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In a macabre scene that included skulls that had been hung in trees and remains of dogs — at least a dozen — left to rot on the metal roof of a small outbuilding on a heavily wooded piece of property on Wildwood Road in Maryville, 20 live animals were removed from the property and remains of 22 more were found.

Investigators expect to find more, with remains of as many as 100 dead dogs possibly left strewn across several acres, covered by leaves and thick wooded underbrush.

“This is the worst I've seen,” said Vickey Dennis, president of the Blount County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, as she stood next to a dilapidated house where investigators found a dog barricaded inside.

Dennis pulled bags of dog remains, skulls and other bones that had been found haphazardly left lying among the leaves and trees on the property. She pointed to a small skeleton that fit completely inside one of the bags — probably a Chihuahua or other small breed, she said — and explained how investigators found the small dog dead inside a wire crate on a stand behind the house. The dog probably died inside the wire crate and was simply left there to decompose, she said.

Charles Perkins

The skull of another animal was found on top of the cage.

On the wall of an outbuilding — the same one where investigators were shocked and sickened to find the remains of at least 12 dogs apparently tossed onto the roof to rot — a small skull with the spine still attached had been hung on the wall, next to a pair of rusted circular saw blades.

“It's kind of overwhelming at this point, what we've seen so far,” Dennis said.

SPCA investigators had been out to the property before and talked with Charles Arden Perkins, 63, about having too many animals — he agreed to only have four animals, said Kellie Bachman, vice president of the Blount County SPCA. They were brought back to the property, located at 3715 Wildwood Road in Maryville, on Tuesday when an injured dog — one of three running loose on the property — was reported by a neighbor. Blount County Animal Control responded to the scene and then called the SPCA.

With the help of the Blount County Sheriff's Office, the SPCA was able to get a warrant to enter the property and that's when investigators found the grisly scene.

“There were dogs in two-by-three (feet) wire crates that were probably six inches in their own feces,” Bachman said. “None of the animals — it was 95 degrees on Tuesday — had any food or any water.”

Some of the living dogs had collars that had become embedded in their necks from being too tight for too long, she said, and then they started noticing the bones of dead animals.

“Once we got to the property, we started locating remains,” Bachman said. “(Perkins) came to the property, we served the search warrant. He was very upset and not cooperative; he tore up the search warrant. And at that point and time he was placed under arrest and taken to Blount County Jail.”

Perkins is currently free on a $2,500 bond on a charge of cruelty to animals.

With as many dogs as the Blount County Animal Shelter currently has, and with the additional 23 that will come from the Wildwood Road property — 20 were removed by Friday evening and investigators were working to capture three that were running free — volunteers are desperately needed, Dennis said. Specifically, anyone with experience dealing with traumatized animals would be greatly appreciated, but even people without any experience dealing with these types of animals can help.

“We could really use a lot of help with the amount of dogs that we have,” Dennis said. “Socializing, maybe bathing some of them.”

Anyone interested in volunteering to help the Blount County Animals Shelter with the new arrivals can contact the SPCA at 256-9106 or the shelter directly at 980-9106.

Also, people can come to the shelter — which is located at 233 Currie Ave. — today starting at 8 a.m. to volunteer.