Two starving beagles have been rescued from a cage at the back of a property in Marks Point in Lake Macquarie.
Dog Rescue Newcastle said the hound dogs - a mother and daughter aged 15 and 7 - were about a third of their normal weight.
Rescuers alleged the dogs were starving to death and covered in mud and faeces.
Photos of the dogs show their ribs were visible through their skin. They had no bedding or blankets.
"They were barely surviving. I would be surprised if the mother had lived another week or two," one rescuer said. "They hadn't been to the vet in years and only had dirty rainwater to drink."
Dog Rescue Newcastle president Sue Barker said the dogs were "skin and bone".
"They've been starved. It's horrendous," she alleged.
Ms Barker described the cage the dogs were locked in as a "torture chamber".
"It was filthy and full of mud," she said.
Ms Barker said the owners of the dogs contacted the rescue group, saying "they're moving into a five-bedroom house and they wanted to get rid of the dogs".
"They tried to give them to the pound, but they wouldn't take them," she said.
An old man and his wife owned the dogs - a beagle-harrier crossbreed.
"The man said his father used to breed the dogs. He called them hunting dogs, as if that meant they were not pets," one rescuer said.
The Herald contacted the owners and asked why they kept the animals in a small muddy cage without bedding and let them starve.
The woman said she and her husband had health problems and trouble feeding the dogs.
"They were fed every second day, but they're not really a fat dog anyway. They're a hunting dog," she said.
Asked if the dogs were ever let out of the cage, she said: "We couldn't because we couldn't catch them. They would jump the fence".
Asked if they felt bad about the way they treated the dogs, she said: "Of course we do".
The dogs did not have names before their rescue.
Their carer, who named them Elsa and Ivy, said they now sleep inside with doonas. They have little doggy coats and spend a lot of time enjoying the sun.
"It's really easy to get into anger, but as far as I'm concerned their life started this week [after the rescue]. I'm just focusing on giving them love, attention and warmth. I'm so proud to be a member of Dog Rescue Newcastle. They do wonderful work."
Ms Barker said animals "have feelings".
"They feel pain and distress," she said.
She wondered whether anyone else, including neighbours, knew about the condition of the dogs.
"People know what goes on," she said.
