Three children were turned over to authorities after they and their mother were found living in inhumane conditions in Needles, officials said Thursday.
Also living in the home were nine dogs and 12 cats, whose feces and urine covered furniture and floors of the home in the 500 block of R Street, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.
Officials uncovered the fetid conditions around 2 p.m. Wednesday after someone requested Department of Children and Family Services perform a welfare check there, noting their concern that the mother is addicted to narcotics.
Deputies said the mother, 32-year-old Amanda Jean Hancock, displayed “objective signs that she was under the influence of a controlled substance” as they inspected the home.
The three-bedroom, one-bathroom residence had no running water and each room was filled with insects, broken furniture and scattered trash, as well as the animals’ waste, deputies said.
The children had no beds to sleep on and the toilet was brimming with human waste due to the lack of running water. The kitchen countertops were caked with traces of rancid food, and the broken refrigerator was filled with spoiled products, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Investigators described the entire place as smelling like a mixture of rotten food, feces and urine.
Hancock was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment and was being held on $100,000 bail, officials said. She is scheduled to appear in Victorville Superior Court on Friday.
The three children were placed under the care of San Bernardino County Department of Children and Family Services, while the cats and dogs were turned over to Needles Animal Control.