An elderly Massachusetts woman is in the grips of the law, facing a litany of animal cruelty charges after a shocking discovery on her property, according to NBC Boston reports. Ruth Maxant-Schulz, 77, from Ayer, was hit with 30 counts stemming from an incident which authorities claim involved the seizure of 162 animals from her squalid home.

A grim scene awaited Ayer Police when they arrived for a well-being check at Maxant-Schulz's residence on February 20, calling attention to several dead goats festering both inside and outside her home; meanwhile live animals, including two ponies, numerous goats, and ducks, were discovered roaming the grounds, NBC Boston details the unsettling findings. The Ayer District Court witnessed Maxant-Schulz's arraignment Monday, even as her legal representation remains, at this hour, unconfirmed, If she had an attorney was not known immediately.

The egregious living conditions captured by Ayer police, as mentioned in a report by MassLive, unveiled a house inundated with trash, animal feces, and decay. During the February 23 search, officers discovered more deceased animals in varying states of decomposition, along with visible signs of neglect, including emaciated animals and goats riddled with severe abscesses and mastitis. Some fowl were also found infested with lice.

Tufts Veterinarians brought onto the repugnant scene, condemned the conditions, deeming them neglectful and arguing that they posed a serious risk to the animals' well-being owing to a severe lack of food and water; they even treated an adult goat limping around with a broken leg as reported by WCVB. Amid the chaos a dog barked from a back room a duck wandered idly, and baby goats cried pathetically for nourishment in the vast sea of neglect.

Maxant-Schulz, now barred from possessing or working with animals, surrendered all seized creatures, which included 49 goats, 91 chickens, 11 ducks, 8 geese, 2 ponies, and a single dog, disclosed in a joint statement from the Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan, Ayer Chief of Police Brian Gill, and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, as MassLive reports. Her next court appearance is scheduled for June 20, where she will face a pretrial hearing in the Ayer District Court.