Solano County sheriff's deputies and animal control officers pulled 44 dogs out of a home on the 800 block of Carolina Street in central Vallejo on Thursday, executing a search warrant tied to an animal cruelty investigation into resident Susan Anthony. The haul included 40 adult dogs and four puppies, all removed from a property that neighbors and animal-rights groups have flagged with complaints for more than a decade.
The raid, authorized by a search warrant, unfolded as part of an ongoing probe into Anthony, according to NBC Bay Area. Anthony runs California Carolina Dogs, a breeding and adoption business, and says she has kept and bred Carolina dogs — also known as American dingos — at several Vallejo properties for about 20 years. She already carries a previous animal cruelty conviction, stemming from a case in which, according to court records, she allegedly kept and bred a pack of dogs that ran wild on a small ranch in east Vallejo.
Solano County Sheriff's Sgt. Rex Hawkins said the sheer number of dogs pulled from the home overwhelmed the local shelter system, forcing officials to scatter the animals across multiple sites. “Dogs are being taken everywhere,” Hawkins said. The dogs were distributed to multiple shelters in the area, where veterinarians are now evaluating them, per ABC7 News, and a full veterinary assessment remains pending.
Conflicting Accounts of Conditions Inside the Home
Hawkins described the property as a hoarding situation, telling ABC7 that it appeared the dogs had been using the bathroom inside the home. He did not comment on the animals' overall health or living conditions beyond that assessment. Anthony, for her part, maintained the dogs were healthy and lived a good life on the property, and said the dogs actually belong to her 99-year-old mother, who lives at the Carolina Street address.```
Anthony also said Thursday's operation was traumatic for the animals, describing some dogs yelping as deputies caught them and loaded them into kennels. The dossier does not resolve how many dogs were on the property before the raid; historical reports have cited as many as 50 dogs at a time on the site, while Anthony has said more than 35 were present.
Years of Complaints and a Recent Conviction
The scrutiny of Anthony's operation did not begin this week. Neighbors and animal rights groups have lodged complaints since 2013 alleging she ran a puppy mill, and Solano County animal control logged 17 calls for service at her address since 2015, according to CBS News Bay Area. Neighbors have also reported years of strong dog-feces odors and relentless daily barking coming from the property, the report notes.
Anthony was found guilty of one count of animal cruelty in Solano County court in May 2026 and was granted probation the following month. Her troubles with animal-related violence predate that conviction: in August 2023, one of Anthony's dogs was attacked so severely it had to be euthanized, and in 2024 a puppy was killed by several dogs while Anthony's pack also attacked two of her other dogs twice within the same week.
Pending Litigation and a Court Date
Anthony has also pushed back against county authorities in court. She filed a motion for a restraining order against county animal control in September 2025, but the court denied it. Separately, the Caru Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has filed a civil suit alleging that practices at Anthony's organization amount to animal cruelty, and Anthony is scheduled to appear for a hearing in that case at Solano County Superior Court in Fairfield on Friday.
The investigation into Thursday's removal remains ongoing, according to ABC7, as veterinarians continue evaluating the dogs now spread across shelters in the area. The case lands amid a broader statewide push on shelter capacity: legislation signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2026 aims to remove barriers to adopting neglected animals whose owners face criminal cases, a change aimed at shortening long kennel stays for animals caught up in abuse investigations, according to the Los Angeles Times.
