Shelter finds homes for rescued critters
MUNCIE – The Muncie Animal Shelter has been much more crowded than usual for the past few days, even if many of the newest residents are a lot smaller than the usual dog-and-cat populace.
Authorities seized 632 animals — including a foot-long alligator, snakes, guinea pigs, hamsters, two hedgehogs, rats, birds, lizards, three hermit crabs, a frog and 541 mice — from a Granville Avenue storefront on Wednesday, and took the lot to the shelter.
By Friday evening, Director Phil Peckinpaugh said the shelter had found places for all 632, with the last of them expected to leave the shelter sometime Monday.
Some of the animals, such as the parakeets and hedgehogs, were being adopted locally by people experienced in caring for those breeds.
The turtles and reptiles, including the alligator, were being taken in by a Hamilton County man who provides educational programs for schools using reptiles, Peckinpaugh said.
And where exactly do you find a "home" for 500-plus mice all at once? They'll be going to what Peckinpaugh called a well-respected bird/raptor rehab facility, where, he acknowledged, "they will be used for the birds' consumption."
The shelter on Friday was soliciting volunteers via social media to come in Saturday morning to help with cleaning around the shelter, including the cages for the mice. A condition of the bird facility taking the mice, Peckinpaugh said, is that they be in "spotlessly clean cages."
Until the shelter's newest temporary residents have moved on, Peckinpaugh noted delicately, "The smell at the shelter is a little overwhelming," both because of the various types of animals now being housed and the sheer numbers. "It's much different than the regular dog or cat smell."
As for the man — identified on the scene as Dan Goronzick — who had been living in the storefront with the animals, the Delaware County prosecutor's office had not filed any formal charges late Friday.
Contact news reporter Robin Gibson at (765) 213-5855 and follow her on Twitter at @RobinGibsonTSP.