As I walked down the hallway to the back, a strong repulsive odor became noticeable. I walked further and the stench grew stronger. I almost couldn't take it; the smell twisted my stomach almost making me vomit, but I fought the urge and continued on. As I walked on that's when I heard it, initially muffled and then clearer, it was cries and yelps. It sounded like something was being tortured or murdered in such a way as to extract the last bit of pain from its victim. I pressed on reaching the end of the passage; that's when I then crossed the threshold into the main room only to have my heart ripped from my chest and thrown to the floor. All I could see was cage after cage of dogs in some of the worst conditions I have ever seen.
As I ventured into the room the first thing that jumped out at me were the cages, they were small, and had two to three dogs in each one. The cages were constructed of chain-link fencing on three sides and they were connected to an identical outside enclosure via a hole in a shared block wall. I walked on and noticed that I was starting to sweat. It was awfully hot and uncomfortable in this room; I could only imagine how the animals felt lying on the floor next to the passage that was letting in the blazing inferno of the afternoon sun. As I continued on, I thought to myself, "They don't even treat prisoners this badly.".
Cringing as I had to pass all the cages I noticed that not only were the cages small, overfilled, and comfortless, they were also filthy. The disgusting odor that had embraced my sense of smell earlier was that of dog urine and excrement. The bear concrete floors of the cages were covered in dried dog urine that in the summer's heat was releasing a less than desirable aroma. As I approached a cage to see one of the dogs, I noticed fecal matter was spotted all over the floor. If I had to guess I would say that the cages were never cleaned.
