TIVERTON, R.I. — At least six of the 1,100 animals rescued from hell a decade ago are still alive and kicking. It’s remarkable they even made it out of Westport, Mass., breathing.

In July 2016, Westport Police received a 911 call directing them to a property on American Legion Highway. Upon arriving, police discovered that two starved Rottweilers from one of the property’s 20 lots had escaped and broken into another lot, where the dogs had mauled and consumed several goats.

The farm’s gruesomeness was just unfolding. The scene was dubbed “Farm of Horrors.” It was called a “hellhole.”

The 70-acre property was “home” to 1,400 dogs, cats, cows, horses, chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, birds, fish, rabbits, and other animals. Three hundred never made it out off the hellhole alive. The rest were all clinging to life amidst acres of squalor. They were found in overcrowded, overheated, and dangerous conditions, according to Massachusetts officials. The Boston Globe reported that cows were trapped in barbed wire and emaciated dogs were kept on short chains in pens littered with broken glass.

In some cases animals were left in manure so deep that their hooves had rotted off. Others were suffering from painful eye, intestinal, and skin ailments. The animals didn’t have access to water sources or adequate food. They were shabbily sheltered, “living” among debris and death. Some of the animals had been sickened by more than one contagious disease.

“This situation is unparalleled to anything I’ve seen in my 37 years as an animal law enforcement officer. The sheer number of animals in dire need of care, and the cruel and unsanitary conditions we found were deplorable,” Lt. Alan Borgal, of Animal Rescue League of Boston, said at the time. “It took an all-out effort of state and local officials, along with multiple humane organizations, to get all of those animals out of that horrible situation.”

Westport Police, Massachusetts Environmental Police, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the Animal Rescue League of Boston conducted the investigation. They noted the animals had been suffering for months and probably years.

Twenty-seven people were ultimately arrested and charged with a total of 151 counts. (Four years later, in 2020, the attorney general’s office dropped the charges and discontinued prosecuting the defendants because a key witness, a Westport Police lieutenant, was being investigated.)

Colby (sheep), Girlie (duck), Peyton (peacock), Porter (peacock), Sadie (goat), and Shaw (sheep) survived one of the worst cases of animal cruelty in Northeast history because of their toughness. They also had the benefit of finding a safe space 8 miles to the west.

These six rescued animals, along with two dozen Japanese koi, were brought to the West Place Animal Sanctuary on Main Road. The nonprofit’s founder and small team of volunteers gave the traumatized animals a forever home.

The Sanctuary marked this somber milestone with a 10th anniversary event on July 14. Still Standing included a community remembrance ceremony and free tour of the operation for Westport residents. The event was also a celebration of life.

Wendy Taylor, the founder and executive director of the West Place Animal Sanctuary, was an emergency responder during the rescue. She lived and breathed the case and all of its horrors for five months, traveling back and forth to assist animals in need. Her Sanctuary ended up rescuing nearly 70 animals from the nightmare, but that wasn’t the initial plan, at least not for Taylor.

“As things were finally winding down, and animals were being sent to Florida, and to the Rockies, and to upstate New York, the adoption managers turned to me and asked, ‘So who are you going to be taking?’ My initial thought was no one,” she said. “I gave five months of my life for this rescue, and I have no staff and only a couple of volunteers on the weekends. We were still in our infancy, and I was still practicing law.

“Those of us who get called upon know that when we need to step up and give a little bit more, we do, so I took in 67 of those 1,100 rescues, and we have rehabilitated them and celebrated their lives every day for so many reasons, but also because the rescue did not end in July of 2016. It had only just begun.”

Farm animals are underrepresented, underserved, and often overlooked, according to Taylor, but “they are just as sentient, emotional, and intelligent as our dog and cat companions.”

A tragic house fire on a mild winter day 23 years ago took the lives of Taylor’s nine four-legged friends, including two dogs, six cats, and a goat named Mo. The tragedy unlocked the attorney’s passion for animal rescue and rehabilitation.

She transformed her 8-acre farm nestled between Weetamoo Woods and Pardon Gray Preserve into a nonprofit sanctuary for neglected and abused animals, most of the farm variety. The facility opened in 2007.

Today, with the support of some 75 volunteers, private donors, grants, and a full-time staff of five, the West Place Animal Sanctuary is home to about 300 animals, from horses and cows to alpacas and pigs. There’s also a lot of ducks, and koi and turtles swimming in the property’s pond.

Girlie is the last surviving duck at the Sanctuary from the Westport case.

At the recent “Still Standing” remembrance, Sadie, a goat who is at least 12 years old was the event’s star attraction. Wearing a pink party hat and matching bow, she received lots of pats and healthy applause when she was introduced at the late-morning press conference.

She had recently spent six days at an animal hospital with goat polio (a severe vitamin B1 deficiency) and a bacterial infection — a mere walk in the park compared to the condition Taylor found Sadie in 10 years ago.

“Let’s talk about Sadie for a minute. When I noted that the rescue is not happily ever after, but that it is merely the beginning of years, even decades, of daily care, Sadie, one of the survivors, is a perfect example,” Taylor told those gathered at the Sanctuary for the remembrance ceremony. “The animals that survived were sick. Sadie had scabby mouth, bilateral conjunctivitis, pneumonia, and disbudding complications. She had a shelf of medicine that was dedicated just for her, just to pull her through and to get her to survive.”

When Sadie returned to the Sanctuary from her recent hospital stay, she was quickly met by her best friend, Shaw, a fellow Westport survivor and Colby’s sister.

“They’re a couple,” said Patrick Cole, the Sanctuary’s director of development and communications. “These animals process a lot and they take care of each other.”

Cole began Tuesday’s press conference by noting that the “gruesome details of this case are unavoidable,” but “we can’t ignore the past, nor should we forget it. These unimaginable circumstances are also what make our survivor stories so powerful, and so emotional, and inspirational.”

Throughout the 30-minute press conference, the peacocks in their nearby housing would routinely scream, including immediately after Taylor wrapped up the event.

She said the Westport horror show changed the Sanctuary’s trajectory.

“In 2016, 10 years ago, I was still practicing law full time. West Place had me and a few weekend volunteers and no paid staff. The organization was largely self-funded, and I didn’t yet fully grasp the importance of what I was doing with the sheer number of animals in need of sanctuary,” Taylor said. “That abruptly changed in July of 2016. It was a lovely July day. My husband and I were on vacation. Then a call came from a number that I did not recognize. It was the National ASPCA officially asking if West Place could assist with a cruelty case. … I had no idea what lay ahead — the inhumane conditions, the sickness, the suffering, and all the death at our feet when we arrived is something that is so seared in my mind. It will live with me for the rest of my life. I don’t want any animal to ever have to experience that.”

Among the Westport survivors who found a home in Tiverton who didn’t make it to the 10th anniversary of their rescue were Carl (sheep), Maggie (goat), Parker (peacock), Percy (peacock), and Saltine (duck).