A woman has been charged with animal cruelty after 10 dead animals were found in her home.
Detectives executing a search warrant found nine dead sugar gliders (a type of possum) and one dead snake.
A “pungent” smell of “noxious air and an odour of faeces, urine and rot […] made personnel cough and gag” as they started the search, a local animal welfare group in Suffolk County, in the US state of New York, said.
Authorities found 20 live animals – 11 sugar gliders and nine cats – which were living in an “overcrowded area of hoarded garbage over six feet high in some spaces”.
Drug paraphernalia, crack cocaine and MDMA were also recovered from the house, in Long Island, New York.
The conditions were so extreme that personnel had to crawl over piles of rubbish, Suffolk County SPCA said in a post on Facebook.
A photograph taken inside the house shows animal cages balanced on top of boxes marked ‘United States Postal Services’ and bin bags.
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The residence has now been declared unfit for human occupancy.
Cazandra Nucci, 42, has been charged with multiple animal cruelty charges, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. She will appear in court on 28 February.
The surviving animals will soon be available for adoption at a local shelter.
