South Bend Animal Control seized almost two dozen dogs from a South Bend home Tuesday night, and they say there were more inside they weren't able to get to.

Neighbors say the owner was running what could be described as a "puppy mill."

The owner wasn't home when police were called to his home in the 1000 block of California with complaints of a "foul smell" in the air.

What they found was an open garage, with 23 caged dogs inside.

The dogs are now at South Bend Animal Control, but the incident is far from over.

“It’s just early on, we're still putting pieces of the puzzle together,” said Gary Libbey with South Bend Animal Control.

Animal Control isn't sure why the owner had dozens of dogs, but they know what they found in this garage was no accident.

“They were home constructed cages in the garage and they had some sort of makeshift type of watering type system; so that would lead you to believe they were planning on housing a large number of animals,” Libbey said.

A neighbor, who is friends with the owner, tells WNDU the man bred and sold the dogs.

South Bend Animal Control doesn't want to call it a "puppy mill" just yet, but it's consistent with what they'd expect from one.

“The smaller breeds are more prone to the puppy mills, yes, they’re more easily housed,” Libbey said.

The dogs that were taken from the home, breeds such as bulldogs, poodles, terriers, and malteses, weren't in terrible shape, but shouldn't have been living like they were.

“The legal limit is three adult animals, we picked up 23. And there were obviously other animals in the house, but the house was secured so we weren’t able to enter,” Libbey said.

Animal Control is trying to get a warrant to go into the house, to try to find out what is really going on. They intend to press charges on grounds of animal cruelty.

“Somebody should not be allowed to do this and we want to make sure it never happens again,” Libbey said

The neighbor says they're taking away the owners “job.”

But animal control says if the owner was breeding and selling, it's not a legal job anyway.

“If he wants to run a pet shop or a pet store, than he needs to run a legitimate business. The animals need to be cared for properly and it needs to be done in the properly zoned area for the operation,” Libbey said.

Animal control says there appeared to be more dogs on the porch, upstairs and in the basement of the home Tuesday night during the seizure of the dogs in the garage. They said they were working from around 7:00 p.m. until almost 11 at night.

When WNDU went to the house early Wednesday, it appeared the dogs inside were gone, which Animal Control expected to be the case.

However, Animal Control is still trying to get the warrant, so they can inspect the home for more evidence.

Animal Control says if the dogs had been in life-threatening conditions, they would have pushed harder to get to the animals immediately.

However, many of the dogs they seized did need minor medical attention, and Animal Control says they clearly weren't being cared for properly.

Libbey says he’s happy they got to the problem before it grew.

“It either is very early on or he's kept very good care and the neighbors just haven’t complained,” Libbey said

Which could also be the case; there aren’t many neighbors around to complain. Many of the homes nearby are vacant. The neighbors we talked to said the owner was “in and out” of the house, but had owned it for years.

Animal Control has made contact with the owner.

“He just wondered what he could do to get his animals back, and we said we needed to talk to him in greater detail, and we needed access to the house. He declined further comment until he seeks legal counsel,” Libbey said.

Libbey says many of the dogs will be sent to rescues they’ve worked with in the past, since they can’t really support that many extra animals right now.

He says it’s possible the animals could be put up for adoption, but they’re not necessarily asking for that from the community right now.

“The problem with this situation is, with the outcry of public sympathy, which we greatly appreciate, but still, we want to adopt them out for the right reason, not just because someone wants to save this animal from this horrendous situation that they came from. They have to understand that 12, 15 years from now this animal’s still going to need love and care. So it’s not something you do at the spur of the moment,” Libbey said.

For more information on “puppy mills,” follow the links below.