Police raiding controversial shelter find dead dogs, cats in freezer

In this file photo, Randy Skaggs is pictured with some of his dogs on Jan. 8, 2005, at his Trixie Foundation near Sandy Hook, Ky.(JOHN FLAVELL/AP)

Police have seized 90 dogs from a controversial Kentucky shelter after finding a dozen dead animals in the facility’s freezer, authorities said.

Saturday’s shocking discovery at The Trixie Foundation’s so-called “no kill” sanctuary in Webbville led to new charges against shelter owner Randy Skaggs, who’s scheduled to face trial this summer on an unrelated animal cruelty case.

Kentucky State Police told local news outlets they found seven cats and five dogs in the freezer and decided to seize the 90 living dogs because of the facility’s “poor living conditions and for unsatisfactory care given to the animals.”

Members of Kentuckians Vote for Animals, a group of volunteers that joined police in the raid, shared a video of the dogs on Facebook and said some of them were “in horrible, horrible shape” while several had vomited on their way out of the shelter.

The group’s president, Melissa Bowman, told the Lexington Herald-Ledger that the dogs also had fleas and some had tumors.

“Mainly a lot of medical neglect,” she told the paper.

Skaggs, who also spoke with the Herald-Ledger in Sunday, acknowledged he neglected to bury those 12 dogs and cats, but he said it was partly because of his workload and lack of help running the facility.

“I’ve not intentionally done anything except try to help these animals,” he said. “Everyone makes mistakes, and I’ve made plenty of them.”

His foundation’s website describes the shelter as a 380-acre “Eden” that has cared for hundreds of “discarded, frightened animals” for nearly 30 years.

But the facility has reportedly been the target of numerous complaints over the years for overcrowding and dirty conditions.