SHOCKING: Nearly 50 Dogs Found Stuffed in Filthy NYC Apartment

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Animal rescue workers in Queens, NY made a shocking discovery this week.

After being notified that an apartment owner had been evicted and needed to surrender his dogs, the workers showed up at the property to take them in.

However, instead of just two or three dogs living there, animal rescue found 48!

And, they weren’t small dogs either; they were all Belgian Malinois, a large and very intelligent breed of dog.

The poor animals were completely stuffed into the filthy apartment with little room to move and zero access to fresh air or sunlight. Some were discovered hidden in cabinets or crammed behind furniture.

Sadly, three of the dogs had to be euthanized. The rest have been moved to an animal shelter for rehabilitation due to their severe lack of socialization.

Take a look:

40 DOGS FOUND STUFFED IN CABINETS AND CLOSETS IN NYC APARTMENT

Behind a normal-looking door in Queens, 40 Belgian Malinois were living a nightmare — crammed behind furniture, sealed in closets, and even stuffed inside kitchen cabinets.

No walks. No sunlight. No human contact. Just years of total confinement in filth and silence.

These aren’t small lap dogs — Belgian Malinois are elite working dogs used by the military and police.

Highly intelligent. Built for speed, strength, and stimulation.

Instead, they spent their lives trapped in the dark, side by side, terrified of the world they’d never seen.

Rescue teams from ACC and the ASPCA spent 2 days pulling them out.

The apartment’s resident had just been evicted, triggering the discovery. A criminal investigation is now underway.

The dogs aren’t adoptable yet — they’re severely undersocialized and need long-term rehab.

But the crisis is bigger: NYC shelters are already triple capacity, with over 340 large dogs waiting for homes.

At this time, we do not know the identity of who did this to these poor, abused dogs. Police are currently investigating.

I have to ask, though: how was this not discovered far earlier?

You’d think someone would have noticed nearly 50 dogs crammed into a tiny apartment. There’s no way those dogs were quiet all the time, was there?

Apparently, some neighbors did notice the smell and suspected that the man living in the apartment was abusing his pets.

The New York Post has more details:

“These dogs have reportedly lived in total confinement for their entire lives,” said Tara Mercado, ACC’s director of behavior and shelter operations. “We found full-grown Malinois hidden in cabinets and crammed behind furniture.”

A criminal investigation has been opened, the source said.

The owner hasn’t been publicly identified.

The dogs lived in an apartment on the 7th floor, according to neighbors, who said the entire floor reeked and the pet owner frequently tossed feces off his balcony.

“He worked at the airport security, and the dog was his [bomb] sniffing dog, that’s why he was allowed to be here with the dog,” one neighbor said, adding the man sometimes walked a second dog of another breed.

“We always wondered, ‘Why does it smell so bad, if it was that dog that just peed all around?’” the man, who declined to provide his name, said.

“We all assumed there were two or three dogs in there, we would never have imagined that they were that many, we never saw them ever, anywhere.”

He wondered how the dogs survived in the squalid conditions.

“It seems like a hell hole,” he said. “They never saw the light of day, because we would know if they were walked.”

Neighbor Natalia Ruales was relieved the dogs were rescued.

“I think he had abused [the dogs] and I don’t like it,” she said. “Because there’s a lot of doggies in one apartment … no good.”

Another neighbor, who identified herself as Sharon, said the floor always smelled bad.

“It always smells like that here and I always hear them barking, barking, and he throws poop out of his balcony,” she said. “As far as I know, as we all know, he neglects his dogs. … If he takes them out in the elevator, it smells so bad, they pee on the staircase.”

Hopefully, all of these animals can find good homes with loving owners in time.

As for their previous owner, let’s pray that he faces the fullest extent of the law for his extremely cruel and neglectful treatment of puppies.



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