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Lemont police charged Andrew Malak with animal cruelty and felony weapons counts after a firearms search turned up 76 dogs in his home.
Police went to the house on McCarthy Road in Lemont, Illinois, on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, with a search warrant tied to a Cook County firearms restraining order. They found about 76 dogs in the home and garage and recovered three guns, CBS News Chicago, ABC7 Chicago and FOX 32 Chicago reported. Malak, 58, was released and is due in court Monday in Bridgeview.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer · · Updated
The case began as a gun case, not an animal case. ABC7 Chicago reported Malak's FOID card had been revoked, and the warrant was about firearms. The dogs are what officers found when they got there. Malak told FOX 32 the dogs were part of a nonprofit rescue and were fed and watered. Monday's court date in Bridgeview is the first chance for the charges to be tested. A charge is not a conviction.
A 58-year-old Lemont, Illinois, man is charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty and felony weapons offenses after police serving a firearms search warrant at his home found about 76 dogs living inside the house and garage, CBS News Chicago, ABC7 Chicago and FOX 32 Chicago reported. Police identified the homeowner as Andrew Malak. CBS News Chicago reported officers went to the home in the 800 block of McCarthy Road on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, to serve a search warrant tied to a firearms restraining order issued by a Cook County judge.
ABC7 Chicago reported police had learned Malak's FOID card was revoked. Police said three weapons were recovered, according to CBS News Chicago and ABC7 Chicago. Before serving the warrant, police determined the number of dogs at the home posed safety concerns for officers and called in Cook County Animal Control and the Cook County Sheriff's Office Animal Cruelty Unit, CBS News Chicago reported. Police described it as a hoarding case.
CBS News Chicago reported investigators said conditions inside were not livable and that the house has been condemned. Lemont Police Chief Jason LoCoco told ABC7 Chicago the house was in "pretty deplorable conditions" but that the dogs themselves were "fairly healthy, active, friendly, a bit skittish." He said the effort to secure the animals took upwards of nine hours. Kim Arias, founder of Ruby Whiskers Animal Rescue, told CBS News Chicago, "You really couldn't breathe when you walked in." Animal control agencies from Grundy County, Palos Hills, Bolingbrook and Evergreen Park, along with several shelters, helped remove the dogs, CBS News Chicago reported. ABC7 Chicago reported Anti-Cruelty in Chicago said it took in 33 of them. The Daily Mail also reported the case.
Before police released details, Malak told FOX 32 Chicago the dogs were part of a nonprofit he runs that rescues pregnant animals, and that he had taken in seven pregnant dogs after a building in Leland, Illinois, closed. "If we go in there right now, you'll find buckets of food everywhere," he told the station. "I open feed, I open water, they're taken care of." FOX 32 reported police did not specify the exact charges. Neighbor Myra Bertlang told CBS News Chicago she dealt with noise at all hours and, in the last month or so, a "horrendous" smell, and that the village told neighbors its "hands were tied" because no ordinance limits how many dogs a person can keep.
CBS News Chicago reported Malak was taken into custody without incident and later released, and that his next court date is Monday in Bridgeview. The animal cruelty and weapons counts are accusations, not findings. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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