Cheyenne Animal Shelter Scrambling After Saving More Than 100 Pets From Hoarder

The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office on Monday announced it has arrested a man on claims he hoarded more than 100 animals in harrowing conditions.

The sheriff’s office is recommending 22 counts of felony aggravated cruelty to animals against Michael Ohern. 

Authorities say they executed a search warrant on Ohern’s home in unincorporated Laramie County, and discovered over 100 animals being kept there, including 22 dead animals. These animals were "found injured, sick, and severely neglected,” according to a Monday statement by the sheriff’s office.

The Cheyenne Animal Shelter (CAS) received the surviving pets Friday.

Shelter personnel told Cowboy State Daily in a Monday interview that the animals came from a “horrific” environment. Among the rescued animals are dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, tortoises, small birds and a goat. 

CAS Director of Development and Outreach Niki Harrison said the 102 animals were kept in hazardous conditions and many of them were underweight from not being fed properly.

“You know, we have a lot of very skinny pets, and that ranges from dogs to the birds to some of the barnyard fowl,” Harrison said. “We had a few that came in in need of immediate medical attention. Some lacerations, things of that nature.”

The evidence indicates conditions at the animals’ home were dismal, she said, adding “they came in very dirty and in need of that immediate veterinary care.”

Harrison said could not reveal specifics about where the animals came from due to an ongoing investigation by law enforcement officials. She estimated it will cost upwards of $150,000 to accommodate them all.

Cheyenne Animal Control confirmed to Cowboy State Daily it was involved in rescuing the animals, but declined to release further details, also citing the ongoing investigation.

Full House  

Harrison explained that prior to taking in the animals, the shelter had hosted an adoption event, meaning it was caring for fewer animals than usual.

While it is not yet close to reaching its upper capacity of 300 animals, the shelter is also continuing its regular duty of taking in strays from the community. This has placed a substantial workload on shelter workers who have been putting in overtime to care for the new arrivals, Harrison said.

“It's a tremendous impact on our staff,” she said of the new animals. “Every single one of these pets needs additional time, additional veterinary care, maybe takes triple the time it would take to clean their kennel spaces or just to get them used to walking on a leash.”

“I think our staff would say it feels like it triples their workload in a day,” she added. “Everybody’s feeling it this Monday morning.”

While the animals are being housed at the shelter through its contract with Cheyenne Animal Control, Harrison said she hopes to see the animals become shelter property soon so they can be relocated to loving homes. 

“We do hope to see these pets become the property of the Cheyenne Animal Shelter sooner than later, and then we will start to talk about what adoption and kind of timeline on those things will look like for us,” she said. “But right now, it is a little bit of a big question mark.”

Shelter worker Ceceilia Brown stayed at the shelter past midnight Friday while working to accommodate each of the new arrivals. She said the experience was gratifying because of the way the animals have come out of their shells since arriving at the shelter. 

“It’s heartbreaking and yet kind of fulfilling because I saw them the day they came in and then I had to see them after being here for a couple days and the recognition that they saw, they were like ‘I know you,’” she said. “In the morning they’re like ‘oh, I know this person, they’re going to feed me, they’re going to take me outside.’”

Hot Dogs And Whipped Cream

Harrison said the influx of new arrivals has stretched the shelter’s supply of common animal necessities. She called for help from the community in rounding up these items or donating money to help purchase them.

Two such items in low supply are hot dogs and whipped cream, which Harrison said are a favorite of reluctant shelter dogs. 

“They’re like our high-value treats,” she said. “Also canned cheese, like cheese whiz, that stuff is amazing.”

These treats can act as anything from a reward to a clever method to conceal the taste of medicine. Even though the refrigerator in the shelter’s food prep room is stuffed with packs of hotdogs and cans of whipped cream, Harrison said the supply won’t last the shelter long.

Harrison said the shelter plans to invite volunteer workers to help ease the workload but needs to get its “ducks in a row” first before that can happen. She predicted the animals should only remain at the shelter for up to 90 days while law enforcement partners continue their investigation.

In the meantime, all the animals from the most recent intake are considered evidence.

“We are hopeful that because of how proactive our law enforcement partners in Animal Control and the legal system are that we will be able to start getting these guys into the homes that they deserve,” she said. 

2022 Hoarding Incident

The shelter in 2022 rescued 58 “giant” dogs and a flock of about 40 birds from a similar hoarding case. Among those dogs were St. Bernards, Great Pyrenees, Catahoula Leopard dogs and bullmastiffs.

Cheyenne Animal Shelter Director Britney Tennant at the time called the hoarding case “one of the biggest challenges [she has] ever faced.”

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it – these animals have a rough road ahead,” Tennant wrote in an email. “The dogs are undersocialized, unaccustomed to living as house pets, filthy, and generally unwilling or unable to walk on leashes.”

Harrison declined to confirm whether the two cases, which are similar in magnitude and severity, are related.

Jackson Walker can be reached at walker@cowboystatedaily.com.