole litters of kittens that she had individually wrapped either in newspaper or plastic and tape and she had written their names and dates and she put them into butter tins and put them in her car and we found many," Hall said.
In the end, 35 animals were saved and another 40 were found deceased. Police say the owner of the pickup truck, a woman from Virginia, was arrested at the scene and charged with animal cruelty.
"It was planned out and it was disturbing," Hall said.
The dogs that were saved are all with animals rescues and despite what they've gone through, Alvin, Theodore and Simone are up for adoption, with much brighter days ahead.
For more information about possibly adopting one of the animals, please click here and here.