Owner of Texas animal rescue accused of starving 80 dogs in her care — more than 100 feared dead
The owner of an animal rescue in Texas was arrested after a home inspection revealed she and her boyfriend were sheltering more than 80 dogs in grotesque conditions, as investigators fear upwards of 100 others may be dead, officials said.
The gruesome discovery at the home of Ashley McFadden, 26, came after she had asked the Tyler County Sheriff’s Office to do the probe in order “to approve her home as a safe place” for her business, Southeast Texas Paw Patrol, according to a release from the office.
During the February inspection, deputies were given free rein of McFadden’s home, which she shared with her 28-year-old boyfriend Timothy Brockman.
Officers knew something was amiss the moment they stepped onto the property and saw three dogs tethered to a chain while four others ran loose, the release said.
There was also a pen outside the home that McFadden explained was exclusively for the more aggressive mutts, including some that had previously escaped and killed other dogs.
The inside of the home was packed with overflowing kennels that didn’t appear to have been cleaned in days, if not weeks. A mother dog and her puppies were festering in their own fecal buildup in one crate, the sheriff’s office said.
The deputies tallied around 50 dogs at the residence.
McFadden was charged with two counts of cruelty to non-livestock animals as a felony and misdemeanor in February, the office said.
She was released on bond, with one condition, that she must rehome all of the dogs within 21 days.
Deputies returned to McFadden’s home in early March, however, and found that in the few weeks she was out on bond, she had somehow amassed even more dogs.
“The smell of methane gas, produced by dog feces, was overwhelming. Dog waste was in every room . . . It was an obvious danger to any person or animal behind closed doors and windows at the residence,” the sheriff’s office detailed.
Authorities estimated there were 15 to 20 dog carcasses stashed in several plastic totes, ice coolers, and dog crates all in varying degrees of decomposition, the release said.
Brockman, who was present during the inspection, explained that it was his job to bury the dead dogs.
The 54 dogs seized by the sheriff’s office were placed with the Who Saved Who animal rescue in Montgomery County, Texas.
Other Houston-area animal rescue groups separately claimed 30 dogs, pushing the grand total to 84, Fox 26 Houston reported. Investigators told the outlet they fear more than 100 dogs died at the property.
In a post on Southeast Texas Paw Patrol’s Facebook, McFadden wrote that she had “been rescuing precious doggies for a while now” before officially establishing the nonprofit in December 2025.
McFadden and Brockman were both charged with felony cruelty to non-livestock animals and misdemeanor cruelty to non-livestock animals. They are held on identical $70,000 bonds, according to the jail booking report.
