Nearly 200 dogs and cats were delivered to the Lawrence Humane Society on Wednesday and Thursday, all of them seized from a single residence in Miami County.

“We’ve taken in animals from the state before, but never 187 at once,” said Humane Society director Midge Grinstead, who stayed up all Wednesday night with staffers processing 112 dogs and 75 cats into the society’s shelter, which already held 720 other orphaned animals.

“It puts a lot of strain on the staff,” Grinstead said Thursday afternoon. “We haven’t been to bed yet – we’ve been here all night.”

The animals came from a rural residence in southern Miami County, where they were seized by the Kansas Animal Health Department. Officials with the department did not return calls Thursday, but Miami County Undersheriff Mark Schmidt said state workers executed a search warrant at the home at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. Schmidt said it took 24 hours to remove all the animals from the site.

The Lawrence Humane Society took in 187 animals, including this dog, from a woman who had them all at her rural residence in Miami County. The Humane Society staff stayed up all night processing the animals, some of them in rough shape.

Under state law, any home or facility housing 20 or more cats or dogs is considered a “shelter,” which must be licensed by the state and subject to inspections.

Larry Carter, a rural Paola resident who lives nearby, was grateful Thursday that the “huge doghouse” had been evacuated. Carter said his neighbor steadily accumulated animals during the 11 years he had lived there.

“It’s been years since it’s been this quiet out here,” Carter said. “I’m still in shock about how nice it is already. There’s six dogs or so there now, but they don’t bark at me anymore. I can listen to the birds instead of the dogs.”

There was plenty of noise at the Lawrence Humane Society shelter, though. Some of the animals were in rough shape, Grinstead said, with mange afflicting several dogs.

Jason Stafford, animal caretaker at the Lawrence Humane Society, gives a new resident dog a treat. The shelter took in 187 animals from Miami County, where a woman had them at her rural residence.

“One of the cats died right after it got here,” she said. “We had another dog in real bad shape. Most of the cats are sick.”

Lawrence was chosen as the delivery point for the animals because the shelter here had space, officials said. Under state law, the pets’ owner has 10 days to post bond to pay for care of the animals if she intends to challenge the state’s seizure of them.

Carter said he didn’t want to see the animals returned to the owner.

“I know she loves dogs – and I do, too. But you can’t take care of that many by yourself,” Carter said.

And he added: “I hope you keep all the dogs. I hope you keep them and do a better job.”

• 6News video: Animals seized from rural home (12-01-05)