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Their side of the story: Women accused of neglecting 70 dogs speak

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TOWN OF CALUMET (NBC 26) — Two Fond du Lac County women lost custody of 70 dogs, after the Sheriff's Office says they neglected 95% of the dogs. We spoke with the women in the Town of Calumet Friday.

  • We reported the details of the civil suit against the women here
  • We reported the original details of the case here, just after the 70 dogs were seized from the home earlier this month
  • Video shows inside the home of the two women

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story, with additional details added for web)

We go inside the house where 70 dogs were living, until Fond du Lac County authorities removed the dogs from the home, saying they were neglected.

The County is now suing the two elderly women that live there. The women say they've done nothing wrong, and need the dogs for mental health.

"We love these dogs," Patricia Tyuanaitis said. "These are our dogs. These are my children."

82-year-old Patricia Tyunaitis and 93-year-old Alice Stenz say they had 70 dogs in this house when law enforcement and an animal shelter took the dogs to a shelter earlier this month.

Tyunaitis said she was ill prior to the seizure, and that's why her house was in a state that a shelter employee called "deplorable."

"As soon as the day that they came and took everything, all the dogs," Tyunaitis said, "we were going to clean. I was feeling better then, and we were going to start scraping up the feces and cleaning up everything."

But that was two weeks ago. Friday, we noticed items stacked against the walls in the living room, flies in the air, a strong stench, and the floor covered with feces, which the two women asked us not to show.

"Do you see why people were concerned about the dog's health, though, with feces in the house?" we asked Tyunaitis.

"It didn't bother them," she said. "They were fine [...] That happens. That happens when, because everything was a little bit out of control, because of me being sick for a while."

Tyunaitis also said the dogs were well-fed and had a fenced-in breezeway so they could go outside.

"If there was a concern, let's talk about it — instead of taking everything away from us," she said.

The manager of the shelter taking care many of the dogs — and court documents — say otherwise, with many still recovering from matting, infections, and broken bones.

"I've seen hoarding situations before," Eastshore Humane Society manager Jennifer Schultz told us earlier this month. "However, I've never seen anything this deplorable, and animals in this severe of neglect and cruelty."

Schultz told us this Friday: "Something this severe, and with these many dogs, I would really hope that criminal charges can be pursued."

Pat and Alice are facing $27,000 in a civil suit, to cover the costs associated with caring for the animals during the past few weeks.

They now have two dogs that they say a friend lent them — and claim their house is a animal rescue. They said they receive, breed, and sell dogs, but don't officially advertise their home as a rescue.

"I plan on having more dogs in the future," Tyunaitis said. "I plan on trying to get these back."

A county attorney says the county plans to ask a judge to order the two women to also help pay for medical care for the dogs.