The seizure of more than 200 dogs and birds from a small home in the Oak Ridge area Friday was described as possibly the largest ever removal of abandoned animals in Orange County.
Deputy sheriffs, workers from the county’s Animal Services Division and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Central Florida took roughly five hours to clear the cinderblock house on Marot Street.
By the time they were done, 57 dogs and 146 birds were pulled from the house crowded with excrement, animals and trash. One dog was dead.
“All of my officers are saying this is the worst case they have ever seen,” said Vanessa Bouffard, a spokeswoman for the county’s Animal Services Division.
Maqsood Ahamad, 43, who owns the 1,358-square-foot house, was jailed Friday evening on one misdemeanor count of confinement of an animal without proper food or water, said sheriff’s Cpl. Susan Soto, an agency spokeswoman. He may face additional charges, plus thousands of dollars in civil fines.
Ahamad was booked into the Orange County Jail with bail set at $650.
A report of dog abandonment brought deputy sheriffs to the scene about 11 a.m., Soto said. A neighbor complained that the dogs had been barking for three days, and letters were spilling out of the mailbox.
Animal Control arrived as backup. What they found when they opened the door was far worse than they had imagined, authorities said.
Fouled furniture and other clutter crowded their path. Fleas jumped on investigators. Pit-bull mutts were in pens or chained inside and outside the house. There were no bowls with water or food.
The floor was covered in so much animal feces that workers couldn’t tell if the floor was carpeted or tiled, Bouffard said.
“It was bad,” she said.
The dogs emerged with skin conditions, flea infestations and cuts, possibly from dog fights.
Neighbors had long wondered how many animals lived inside the house. The dogs barked with gusto every morning and evening and could be heard blocks away.
Some would dig under the fence and end up between Ahamad’s house and next-door neighbor Deanna Stawiszynski’s fences. The escapees were always friendly, though, she said.
So too was Ahamad, who was careful to get the dogs back. Stawiszynski said Ahamad even helped her with her own pets. Three days ago, when Stawiszynski’s dogs — Tigger, a Dalmatian, and Longfellow, a lab — got out of her backyard, Ahamad found them for her.
“He did it without me asking,” she said.
Ahamad had lived alone at the house for at least a decade, but neighbors said they didn’t know him well. He often stopped to talk, but the Pakistani native stuttered when he spoke and had trouble with English, neighbors said.
As friendly as Ahamad was, the smell from his house was unbearable.
Stawiszynski, 37, and her family would drop hints that he needed to clean up the dog mess by giving him maintenance tips.
“Okay, okay, I will,” Ahamad would reply, Stawiszynski recalled.
Still, the stench persisted. Jean Frinc, 56, who lives across the street, said that some nights the odor was so thick he couldn’t use his backyard. He never opened his windows.
Frinc imagined there were five, maybe as many as 10, dogs in the house.
Turns out, his estimates were short.
“Never, never did I think it was that bad,” he said.
