26 neglected animals rescued from Pajaro property

Twenty-six neglected animals were rescued last week from a property in the unincorporated Monterey County community of Pajaro, officials with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for Monterey County said Thursday.

A person called the society anonymously last week to say that animals were living in terrible conditions at a property on Hudson Landing Road.

The caller said that animals were confined in their own feces and urine, dead animals were in the bottom of a well and animals were slaughtered on the property and sold as meat.

The society’s staff members rescued 15 rabbits, four sheep, three lambs, three goats and one chicken. Two goats were pregnant, according to the society.

One lamb died despite emergency veterinary care and one lamb was found dead.

The land was cluttered with scrap metal, vehicles, clothing, scrap wood, rotting food, rats and freezers splattered with blood and moldy food, society officials said.

Staff members found caged rabbits in several inches of feces. A door to a goat pen was sealed shut by feces.

A sheep pen was so saturated in feces and urine that waste would run down a hill into a fire pit where the landowner cooked the animals. A dead baby goat was floating in the pit.

The landowner could face criminal charges. The society’s officials plan to submit information about the neglect to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office next week, spokeswoman Beth Brookhouser said.

People can report animal cruelty and neglect to the society at (831) 373-2631 or online. All calls are confidential.

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