Help needed after animal raid at home

HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio (WDTN) - A raid of a home full of animals has left one organization scrambling to care for them all.

A woman who helped sound the alarm about the house spoke with 2 NEWS Friday.

The rabbit she bought from the home is named "Mater", like the character in the movie Cars, but the rabbit has had a journey to rival that of anything on the big screen.

"This was by far the worst house I've ever been in," says Ceica. "The smell alone was God awful."

Ceica says her and a friend bought four rabbits from the home in the 7000 block of Chadbourne Avenue in Huber Heights before it was raided.

It was an experience she won't soon forget.

"You walked into the kitchen and there was a path you had to follow just to get by all these cages," Ceica says.

Thanks in part to calls like Ceica's, more than 150 animals were pulled from the home on Thursday and Friday, everything from chickens to parakeets.

Now the trouble is what to do with them all.

"This is something that overwhelms an organization like ours because you can't bring them back to the building permanently," says Brian Weltge with the Humane Society of Greater Dayton.   

The Humane Society is doing what it can to find space for the animals and to feed them, but it's not like it keeps a major supply of chicken feed or wild bird food on hand.

"The first task is to get them healthy and get them the care they need," Weltge says.

That's what Ceica is trying to do with Mater.

Of the four rabbits she bought from the home, he's the only one still alive.

"I just had to call my friend and let her know her rabbit died," Ceica says. "She started crying. It was sad."

Ceica says she would consider adopting some of the other rabbits to replace the ones she lost, but she has a hard time understanding how someone could end up with so many.

"It seemed like he loved his animals," Ceica says. "But there were just way too many."

Authorities aren't saying whether the homeowner will face any charges.

The Humane Society is looking for donations of cash, supplies or even space where they could house animals in a situation like this one.

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