Done right, moving nearly a thousand animals just a couple of miles across town is an epic undertaking, says Tim Rickey.

So, too, is the challenge of transforming empty Westport fields into a temporary home for all of those creatures, a place they will live for weeks to come.

These are among the challenges that Mr. Rickey, vice president of field investigations and response for the American Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) travelled here from Missouri to oversee. He’s helped by 100 others from ASPCA alone — they’ve come from all around North America as have many dozens more from other organizations.

They expect to be here for weeks more— no idea how long yet — and will surely spend far over $1 million, quite a sum for an organization that relies entirely on donations.

Mr. Rickey has worked countless other horrific animal abuse cases across the country in his 25-year career, “but I’ve never seen anything on scale — the sheer number of animals, size of the area,” and difficult conditions.

Retrieving animals from the 70-acre property deep in the woods off 465 American Legion Highway is much more than a matter of driving trailers in and filling them up.

“There are a very unique set of complications here.” Just trying to maneuver big trailers into the 20 or so lots amidst ramshackle shacks, heaps of debris, broken glass and jagged metal “to get to where the animals are is part of it. There are lots of hazards” for animals and rescuers alike. What’s more, there’s only one way in and out — a narrow, single-lane dirt road nearly a mile long. A trailer can’t leave when one is coming in.

“Our first priority is to keep the animals as safe as possible — it is slow and methodical work.”

Because this is a crime scene and because ultimately a court may have to help sort out what becomes of the animals, every one must be identified and catalogued. Before being loaded, the animals pose for ‘mug shots’ complete with identification card, and they are tagged with numbers showing on what lot they were found and any previous identification (most had none).

“Some of these animals have never been in a trailer before” and are less than enthusiastic about giving it a try. A ram gave workers quite an argument on the first day.

Thought must be given to grouping animals — some are better traveling companions than others — and workers don’t want to mix them, for instance, bunnies and cattle.

Every trailer, every cage was bedded with fresh straw and hay, water was provided and trailers were under-loaded to prevent crowding during the short but sometimes bumpy ride.

It’s all why last Tuesday (day two of the move) only two trailers with assorted rabbits, chickens and goats left the property in over three hours of work. Other waiting trailers, with license plates from Canada, the Carolinas and elsewhere, never budged from the staging area just in from the main road. It was not until late Saturday that the last animal was moved.

Fresh start

From what one detective likened to “hell” for animals and rescuers alike, the survivors emerged to a different world.

“It’s a beautiful place, open, clean … they will be so much better off,” Westport Detective Antonio Cestodio said of the Pine Hill Road property where the animals are being moved. From the road — police keep the public and press from entering any further per request of the property owner and to help rescuers do their work — the long dirt entry lane winds up and out of sight into open land surrounded by woods.

Mr. Rickey said that the ASPCA marshaled tractor trailers and vans from around this country and Canada that are already set up with equipment to deal with such a field operation.

They contain materials to erect “fencing, loads and loads of fencing,” build shelters, cages and paddocks, and tents — big and small to protect animals from the weather. “It is quite an operation … something we’ve done many times.”

Water is towed there with mobile tanks while crews round up the wide variety of feed needed, almost all from local suppliers and farms.

Crews see to it that food and water are kept fresh, and bedding clean. The aim is to make sure that these animals find “a far better place” than what they have known.

Mr. Rickey said there is no telling how long the animals will stay here or what will come next for them.

Some of it may be decided in court since some of the lot owners will likely seek to retrieve their animals. Some may be adopted (with restrictions) and many may wind up in sanctuaries. They don’t go through this sort of effort, he said, to see rescued animals land in some other bad place or a slaughterhouse.

Some animals are also recovering in animal hospitals. One rescuer likened the first few days to a military MASH field hospital — one emergency operation after another as teams moved from lot to lot and discovered fresh horrors. At least 30 animals had to be euthanized and they found many more already dead.

As many times as they have done this, rescuers must try not to let such scenes get to them.

“Yes, it is emotional but this is a group of professionals with a job to do,” he said.

As for the prosecutorial effort and cost recovery, Mr. Rickey said ASPCA’s legal advocacy team will work with the attorney general’s office. Obtaining reimbursement for ASPCA’s $1 million-plus in expenses from those responsible is among the things they will look into.