The animals were discovered in the care of Ruth Maxant-Schulz after Ayer police responded to her Taft Street home for a “well-being check” on Feb. 20, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan’s office. Maxant-Schulz, 77, surrendered the animals into MSPCA care Monday after pleading not guilty to 30 counts of animal cruelty in Ayer District Court.
After 162 farm animals were seized from an Ayer property in February, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is looking for people to adopt the animals the “loving new homes they deserve,” the MSPCA said in a statement.
About 49 goats are available for adoption, the MSPCA said.
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The animals, which were brought to Nevins Farm in Methuen, include 91 chickens, 11 ducks, eight geese, two ponies, and 49 goats, some of whom are pregnant, the statement said. Medical care for the animals has already cost over $20,000, and officials don’t expect treatments to stop anytime soon.
“In addition to caring for the pregnant goats and their eventual babies, we need to castrate the males, and some of the birds also need additional treatment, including a poor goose that has a tumor on its eyelid,” MSPCA-Angell Vice President of Animal Protection, Mike Keiley, said in the statement. “These animals have been through a lot.”
Before their rescue, the animals lived in unsanitary conditions without adequate access to food and water, according to the statement. Ayer police reported multiple dead animals on Maxant-Schulz’s property, including three baby goats lying next to each other in a room that was “covered in trash, animal feces, and debris,” Ryan’s office said.
Since Monday, veterinarians have been working to get the animals back to “adequate body weights” and place them into new homes, the statement said. Although several geese are still expected to undergo surgery, other birds are ready and available to be adopted, Keiley said.
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“Getting all of these animals ready for adoption will take an extraordinary amount of work, given the condition they arrived in,” Keiley said. “But there are some goats, ducks, geese, and roosters at Nevins who are ready to find their forever homes now.”
Keiley noted that more of the animals will be ready to leave MSPCA care in as soon as two weeks. Anyone interested in adopting an animal can visit Nevins Farm from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, or submit an online inquiry at mspca.org/nevinsadopt.
Two mini ponies are among the animals available for adoption. MPSCA/Nevins Farm
Lila Hempel-Edgers can be reached at lila.hempeledgers@globe.com. Follow her on X @hempeledgers and on Instagram @lila_hempel_edgers.
