A house of horrors.
That’s how Carroll County Sheriff James DeWees described the home on Black Rock Road in Hampstead, Maryland, where first responders found 27 dogs living in a home where there was so much feces and urine that rescue workers had to wear respirators and hazmat gear.
“It was a completely toxic environment,” DeWees said. “A human being couldn’t have spent any more than a couple of minutes in that house.”
Since the discovery last Friday, the 27 dogs that were found alive were brought to the Humane Society of Carroll County for care. However, the death toll also stands at 27, with 11 dead dogs found Friday, and another 16 on Monday.
DeWees, a veteran of over 30 years in law enforcement, called the scene “a disturbing situation.”
“I’ve never come across remotely close to what I’ve seen at this residence in Hampstead,” he said.
Two people, John J. Roberts, 49, and Laura S. Filler, 55, have been charged with 51 counts of animal cruelty each. The case is still under investigation.
It appeared that the two were operating an unlicensed breeding facility, DeWees said.
Several breeders who reported that they sold their dogs to Roberts and Filler have been trying to find out if theirs are among the surviving animals. One of the dogs, a Dalmatian, was reunited with his previous owners Wednesday afternoon.
Anyone who buys or sells a dog should thoroughly check out the person they are doing business with, DeWees said.
“I would strongly encourage anybody that’s purchasing a dog from a breeder to make sure that they lay eyes on exactly where these dogs are being housed and how they’re being cared for,” he said.
Sandra Reed, a Golden Retriever breeder from Wisconsin says news of the case sickened her. She sold three of her puppies to Roberts in 2016.
He contacted her to buy puppies to include in his breeding program for a kennel doing business as Black Rock Puppies, she said. “He had a website, he had pictures of puppies playing outside, he had pictures of his stud dog. I saw no red flags at all,” said Reed.
As time went by, Reed said, she had serious concerns. They had agreed on a payment plan, but she said Roberts failed to make the final payments for the dogs.
“He always said: ‘Don’t worry. I’ll pay you everything I owe you plus interest.’”
She said Roberts never sent her photos of the puppies in their new home, and never registered the dogs, something a breeder who intends to show and sell purebred dogs would do. That alarmed her, and in March of this year, still waiting for her final payment, she filed a civil suit against Roberts.
Reed said she agreed to sell her puppies after a long phone interview with Roberts who she said was “super nice.” Reed often refuses to sell to someone if they don’t sound like their home would be a good fit for her dogs, but Roberts was a smooth talker, and said all the right things, according to Reed.
“In the pictures of his puppies on his website, it looked like a huge yard” Reed said. “I thought, ‘That looks really good!’”
Reed shipped her puppies without microchipping them first, she said. She deeply regrets that now; microchipping can help identify dogs.
One of the Dalmatians found at the Hampstead home was reunited with its original owner Wednesday afternoon. Reed said from now on, she’ll make sure to microchip her dogs before selling them.
“Lesson learned,” she said.
Reed has been in touch with the animal control officials investigating the cruelty case against Roberts and Filler.
“In the pit of my stomach, I’m thinking they were among the ones in the shed,” she said, referring to the dead dogs recovered from the Black Rock Road property on Monday. But she can’t help hoping that maybe her puppies, who would be 3 years old now, were sold to good homes.
The Carroll County Sheriff’s Department contracts with a firm that visits breeders in person to check on the facility and treatment of the dogs that will be part of the K-9 team.
If there’s any good news to come out of the case, DeWees said, it’s that the dogs that were recovered “appear to be on track to survive and are getting healthy day by day.”
