Hoarding is nothing to joke about. We’ve all seen the people on the hit reality show, Hoarders, as they slowly waste away in a rotting pile of junk and self-loathing. It’s sad, to say the least, but in those cases, hoarding mostly just affects the person doing the hoarding.

Sure, it will also affect the people that love and care for them, but most of the direct damage is sustained by the house, the product being hoarded, and, of course, said hoarder. However, that’s not the case when it comes to animal hoarding.

When a person begins collecting animals as if they are things, it can quickly get out of hand.

Such is the case with 65-year-old Mary Frankovic and her son Chris (45). Mary and her son live in the Ross Township of Pennsylvania.

Damian Miller, a neighbor to the family, called authorities last August to complain about the smell emanating from his neighbor’s home. The stench was so overwhelming that he and his family couldn’t even enjoy their backyard. Miller continually called to report the nose-burning smell, but no one ever came.

As it turns out, Miller had good cause to be worried. Animal control had shown up to remove multiple animals from the neighboring home 11 years prior.

Given the family’s history with animal neglect, Miller was worried that they were at it again, and he was right.

Tragically, by the time that animal control arrived to inspect the situation, it had gotten far, far worse than the last time they had been called in.

As rescuers corralled all of the animals into kennels for transport to shelters, they tallied up no less than 117 dogs in total. Most of them were predominantly Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mixes. This time around, there were many more dogs in urgent need of medical care. They were emaciated and full of mange, clearly suffering from neglect and malnutrition.

In fact, the house was so filled with neglected pups that they were found everywhere authorities looked. They were pulled from inside of furniture and even the walls of the house themselves.

One puppy was found dead. He was only just a few days old.

The police of Ross Township reached out to Animal Friends for aid in removing the dogs from the home. Together, all involved in the removal had to wear HAZMAT suits equipped with oxygen tanks before entering.

The ammonia levels in the house were insanely high from the animals urinating all over, without it ever being cleaned. They were so high that Detective Brian Kohlhepp of the Ross Township police said that they had reached levels beyond what was safe for humans to breathe.

“The levels of ammonia are so high, it’s not safe for humans to be in there. They have the self-contained breathing system so that they can safely go in and breathe the air they take in the tanks.”

According to Frankovic and her son, they were only just trying to help the animals by giving them a place to live.

While most of the world understands that in no way, shape, or form were they providing adequate shelter, animal hoarding is a mental disease with severe and lasting effects. Being that this is the pair’s second time being involved with an animal cruelty case, they will be charged to the full extent of the law.

In the meantime, Animal Friends has already begun adopting out the dogs.

As each one recovers enough to take on a forever home, they are listed for adoption. They posted pictures of the dogs’ rescue to Facebook, where they were immediately flooded with donations. Currently, they are sitting at over $19,000 raised in support of finding each and every dog a good home.

If you would like to learn more about the unbelievable rescue story, watch the video below, and if you feel like you want to contribute to their recovery and rehoming, you can do so here.

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H/T: Shareably