Responding to a welfare complaint from a neighbor Monday, authorities were shocked when they entered a Kentucky home to find 19 children living in squalor with no parental supervision.
Deputies said the children, who ranged in age from 8 months to 14 years, were living in the Bowling Green home with no food or working air conditioner, according to a news release by the Warren County Sheriff's Office.
Warren County Sheriff's Detective Tim Robinson said the three-bedroom house had dog feces inside. Temperatures had reached 101 degrees in the area on Monday.
He said the children had been left alone for a week.
Robinson said that parents Irving "Joe" Smith and Jackie Farah left for Michigan on June 27 to tend to a family emergency and asked neighbors to check on the kids while they were gone.
"It looks like a blended family," said Robinson, with some of the children related to Smith and others to Farah. He said the neighbor probably didn't realize how many kids were in the house. It was reported the children resorted at times to begging neighbors for food.
According to Robinson, when police arrived, the children behaved as if being left alone was a common occurrence.
Nine dogs and one cat were also found at the residence and removed by animal control.
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