fish tank full of rats, pictured Tuesday morning, sits in the driveway of a home on Rosewood Avenue on Youngstown’s East Side. Officials speculated that the rodents were being kept there to feed the 40 snakes inside the home.

YOUNGSTOWN — About 40 snakes, plus dogs, cats, chickens and rodents were being removed Tuesday from a home on Rosewood Avenue on the East Side in what Animal Charity calls the latest “zoo house” in Youngstown.

The episode was about the fifth time this year the organization has had a zoo-type hoarding case.

The term comes from cases of people having lots of exotic pets in their home in Youngstown that they were not taking care of properly, said Jane MacMurchy, Animal Charity of Ohio coordinator.

She said the animals were transported to the organization’s Market Street facility in Boardman, while dogs in Boardman were transferred to a Canfield facility, where there is a rental dog kennel.

Some of the animals from the Rosewood home have wounds and are extremely dehydrated from going several days without food and water. Most of the snakes are lethargic from being hungry and are in “filthy enclosures,” MacMurchy said.

There were 40 snakes, 30 to 40 small animals, 10 chickens, 12 dogs and several cats — about 100 animals in all.

The snakes were taken to a reptile sanctuary, and a herpetologist came to Youngstown on Tuesday morning to identify the snakes to ensure that none of them were poisonous.

“It’s always important to ask for the advice of experts in these situations,” MacMurchy said.

“All of the animals will be held in protective custody until the probable cause hearing,” she said.

The hearing in Youngstown Municipal Court will determine whether if Animal Charity had probable cause to remove the animals.

WHAT HAPPENED

The homeowner, who was not identified, had been jailed Thursday and asked a neighbor to care for the animals, but the neighbor could not handle the job and contacted Youngstown police Monday and asked that Animal Charity be brought to the scene, MacMurchy said.

The neighbor said she “was not aware that she was walking into an animal hoarding,” MacMurchy said.

When city officials came out Monday, they found that there were no utilities in the house — no water or electric — and the city placed a red sticker on the front door preventing anyone from occupying the home until the water service is restored. All the animals had to be removed before the home can be boarded up, she said.

MacMurchy said the inside of the home does smell bad, but it is not as bad as many earlier ones this year.

“It might not be deplorable, but those animals have gone without care, and they are in bad shape,” she said.

It had been multiple days since the animals had food and water, but it has probably been “months” since they were “cared for.” She said the “amount of mange and injuries is not something that happens overnight.”

MacMurchy said the animals’ owner will be charged criminally and will be served with a summons to appear in court for the probable cause hearing.

She said the fact that the animals were abandoned, the home is not livable and the animals were being neglected are the reasons the animals were seized.

“We determined it was best for the animals to feed and water them all over a few hours. We went to a neighbor’s house and started using her tap water with buckets and totes and carried it into the property,” she said.

ANIMAL REMOVAL

The animals were secured inside the house, and Animal Charity workers went back to its Market Street facility and started moving dogs to Canfield and elsewhere in the Market Street facility to free up space for animals that would be coming from Rosewood.

They returned to Rosewood about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and started to remove the animals.

A neighbor of the Rosewood home said the owner of the home died a little more than three years ago, but she kept the house immaculately clean and neat — inside and out. She said the owner of the animals brought a moving truck there July 12, and that is apparently when all of the animals arrived. Her husband said he never heard chicken or dog noises at the house before July 12. That is when the sounds began.

MacMurchy told reporters that Animal Charity has acquired a building at 8469 Southern Boulevard in Boardman and now needs about $100,000 to get it ready to use.

One part of the building will be used for small or exotic animals and fowl, such as the animals being removed from the home on Rosewood, she said.

“Zoo house is what we’ve been calling them. This is another zoo house,” she said of the Rosewood property. “It’s putting a strain now on other organizations to help us, and we want to be able to do it in our new building.”

She urged the public to provide funds to help Animal Charity create the exotic animal wing of the new building.