Pima Animal Care Center gets calls daily of animals being poorly treated or abandoned from their owner.
The center says they can receive up to 70 calls a day and have about five officers per shift roaming around the county.
"A dog that has been abandoned in an area around town that it is unfamiliar with will stay at that spot in hopes of its owners returning and that is really the sad part because you can tell they will stay at that spot and they will look at oncoming cars to see if that is them coming back for them so that is pretty heart-wrenching," said Xochitl Delgadillo, a Pima Animal Care Field Investigator.
Delgadillo spends her day responding to animal welfare calls.
She says the best part of the job is giving a voice for a voiceless animal.
When an owner doesn't answer the door, investigators place a 24-hour notice on their door. Then they will set up an inspection to make sure the animals are healthy.
One call Delgadillo responded to was a possible hoarding case.
"Right now I see about one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine cats that are sitting right here," she said.
The house had a cat trap and about 15 bowls of food in the front of the home.
One kitten that was found needed medical attention.
I rode along with a @PimaAnimalCare field investigator & we found this little guy in a possible hoarding case @kgun9 pic.twitter.com/mixBiETOa8
— Priscilla KGUN9 (@PriscillaCasper) November 28, 2016
"If you could see the front of his face, it's not dried off and it does actually have some obvious medical issues that need medical attention," she explained.
When animals are found in poor health and living conditions, they are taken to PACC to be checked out and nursed back to health.
Delgadillo advises pet owners, if you don't think you can take care of your pet, you can take them to PACC for free.
She says never leave them on the street.
