31 Dogs Found In Makeshift Animal Shelter

Several dogs need new homes after surviving some of the worst conditions in a makeshift animal shelter. McKamey Officers cited the shelter's owner to court and tell us this could have been prevented with a simple phone call.

Officers found the dogs with tumors on their bodies, fleas all over the place, and living in squalid conditions that humans could never tolerate.

Meet 'Dew Drop' - we found him looking shell shocked and half blind with cataracts in both eyes. 'Dew Drop' is one of thirty one dogs that McKamey Officers pulled out of this makeshift animal shelter in Hixson.

"It was pretty stunning to open the door and go in there," McKamey Officer Nick Wilson says.

Wilson says he responded to the home after receiving an anonymous phone call and says officers quickly found the dogs surviving in some of the worst conditions possible.

"Just about everything inside the residence was feces covered urine soaked, pretty horrific inside there," Wilson says.

"It was like a giant cat box but full of dogs," Troy Workman, who lives in the neighborhood, says.

A so called cat box that Workman lives down the street from and says has been out of control for years.

"Everytime you walked right in front of the house you could just smell it, it just came right out at you," Workman says.

A smell so strong that Wilson and his officers had to wear protective suits when they went inside the house to get the dogs.

There are literally a sea of dog crates outside of the home and they're mixed in with a number of trash bags.

Wilson issued a citation in leu of arrest for the Shelter's owner - Amy Davis. He says Davis DID have an animal rescue license but no longer lived inside the home and with a struggling economy, simply let things spiral out of control.

"The intention was there to do a good thing at first and it turned into a small disaster," Wilson says.

A disaster that nearly shut the door on thirty one dogs including 'Dew Drop' who is now considered the luckiest dog in the world.

We spoke with Amy Davis, the shelter's owner, on the phone today and offered her the chance to go on camera but she said she needed to speak with her lawyer and never returned our phone call.