A 19-year-old Adair County woman has been charged with numerous counts of cruelty to animals after more than 20 dogs were taken from her residence a week ago Thursday morning.

Kala R. Hadley, of 925 Buel Collins Road, Columbia, was arrested and charged with cruelty to animals-second degree, a misdemeanor, after officers with the Adair County Sheriff’s Office went to the residence, located near the Glensfork community, following a complaint about the animals.

Hadley was initially charged with four counts of animal cruelty, but more charges are expected to be filed once a final report from the veterinarian who checked the dogs is received.

Sheriff Hudson Moss said they had received numerous complaints about the animals and had been to the residence more than once. Deputy Sheriff Aaron Rainwater said that he had told Hadley to do something about the animals the last time he had gone to the home, and after no action was taken, the decision was made to seize the animals.

“Most of the dogs were in the house, and conditions in the home were pretty bad,” Deputy Rainwater said. “Due to concern about the dogs and the older woman that lived in the home with Hadley, we felt it was best to remove the animals.”

The officers, with the assistance of Adair County Dog Warden Jimmy Harmon and Green River Animal Shelter Director Sandy Ford, removed the dogs and Harmon transported them to the animal shelter, where a veterinarian was called in to check them.

The 27 dogs seized included a number of puppies and adult dogs ranging in size from small ones all the way up to a giant Cane Coros Mastiff.

Animal shelter director Ford said that the veterinarian that checked the dogs found that practically all of the animals were malnourished, dehydrated and were infected with worms and parasites. A couple of the dogs had open cuts or wounds. One of the dogs (a pit bull) had to be euthanized due to its extreme hostility toward humans.

Ford said that after Hadley signed paperwork relinquishing ownership of the dogs, she contacted various rescue organizations.

“Ten of the dogs have already been picked up by rescue groups, and at least five more are going to be picked up this weekend,” Ford said last Tuesday. “Other than the one dog, we didn’t have to put any other dogs down to make room for them.”

Both Deputy Rainwater and shelter director Ford said that they don’t think that Hadley originally intended to harm the animals.

“I think she meant well,” Rainwater said. “However, she just kept on getting more and more dogs, and it got to the point where she was unable to feed them or take care of them properly so we had to do something about the situation.”

“I think her heart was in the right place, but she just got overwhelmed in it all,” Ford noted. “She just couldn’t say ‘no’ to taking in more animals.”