NORTON SHORES, Mich. — Nearly 80 dogs of all sizes, shapes and colors are getting cared for at a Muskegon animal shelter after authorities took them from a Norton Shores home in deplorable conditions.
In total, the Norton Shores Police Department in tandem with other agencies seized 78 dogs from Cober's Canine Rescue in Norton Shores.
Lisa Cober was taken into custody in connection to the investigation, the Norton Shores Police Department told 13 ON YOUR SIDE. She was arraigned Tuesday and given a $1,000 bond. Police confirmed Wednesday that Cober posted bond and was released from custody.
Pound Buddies director Lana Carson says they had received several complaints from people who had adopted dogs from this rescue that the dogs were sick or in poor health.
Carson says when they went to the home in question Monday, they found the dogs in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions.
"They were just in every room and every nook and cranny," says Carson. "It is sad to see the conditions that they were kept in."
More than 50 of those dogs are now recovering at Pound Buddies while Norton Shores Police continue the investigation. Carson says for Cober to have 78 dogs at once, it would have been impossible to give them proper care.
"78 animals here, that's a full staff," says Carson. "We have 12 hours a day, and let me see, by the end of the day, 18 staff members that would care for that amount of animals."
Carson says several of the dogs they took in were sick and that complicates work for the shelter as they need to be quarantined.
"When you have concerns that are going to potentially substantially contaminate the rest of your animals, great care has to go into isolating these animals and making sure that the staff that's working in there, the animals, the laundry, everything that goes into caring for those animals doesn't leave that animal or that housing or that area, and that proper sanitation protocols are followed to a T," Carson said.
Carson says the rest of the dogs went to the Muskegon Humane Society and Harbor Humane Society in Ottawa County.
Pound Buddies is operating at max capacity and are asking for additional donations of money or food, or help with volunteer hours.
To learn more about volunteering at Pound Buddies, click here.
Dogs seized from Norton Shores home
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