BERNE — A rescue service is now empty of animals, after the horses, goats, sheep, and pigs were taken away due to an investigation into a cruelty case.

Linda Mellin, 45, of Berne, was charged on Wednesday with eight counts of failure to provide sustenance, all misdemeanors, according to the Albany County Sheriff’s Office.

Mellin had long aspired to open and run her shelter, said Zenie Gladieux of the Helderberg Hilltowns Association. The HHA had held a farmers’ market from 2013 to 2014, and Mellin had sold herbal bath products in 2014 with her partner in order to support her dream of having an animal shelter, said Gladieux.

The sheriff’s office executed a search warrant of the property at 745 Sickle Hill Road after News Channel 13 received an anonymous tip that animals on the property were living in inadequate conditions. The three-acre property, with “manufactured housing,” a two-car garage and shed, is owned by Linda Cushing and has a full market value of $86,719, according to Albany County assessment rolls.

The investigation found animals living without food, water, or adequate shelter, said the sheriff’s report, in total: three horses, five pigs, five sheep, 17 goats, approximately 15 chickens, four dogs, and two cats.

According to Chief Deputy William M. Rice, the address is an animal rescue service known as D&W Farm and Animal Rescue.

The Enterprise could not reach Mellin for comment.

Gladieux last heard from Mellin in the spring of 2015, when she told Gladieux her rescue service was underway. Gladieux described Mellin as a warm and compassionate woman.

“She was passionate about her rescue service. The person portrayed in the newspapers is not the person I know,” said Gladieux, referring to recent accounts of Mellin’s arrest.

Gladieux said she saw the shelter’s horses years ago, and said they appeared skinny but presumed that was because they had been rescued. She suspected Mellin “got in over her head” at her animal rescue.

“I feel really bad for her,” she said. “I know that’s not how she wanted this to turn out.”

Hoarding, including animal hoarding, is recognized as a mental illness in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. According to Tufts University’s Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium, animal hoarding is specifically defined as having more than a typical number of companion animals, failure to provide even minimum standards of care to these animals and denying that failure, and persistence in accumulation and control of these animals.

Dr. Carlin Jones, VMD, of the Equine Clinic at OakenCroft, assisted in the investigation, said Rice. The animals are now being kept at Camp Pinnacle in New Scotland until Mellin’s case is heard in court. Should Mellin not be able to keep her animals, they will be put up for adoption, said Rice.

A representative from Camp Pinnacle who declined to give his name said the animals arrived mid-morning last Thursday.

“They were clearly content once they arrived here,” he said.

The representative said Dr. Jones would be doing a follow-up appointment for the animals this Monday or Tuesday.

Camp Pinnacle, a Christian youth camp and retreat center, has 12 of its own horses, but in order to accommodate the smaller farm animals the staff had to work quickly. Four volunteers made several pens, including one specifically for a mother goat and her kid separate from the other goats.

“We had to do a lot of fast thinking,” said the representative.

Volunteers have since stayed on to look after the animals, and there is a possibility the animals could be viewed by the public at an open house on Sunday, should the sheriff’s office be willing to collaborate.

The camp’s director, Stephen Flach, had worked directly with Sheriff Craig Apple before, when he served as the supervisor of the town of Coeymans, said the camp’s representative.

It initially appeared the five pigs were not wanted by anyone, and there had been plans to put up the pigs at Albany County’s jail, said Rice. However, upon hearing the news, someone reached out to the sheriff’s office and agreed to take the pigs to a farm.

Mellin was released on an appearance ticket, said Rice. She is due in Berne Town Court on May 23.

Two years ago, Mellin had been charged by a sheriff’s deputy for assault by recklessly causing physical injury, and for acting in a manner that could injure a minor under 17, both misdemeanors, according to Enterprise records. Mellin’s dog ran onto a neighbor’s property and bit a 13-year-old child, the arrest report said; Mellin restrained the dog, but then attempted to punch the child’s parent, hitting someone else instead. She was arraigned at Berne Town Court and released on her own recognizance.

A blog connected to D&W Farm includes posts apparently written by Mellin (one is signed off as “Linda and the crew”) from 2012 to 2013, with entries about her animals, her bath products, and even trading goods for animals and vice versa at the farmers market.

“The rescue started officially about a year and half ago. When we started the rescue we had wanted to just be involved with equine..... but as the phone calls came in we found that we got involved with all sorts of animals,” said the first entry in March 2012, describing fostering 38 cats and kittens and seeking owners for them.

“Well it is 6am the baby goats are calling to be fed.... so I will continue this later. Until then be kind to yourself and animals,” the entry concludes.

Anyone looking to assist with fostering the animals may contact the Sheriff’s Office at (518) 765-2351.

Updated on May 15, 2017: Information from Zenie Gladieux, Camp Pinnacle, and Linda Mellin’s blog was added.