When authorities in Webster, Mass., reported in August that they had seized 29 neglected animals from a squalid house owned by dog trainer Beatrice Nielsen, animal lovers in southeastern Connecticut were heartbroken.

Nielsen, 50, who is also known as Beatrice DeGruttola, worked for 12 years at My Dog's Place, an animal daycare and training business with facilities in Mystic and Niantic.

She had acquired several dogs later found in the Webster house from Connecticut owners who could no longer care for them or couldn't handle their aggressive behavior. 

"These were Connecticut dogs," Suzanne Billings of Uncasville, a former employee of My Dog's place, said in a phone interview. "This was someone that people entrusted to take their dogs. People thought they were relinquishing their dogs to a professional. She told them, 'Of course I'll take care of them. I'll retrain them. I'll find them homes.'''

Nielsen, who has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of animal cruelty, is free on a $2,500 bond while her case is pending in district court in Dudley, Mass.

Neither she nor her attorney, Sarah Gager of New London, could be reached for comment.

Nielsen, who lives in Auburn, Mass., told a reporter from the Worcester Telegram recently that she had bought the Webster house for the animals and had fallen behind on cleaning and veterinarian care but was doing "a good thing."

Webster Animal Control Officer Michelle Ann LaFleche said that in nearly 10 years on the job she has never seen anything like what she found when authorities were called to 6 Cody St. for "a really bad decaying odor." 

The dogs were living in urine- and feces-soiled cages, some of which were too small, according to LaFleche. One cage was sealed shut with waste.

There were five cats and three birds. In the back yard, the authorities found a dead dog in a garbage bag. Nielsen told them it had died two days earlier and was awaiting cremation.

Eleven of the dogs were turned over to the ASPCA in Boston and 10 taken to local shelters. Two were euthanized after veterinarian evaluations.

One, a Sharpei named Darby, has been adopted, and the others are receiving veterinarian care and being evaluated for possible adoption, according to LaFleche.

One of the dogs confiscated was Marley, an 11-year-old black lab/greyhound mix that an Old Lyme couple adopted in 2008 from the town's animal shelter, according to Old Lyme Animal Control Officer Lynn Philemon.

Marley, a female dog, did not get along with certain people and dogs, so her owners took her to My Dog's Place to be socialized, Philemon said.

Two years ago, after the husband died and the wife became ill, Nielsen offered to take Marley. The owner, who has since moved out of Old Lyme, continued to send Nielsen money for Marley's upkeep, Philemon said.

The woman and Philemon, who sometimes house-sat with Marley, were crushed when they found out how Marley had been living.

"She (the former owner) said she wished she had put Marley to sleep and saved her from the last two years," Philemon said.

The dogs taken from the Nielsen home were not starving, but they could not stop drinking water, according to the Webster animal control officer. 

"That's one of the hardest things we're dealing with," LaFleche said. "When they get water, psychologically, they seem to think they don't know when the next time is that they're going to have it."

Though the dogs now have kennels with outdoor access, they continued to defecate and urinate on their beds for some time, LaFleche said.

Nielsen is no longer working at My Dog's Place, where the owner, Marge Lineweber, said she was shocked to hear of the animal cruelty allegations.

"It's a very difficult situation," said Lineweber, who has been inundated by calls from media outlets reporting on the story and clients wanting information.

Becky Maurice, owner and head trainer of All Bright Canines in Oakdale, took up a collection and, with the help of her clients, filled a van with supplies and delivered them to the Massachusetts shelters caring for the confiscated animals.

"I was so devastated when I heard about it because this was a trainer, and I'm a trainer and I own a daycare business, and people look to us to take care of their dogs and they trust us," Maurice said. "I said, 'Why don't we turn this around and do something positive?' ''

Maurice had worked with one of the confiscated dogs, an Australian cattle dog named Merlin, whose owners relinquished him to Nielsen because he had aggression issues.

"They felt like the dog would be better off with a trainer," Maurice said.

After the raid on Nielsen's house, Maurice and the former owner saw a picture of Merlin in "a crate full of filth."

When she saw the confiscated dogs, Maurice said it appeared some had worn their teeth down trying to escape from their crates.

She drove to the Webster house, where she said she could still smell the stench a week after the raid.

"This is somebody who advised people on how to take care of their animals, and this is how they live?" Maurice said.

None of the sources interviewed for this story said they had seen Nielsen mistreat an animal, but former employees of My Dog's Place said the trainer's dogs seemed stressed and over-thirsty when she brought them to the daycare.

Billings said she and Ellen Jones, another former employee of My Dog's Place, helped identify some of the confiscated dogs and attended Nielsen's recent court hearing.

Billings and others said they plan to follow the case through the justice system.

Nielsen is due back in court Oct. 28.

"I will go to every single one of the court dates," Billings said this week. "I want to be there for the dogs. I feel like we owe these dogs something."

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN