FRANKFORT — More than 100 dogs were removed from a rural Franklin County property where 70 of the animals were found inside a mobile home in squalid conditions.

        “It was the nastiest thing I've seen in my life,” said Scott King, executive director of the Franklin County Humane Society. “The conditions were totally inhumane for animals or humans.”

        Mr. King's agency on Saturday removed about 70 feces-matted dogs from the mobile home and more than 30 animals that were penned or chained outside the home, six miles west of Frankfort. Two dogs were found dead.

About 70 dogs were found inside this mobile home near Frankfort, and more than 30 were penned or chained outside. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        Court records list the Stockton Road address as the home of Shirley Ann Quire, 56, and Arthur Quire, 59, as well as a 54-year-old mentally impaired man in the couple's care. Shirley and Arthur Quire were each charged with third-degree criminal abuse, accused of placing “a mentally handicapped person in danger of physical injury by deprivation of service needed to maintain health and welfare,” according to a citation filed in Franklin County District Court.

        State police, who began investigating after receiving a complaint about the welfare of the disabled man, said he is now living with relatives in Franklin County. The Quires could not be reached for comment.

        The Quires also were each charged with one count of second-degree animal cruelty. They are scheduled to appear Aug. 7 in Franklin District Court on the misdemeanor charges, which are punishable by up to a year in jail. They also were cited by state Fish and Wildlife Resources for having two raccoons, state police said.

        Seven or eight Humane Society workers spent more than five hours removing the dogs from the home to the Humane Society shelter in Frankfort.

        Mr. King showed photographs of the interior of the 70-by-14-foot mobile home. Cans littered the hallway, and the walls were brown with feces where the dogs had pawed.

        “There's no telling why someone would do this,” Mr. King said. “The first thing you think of is a puppy mill, but I really don't think so. ... The majority of these dogs would be unadoptable animals. They're not the kind of dogs you would want around children.”

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