(Photo by Douglass Huxley) Stephanie Swarr drops off a large package of paper towels at the Parkersburg Humane Society on Thursday after the shelter took in 146 dogs that were removed from a local residence Wednesday night.

PARKERSBURG — The Parkersburg Humane Society is working to care for and rehome 146 dogs after they were removed from a residence Wednesday night.

“I’d like to say that I don’t think it was intentional at all,” Gary McIntyre, the shelter’s executive director, said. “It’s just unfortunate that none of the animals were spayed or neutered.”

McIntyre said humane officers handle complaints and investigate any cases of potential cruelty, neglect, abuse or simply to do welfare checks. He said two officers responded to a check request at a residence near City Park. He said the officer initially believed there may have been 30-40 animals in the household and called for backup to help transport them to the shelter.

“So we sent a couple of staff and the van and loaded up a bunch of crates, thinking we were going to get 30 dogs in.” McIntyre said. “Shortly after the staff got there, the 30 became 40. The 40 went to 50 and kept going up to 60. And finally by the end of the night when the last load got here at about 7 (pm), there were 146.”

McIntyre said the dogs range in age from a few days old to about 10 years old. He said many of the dogs appeared to have never been outside the home as they appeared disoriented when brought out into the light of day. He said the shelter found no serious medical conditions among the dogs initially, but they treated them for parasites and gave them their initial vaccinations. He also said the potential for outbreaks of parvovirus and kennel cough was a concern because the dogs had not been exposed to other animals and could quickly spread the disease in the shelter environment, but no signs of the disease.

“They got their first set of vaccinations and then, as long as they’re here, we’ll continue to follow up with subsequent boosters,” McIntyre said.

He said the shelter is working with its partners in Dayton to take in some of the dogs, including some pregnant females, to help ease the burden. He said they also have a rescue partner in Pittsburgh that has a “Rescue Farm” who is interested in taking some of the dogs. He said the goal is to find placement for as many of the dogs as possible with other shelters and rescue organizations, since HSOP does not have the capacity to adopt out all 146 dogs on its own.

Afterward, the Parkersburg community also rallied to support HSOP, donating hundreds of supplies such as food, blankets and cleaning products within 24 hours.

“I just have to say that the Parkersburg community, the whole Mid-Ohio Valley, has brought cash, sent cash to our site. We have food in front of us. We actually have so much in donations that we now need a place to store them.” McIntyre said. “Our whole yard is full of food and blankets and towels and water and everything. Just to think that in less than 24 hours we got all of this and it’s going to help us take care of these animals and get them into a home and then it’s definitely going to take longer than that .”

McIntyre stressed the importance of spaying and neutering pets to prevent similar situations in the future.

“It’s definitely an argument for spaying and neutering,” McIntyre said. “Because if you just had a few dogs and spayed or neutered them, you wouldn’t have this situation.”

HSOP relied heavily on volunteers to help care for the dogs, including walking them, doing laundry and assisting with other tasks. McIntyre said they are holding a volunteer training session Saturday to onboard new volunteers to help increase the workload, and anyone interested can fill out an application on the HSOP website.

“Everybody is stepping up and it’s humbling,” McIntyre said.