BY REX HALL JR.
rhall@kalamazoogazette.com
388-7784
OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP -- For the past two years, Janel Hosie said she made a habit of peeking into and tapping on the windows of her neighbor's house, checking on the ``terrible smell'' coming from within and the dogs she knew were inside.
The dogs, Hosie said, were often excited to see her, and she could spot dirty, mangled furniture standing on end inside the house, whose owner she identified as Andrea Allen. But within the past month, Hosie said she could no longer hear the dogs moving about.
Police have said four dead dogs were among 16 Kalamazoo County sheriff's deputies and Animal Services and Enforcement workers found Monday inside the two-story residence, just west of Kalamazoo. Sheriff's Lt. Robert Phillips said a sheriff's deputy and an Oshtemo Township ordinance officer discovered the dogs at about 10:30 a.m. after the ordinance officer received a report the owner of the home had not been seen for several days.
Kalamazoo County property records list William W. Allen and Andrea K. Allen as the owners of the property.
Animal Services and Enforcement Director Steve Lawrence has said several of the dogs were kept in metal-wire and plastic crates, and large amounts of feces were found inside the house. Authorities found the head of a dog in one crate, the bodies of two dogs in a metal-wire crate and another dead dog in a plastic crate.
Phillips said police plan to submit their investigation to the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor's Office by the end of the week for possible felony charges.
The dogs found alive include eight Australian shepherds and four small, mix-breed dogs, Lawrence said. One of the dogs was adopted and taken home Monday by an animal-services worker. The others are being kept at the county's animal shelter and most of the dogs will be put up for adoption, he said.
``You can't comprehend it,'' Lawrence said of the conditions his employees found in the house. ``It's just mind-blowing.''
Lawrence described the owner of the West KL Avenue house as someone who had knowledge of animals and was known as an animal lover who had worked with area groomers and shelters.
Hosie also said Andrea Allen volunteered with a local animal-rescue network and worked for a pet-grooming business in Plainwell. She said she hadn't seen her neighbor in at least a month before police and animal-services workers arrived Monday, and she believes Allen had not lived at the house for at least the past 10 months.