A pair of dogs arrived at an Arkansas shelter in horrific condition, having been found in the most distressing of home situations.

Susan Taylor, a volunteer at an animal shelter in Benton, took to her TikTok @beforeIlearnedcivility, to share the heartbreaking story of Cookie and Snickerdoodle. “A shelter staff member was showing me the new dogs who had come in since I was there the week before,” Taylor told Newsweek. “I honestly just fell to my knees when I saw them.”

Taylor’s video offers a glimpse of the upsetting sight that greeted her: two desperately sad-looking dogs, barely recognizable under a mountain of dirty, matted fur. The two pups were desperate for love and eager to approach Taylor for affection or even just simply some attention; the volunteer would quickly learn the alarming reason for this.

“I was informed these dogs were found laying on top of their deceased person,” Taylor said. “That person had been deceased for at least a week.”

That didn’t entirely explain the dogs’ distressing state, though. That remains something of a mystery. “God knows how long they’d been matted like that or why,” Taylor said. “Their person could’ve had financial hardships. But the dogs paid the price, and it’s just not fair.”

Taylor said that Cookie and Snickerdoodle ultimately ended up at the shelter because “the family of the deceased either couldn’t or didn’t want to take on their care.”

The pair now face an anxious wait to see if they will be adopted. Shelter Animals Count’s midyear report found that 2.8 million cats and dogs entered shelters in the U.S. over the first half of 2025. That represents a 4 percent decline from the previous year.

Over the same period, 1.9 million were adopted in what is a 1-percent dip on the previous year’s figures, with canine adoptions dropping modestly from month to month.

Taylor will be hoping Cookie and Snickerdoodle are among those to find a new home. They have certainly been given a leg up in the past few weeks since that video was filmed.

“The shelter had already partnered with a rescue to take them,” Taylor said. “They’re with Last Chance Arkansas. It’s a foster-based rescue. They’re doing much better. The rescue has a professional groomer as a volunteer, and she was set to pick them up the following day.”

Taylor said she hopes the clip of Cookie and Snickerdoodle provides a wake-up call to the realities of shelter life for so many dogs and the tireless efforts of those trying to help them.

“Dogs come in stressed, neglected, lonely, confused, lost, etc. It’s ugly, smelly, heartbreaking work to be in animal rescue. But it must be done,” Taylor said.

“We are facing an animal overpopulation crisis, the likes of which we’ve never seen. We need the community to see it for themselves and demand community leaders to do more, invest more, and partner more to save lives.”