Bloodhound Found In Brick Hoarding Case Reunited With Tennessee Family

BRICK, NJ — Bloodhounds are highly regarded for their ability to track scents, helping to rescue humans who are lost.

For a bloodhound who wound up among the dogs and cats being kept in feces-encrusted cages in a Brick Township home, it was humans who did the tracking and rescuing ... and reuniting her with her family.

The Ocean County Health Department shared photos of the joyful reunion on New Year's Eve of Daisy with the Price family, who drove 11 hours from Tennessee to claim their dog.

"Fortunately, Daisy was microchipped," county officials said in a post on the department's Facebook page. The shelter workers have been scanning the animals for chips in an effort to reunite ones who have been separated from their owners.

Shelter officials said they were able to track down the Price family with some help from the Brick Township Police Department.

Brian Lippai, spokesman for the health department said Daisy had become separated from her family two years ago, but the Prices kept the chip information active and up to date, which led to the reunion at the Northern Ocean Animal Facility in Jackson on Saturday.

"Mr. Price was shocked that Daisy was found all the way here in Jersey among the Brick hoarder pets," officials said in the Facebook post. The family was ecstatic, they said.

Daisy is the third dog to be reunited with her owners; a collie named Rocky was returned to his owners right before Christmas. And a mixed breed named Couchy — a street dog who had been sent to Crazy Rescue Ladies — was returned to the woman in South Carolina who saved him.

The two women charged in the hoarding incident, Aimee Lonczak, 49, and Michele Nycz, 58, were scheduled for their next court appearance on Jan. 12. Both are charged with animal cruelty and child endangerment, because Lonczak's 16-year-old daughter was living with them and faced with the unsanitary conditions of the home.

At their detention hearing on Dec. 8, Assistant Prosecutor Alexander Becker described the conditions in the home in detail: feces 3 inches deep on the floors, cages stacked on cages and ziptied together, encrusted with feces, animals living in their own feces and those of the animals above them; and the odor of urine and feces so strong police officers had to step out and call for hazardous materials crews after barely setting foot in the home.

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