Dog collectors arrested in Lanaken: more than a hundred four-legged friends found in the house | Abroad

The raid was preceded by reports from local residents and an investigation by the local Lanaken-Maasmechelen police. On Friday afternoon, they found about eighty dogs. According to Mayor Marino Keulen (Open Vld), this is a serious case of animal neglect. “The dogs will be removed and initially transferred to the Kinrooi animal shelter, after which a spread will follow and other shelter centers in Limburg will also take the dogs in,” says Keulen.

barricade

In addition to the local police, the Flemish Animal Welfare Inspectorate, the Kinrooi asylum center and the fire brigade were also involved in the seizure. The raid, which began at 10:30 a.m., first forced them to force their way through the house, which residents had barricaded. The man and woman were arrested and placed in administrative detention. They are not ready for their test. In 2018, around 40 dogs had already been taken from them.

Obsessive collectors

It is therefore supposedly animal hoarding or obsessively collecting and keeping animals, in this case dogs. According to the intervention services, the living conditions were perhaps the most difficult they had ever encountered in Flanders. “It defied imagination,” says Cologne. “There was an acrid smell of urine and excrement in the house. The couple collected dogs as if they were toys. They are unable to give him the necessary care. They have also been captured before. I hope the courts will do their job and sentence those involved to a lifetime ban from keeping animals. The situation is truly indescribable.

Terrible

“I pass by here often and have heard the dogs barking again for the past few weeks,” says local resident Regina. “When I saw that the shutters were still down and the ivy was growing, I was already afraid it would be like 2018. It’s terrible when I now see all these dogs standing in front of the window and looking outside.”