Police in Mexico City have arrested a 60-year-old man for animal abuse and rescued 50 dogs that had been crowded inside a small area of his home.

According to the man’s neighbors in the borough of Gustavo A. Madero, the dogs had been abandoned on a small patio since July 2018. A video shared widely on social media shows the dogs crammed together, standing in their own feces and desperately ripping the flesh off the carcass of one of their canine companions out of hunger.

Police used a crowbar to force open the door to the home while animal control personnel from the Secretariat of Public Safety entered the residence with carriers and extracted the dogs one by one.

From there, some of the dogs were transported to the agency’s facilities, while others were taken to the  Culhuacán Canine Center, where they will be seen by a veterinarian and their future decided.

Magdalena Ríos, who lives adjacent to the house where the dogs were rescued, said that neighbors had brought the animals’ conditions to the attention of authorities long ago, but their complaints went unanswered until they recorded a video.

“We didn’t get any response until a video that we published went viral on social media. The dogs are not OK; they eat one another, and it is not all right for that man to have kept them in these conditions. Wherever they send them, they will be better off than how they were here . . . We live behind [that house], and we cannot even open the windows because of the intolerable smell and the flies.”

Source: Milenio (sp)