Owner faces charges after police found dead cats and neglected dogs at an Adams County home

ADAMS COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) – The discovery of three dead cats and two neglected dogs at an Adams County home has led to animal cruelty charges.

Allison Ost, 27, of Fairfield left the animals locked alone in the house for weeks without proper food or water, according to Carrol Valley police.

Adams County SPCA posted on Facebook that the animals had been abandoned for six weeks and the two dogs, German Shepherd mixes, were underweight when police found them. According to the SPCA post, the dogs were all skin and bones and he had a hard time walking.

The landlord checked the house on May 2 because the water had not been used for a month, and when they entered the house they found the emaciated dogs and a dead cat, according to the criminal complaint.

Police arrived at the home on Pine Hill Trail Road and contacted Ost, who reported she had been in Pittsburg for a week, but neighbors told police they had not seen her in weeks, according to charging documents.

The dogs were in the backyard and escaped while police were on the phone with Ost, but neighbors were able to help police collect them. Neighbors said the dogs appeared “extremely emaciated” compared to when they had previously seen the animals.

At that point, police say the SPCA was contacted to care for the emaciated dogs named Mist and Teddy.

When they entered the house through a basement door, they noticed “a large amount” of feces and a “strong smell of urine,” police said, and furniture had also been torn, according to the criminal complaint.

SPCA officials believed two of the deceased cats died of dehydration while the other died of starvation. The cats were sent to the Pennsylvania State Vet Lab in Harrisburg for autopsies.

The criminal complaint states that police found an empty water bottle and two others full of food.

While in the care of the SPCA, the dogs were found to have a body score of 1 in 10, they were dehydrated and one dog had conjunctivitis, police said.

Ost is charged with aggravated animal cruelty and misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and neglect.

Ost has been released from the Adams County Jail after posting her $7,500 bond on May 3 and is awaiting a preliminary hearing scheduled for Wednesday.