Illinois homeowner disputes dog hoarding situation: 'They're taken care of'

Police in the southwest suburbs are investigating more than 70 dogs that were rescued from what they're calling a hoarding situation. Brittany Chulas is live in Lamont with an update for us. Brittany. Hey guys, we are in that yard where all of those dogs were. We just got done talking with the man at the center of all this, the person accused of hoarding all the dogs and also at the center of an emergency, emergency restraining order for emergency firearm restraining order excuse me but just take a look at this yard of where we're standing and i'll just give you a little background of what the person said that we just talked to his name is andrew malik um and we literally just got done talking with him about four minutes ago now according to him this is all part of his non-profit foundation called Braden's Battle Foundation i did find a website for it and according to him he said this started um because he had in a building in Leland Illinois that building was shuttered and when that building was shuttered there were seven pregnant dogs at that building they were taking care of and the foundation according to their website and according to what Andrew told us is the goal is to help as many animals as possible the specialty is rescuing dumped and surrendered pregnant animals and delivering the creatures so according to him he had 16 dogs of his own prior to those seven dogs coming over here eight dogs were his personal dogs eight dogs were fosters then he brought over seven pregnant dogs several months ago and now we're here and we saw just dozens of dogs through video being removed from this home yesterday now we also know that charges are pending according to Lamont police here we still haven't had word on what those charges are but again we got this video from people in the area of over a dozen dogs running loose in this backyard and crews from Cook County and surrounding animal control wearing covers over their shoes some in full hazmat gear Now, neighbors watched the dogs being removed dog after dog into the nighttime. The sun went down, and they were still removing dogs. When talking with Andrew, though, I did ask him as well how many dogs he had back here. I asked a few times, and he never gave me an actual number or total number. Lamont Police also did not give a total number of how many dogs were here on the property. But we did find court documents that a search warrant was being served at this home. And according to those court documents, we found they show a warrant to seize firearms. And again, that paperwork was filed yesterday. Now, when it comes to how many dogs were here, a local animal rescue, though, is painting a clearer picture. Ruby Whiskers Animal Control posted yesterday that over 50 dogs were rescued. And they added they were living in deplorable conditions and were standing again where they were living right now. If you want to just come back to us live so you can just see the area that the dogs were living in when they were removed here. There are holes dug everywhere. You can see kind of toys around. um but he also excuse me Ruby Whiskers also mentioned that at least one dog was pregnant and again Andrew corroborating that his mission is taking in pregnant dogs and some Ruby Whiskers also mentioning some were puppies again Andrew corroborating that as well now the rescue added that it did try to take in some of the dogs but police stepped in and stopped it saying that they are considered property and part of a court case and again i said we've talked with Andrew you've heard what courts and what other rescues were saying throughout the morning but you're going to hear from him right now. Just take a listen. If we go in there right now, you'll find buckets of food everywhere. I open feed. I open water. They're taken care of. I don't kennel them. So they run around. They come and they sleep with me at night. They sleep. I got bedrooms for them. I got beds for them. Yeah. And according to him, he just cares about the animals and wants them taken care of. And also according to Andrew, the animals were in good health. As you heard, he says he opens feed them, open feeds them. And he said they were all in good health. Again, And we're still waiting for confirmation from that, from the various animal controls that were here yesterday. Also, we're still waiting word on how many dogs were taken out. We still haven't gotten that number of how many dogs were taken. Andrew says he believes it's over 50, somewhere around 50. He says he knew all their names, but didn't have an exact number of how many dogs there were. We also are waiting a little more information on what those charges could be. Andrew did mention that he did receive a weapons charge for a firearm that he says was registered and was legal and that he turned over to police. But again, we have not gotten any confirmation from the courts here what those charges are, guys. I'll send it back to you for now. Real quick, Brittany, did he say anything about, you know, why police were there in the first place? Right. Which had everything to do with weapons of self-defense. Why they executed that search warrant. Yeah. Well, the search warrant was in relation to that emergency firearms restraining order that was filed yesterday. That paperwork was filed at about 9 o'clock yesterday. day. In that paperwork for the emergency firearms restraining order hearing, there was also a portion where it says a search warrant to seize any firearms would be issued. That search warrant though was posted separately. So that's why police were here, because of that firearms restraining order and then subsequent search warrant to seize any firearms. All right, Brittany, good job out there as always. Thank you so much.