Elderly woman who ran dog rescue is charged with dozens of felonies in largest animal cruelty case in Ohio state history

An elderly woman is facing dozens of felony charges after police said they found 146 dead dogs at her home in Ohio.

68-year-old Barbara Wible was arrested in June after the Portage Animal Protective League’s Humane Investigations Department executed a search warrant at her at her Mantua home. The group had received a tip that the woman had faced animal abuse charges in another jurisdiction.

PAWS Ohio executive director Amy Beichler said the indictment was the largest animal cruelty case in Ohio's history.

The animal protective league said it discovered no dogs in the home alive and that many of them were still in their crates.

Wible is also the operator of a nonprofit dog rescue called Canine Lifeline, Inc. and faces 36 additional counts of cruelty to animals over other dogs found at her residence in Parma.

Police had gone to the home for a welfare check and reported a very strong odor while seeing what appeared to be dead dogs in crates through the windows of the home.

The woman is accused of "knowingly [causing] serious physical harm to 146 companion animals, [depriving] those companion animals of necessary sustenance and [confining] the companion animals without supplying sufficient quantities of food and water."

"The state of that house and everything that was in it was just, there's not even words to describe it. I was just horrendous," said a neighbor named Jon Collier to WKYC-TV.

"I don't know what kind of person could do that to that many animals and just continue to think it's alright," he added.

The woman entered a not guilty plea at court and was given a $100,000 personal cognizance bond. She was also ordered not to own any animals.

Wible will face a jury trial starting on Oct. 24.

Here's a local news report about the incident:

146 dogs found dead inside Mantua home: Here's what we knowwww.youtube.com

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