ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — The Altamonte Springs Police Department arrested and charged a woman Wednesday with animal cruelty after Seminole County Animals Services found dozens of animals abused and malnourished on her property.

Officers said they could smell urine and feces coming from inside the residence when they met Tonya Grose at her home on Ballard Street in Altamonte Springs. 

Once inside, they saw multiple emaciated dogs in cages without food or water, birds in cages filled with feces and cockroaches, and several cats inside the home where the floor was covered in waste, urine and roaches.

Officers found two sheds in the backyard with more malnourished dogs in cages.

Several dogs were locked in one of the sheds, which was hot with no ventilation. A powerful odor came from inside the second shed, officers said, where they found a dog’s skeleton on the ground. Officers located over 15 large trash bags inside that shed containing animal remains in various stages of decomposition.   

Over two dozen animals were recovered from the property are in the care of Seminole County Animal Services for evaluation. 

Officials reported that two dogs passed away during transport to a shelter 

Animal Services is asking the community to help adopt the animals already in the shelter’s care since they are already over capacity. 

Marialcira Pacheco lives down the road from the house where the animals were kept, and said that she never remembered anything out of the ordinary at the house, although other members of her family smelled something off.

"They walk, they go around the block my mom and my sister. And everyday they would come and say there is a strange odor on the block," she said. 

Pachego has dogs and a cat of her own, and was flabbergasted to learn of the treatment of the animals just down the street from her house.