NORTHGLENN, Colo. — A small dog wrapped in a red blanket and an 8-week-old kitten found in a Doritos bag inside a deep freezer at a home in Northglenn earlier this year are just some of the gruesome findings officers encountered as they searched a home before their owners were arrested and charged with more than 100 counts of animal cruelty earlier this week.
The deplorable living conditions were detailed in an arrest affidavit obtained by Denver7 Thursday, accusing 69-year-old Patti Joslin and her 32-year-old daughter, Dakotah, of having over 100 animals live under “tortuous conditions” for at least the last five years.
The investigation into the Joslins began in June of last year, after a neighbor called Northglenn police to complain about a strong smell of dog feces at a home near Wyco Park, one of several calls to the police department over the past several years, according to the affidavit.
Officers who responded to the home noted the strong smell of feces, urine and ammonia before even stepping inside the home, as well as a hint of air freshener outside by a fence that was used to mask the odor, the affidavit states.
Arresting documents show officers who responded to the home for nearly a month tried contacting Patti with little success, until she came out to talk to one of them on July 1, 2024, while law enforcement was tagging a vehicle that had been reported abandoned at the property.
The woman told an officer the vehicle belonged to her daughter, Dakotah, and the officer took that opportunity to inquire about the pets inside the home. Patti told the officer she only had nine dogs inside the residence and explained how she cared for them after the officer noticed several of the dogs appeared to be either injured, unkempt or with patches of fur missing.
Patti told the officer she would take care of the smell coming from inside the house, but police were notified of the strong odor coming from her home again about two weeks later.
The affidavit notes that police tried to issue Patti a summons for the unsanitary conditions of her home for a period of about year before they executed a search warrant “as numerous previous tickets had done nothing to eradicate the odor.”
Feces, urine covered nearly every surface inside the home
Wearing a gas mask, a Tyvek suit, shoe covers, and gloves, Northglenn police officers entered Patti Joslin’s home on July 16.
Inside, officers were welcomed by several barking and growling dogs, which they began removing from the home to be taken in by a shelter.
But conditions inside were far worse than the officers could have imagined.
“The animal waste odor inside the home was so strong” one of the responding officers could still smell it through her gas mask, according to the affidavit.
While inside, officers tested ammonia levels to determine how bad the air quality was due to the overpowering smell of feces, urine and ammonia emanating from every surface in the home.
Testing showed ammonia levels reached dangerous levels – up to 100 parts per million (ppm) in some places, far exceeding safe limits for people or pets to live in and four times what is considered toxic for pets. For context, the Adams County Health Department deems ammonia levels above 0.5 ppm to be uninhabitable for humans.
The odor was so strong and so toxic for the officers, one of them began experiencing shortness of breath, coughing, trouble breathing and tightness in her chest, according to the affidavit.
As they made their way through the home, officers found animal waste covering nearly every surface inside the property.
Traces of dried feces were found in couches and smeared across walls, and urine was deeply soaked in carpets, baseboards and flooring. Litter boxes throughout the home were overflowing with feces, with some containing blood, according to the affidavit.
“In some areas there was feces piled up, visibly, inches above the floor and on top of, inside, and behind furniture,” arresting documents show.
In the living room, officers found broken furniture and couches that were stained yellow and brown. Almost all the baseboards and walls in the home were scratched up, officers noted.
In the main floor kitchen, officers found a large box containing “multiple clear bags full of boxes labeled as animal ashes, paw prints, and certificates/documents relating to pets having been cremated,” according to the affidavit.
Inside the bedrooms, law enforcement found deeply saturated bedroom floors and cat towers with urine and feces, with a dresser mirror “almost no longer reflective due to the coating of urine-like substance on it.”
In other rooms, piles of feces were found throughout the carpet, and the racks which guide a closet door closed “were so caked in feces that you could not slide the closet doors across it,” the affidavit states.
In one of the bedroom bathrooms, “the shower was encased in feces,” police said.
Inside the basement laundry room, police found an empty refrigerator “with an orange substance dripping down and inside of it which appeared to be very old urine,” as well as a storage room under the staircase that was “extremely saturated” in feces and urine-like substance, according to the affidavit.
In this room, police also found a deep freezer “which immediately upon opening I observed a pink trash bag… and could feel what felt like an animal,” arresting documents show.
“Upon opening the bag, I observed a black with brown, male, Miniature Pinscher type dog, which was wrapped inside of a red blanket, deceased,” the officer said, adding he did not “observe any visual injuries to the dog.”
Digging deeper into the freezer, the officer found a Doritos bag that had a gray, domestic medium hair type kitten dead inside.
“This kitten was wrapped in potty pads, inside of a Ziploc bag, inside of a Doritos bag,” the officer recalled.
Ammonia readings in this particular room of the house showed levels reaching approximately 100 ppm – about four times greater than what is considered toxic for pets.
Rescued animals showed signs of poor health, neglect
In all, 117 animals — 96 cats and 19 dogs — were taken from the home that day by nearly 10 different animal control agencies from throughout the metro region, according to the affidavit.
As they were examined, officers noticed several of the animals showed signed of poor health or neglect.
“As far as the animal’s health were, several of the animals were pregnant, multiple of the dogs had a bloodshot eye, several of the cats had cuts near their eyes/eye injuries and were missing fur/had matted fur, lethargy,” the affidavit notes.
A Saint Bernard type dog rescued from the home was in the worst visible condition, according to one of the officers, who said the dog “could hardly walk on her own and her chest and front of her legs was covered in feces.”
At least two of the officers who executed the search warrant were also confident not all the cats that were inside the home were caught, “since they had reason to believe there were cats living in the walls and ceilings which they would not have been able to capture/see.”
In an interview with police days later, Patti could not recall how many cats she had at her home as “she didn’t know how they got in but suspected they came in through the back window,” but said she only had 18 dogs.
When asked about the animals in the freezer, she said the kitten “could have died years ago,” once again telling police she could not remember when she got most of the animals living inside her home.
Patti told police that she tried “to keep up” with the mess created by the animal waste and said she tried to get rid of the urine-soaked couches in her living room by “cutting it apart with a chain saw” before the chain saw broke.
A detective then asked her if there was ever a time “when you looked around and though, ‘Oh my gosh, how did it get this big?’”
Patti reportedly said she “didn’t know who to ask for help… [after getting] in too deep and didn’t know how to get out.”
Veterinary records for most of the pets obtained by Northglenn police showed some of the animals had not been seen by a vet for nearly five years and showed a laundry list of health issues that they needed to be treated for, including pancreatitis, hydrocephaly, anal gland ruptures, and uterus infections.
Prior to the charges of animal cruelty against her, Patti was sentenced to 12 months of unsupervised probation with no new animal violations, and a fine of $130.
The woman, along with her daughter, currently face 11 counts of aggravated animal cruelty, a Class 4 felony; and 98 counts of cruelty to animals, a Class 1 misdemeanor.
As of Sept. 22 — and of the 117 animals rescued from the home and taken to the Riverdale Animal Shelter — 31 cats and dogs were born into the shelter, 31 cats and dogs had to be humanely euthanized, and 10 died due to medical complications or birth rejection from mothers.
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