Trending

Alligators, goat, raccoon and hedgehogs among more than 100 animals seized from home

MILWAUKEE — A man is facing charges after investigators said more than 100 animals were rescued from deplorable conditions inside his home.

>> Read more trending news

Prosecutors charged Larry McAdoo, 46, after officers were called to his home on Dec. 9 for an animal cruelty complaint, WITI reported.

“I had never seen anything like it. It was like Noah’s Ark. It had everything,” Karen Sparapani, executive director of the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission, which took in the rescued animals, told WISN.

In court paperwork obtained by WITI, officers said they found 25 dogs, 23 birds (including chickens, ducks, parakeets, a turkey and a macaw), 14 rats, eight hamsters, seven hedgehogs, six lizards, six rabbits, five guinea pigs, four cats, four chinchillas, three tortoises, two alligators, two snakes, a goat, a ferret and a raccoon inside the house.

Rescuers told WISN that removing some of the animals, specifically the long-horned goat, was extremely difficult, as the animal tried to head-butt animal control officers.

“Getting him out of the attic was a challenge, because it’s not like you can put him on a leash,” Sparapani told WISN.

The animals, overall, were described as friendly and not aggressive.

“They were all friendly, socialized,” Sparapani told WTMJ. “They’re all placable and that’s not typical with the traditional type of case.”

In court documents, investigators said that some of the reptiles were being kept in temperatures too cold for the species, and said the alligators were in a 60-gallon tank filled with “filthy” water, WITI reported.

A turtle found at the home was described as becoming “deformed” from the conditions in its tank and showed signs of metabolic bone disease, WITI reported.

Sparapani told WTMJ that the home’s owner was paying people who he believed had been caring for the animals.

McAdoo told police that he helps find homes for dogs, and tried to blame the home’s condition on three teenagers who “didn’t clean up,” WITI reported.

The property has been boarded up, and a notice on the door says the property is unfit to live in, citing unsanitary conditions, according to WTMJ.