Armed with a tip and a warrant, detectives showed up at a house in Northport, N.Y., last week and found more than 200 animals living in squalor.

There were pets like cats, dogs, parrots and hamsters, and an exotic menagerie including hedgehogs, chinchillas and flying squirrels. Most of them were in cages strewed with waste, in a house infested with insects and so full of trash and debris that some areas were impassable, the authorities said.

On the second floor, it got worse.

The police came upon a 95-year-old woman so hemmed in by clutter that she was essentially trapped inside her room, investigators said.

The police arrested Samantha Boyd, 57, a wildlife rehabilitator. District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney of Suffolk County called the case “a deeply distressing situation.”

Ms. Boyd was charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty and endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person, prosecutors said.

Ms. Boyd pleaded not guilty and is due back in court this month. Her partner, Neal Weschler, 61, was also charged with counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty.

Neither responded to requests for comment, and police officers prevented a reporter from knocking on the door. Legal records did not show who was representing them in court.

The authorities did not name the older woman found at her house, but property records indicate that an Elsie Boyd, 95, lived with Samantha Boyd at the house, some 50 minutes east of New York City on Long Island. Records show that Elsie Boyd immigrated to the United States from England in 1955 along with her now-deceased husband, Reginald Boyd, who served in the British armed forces.

The authorities removed the 95-year-old woman from the home, said Tania Lopez, a spokeswoman for the district attorney. She declined to release other details for the sake of privacy.

On Monday, investigators milled about Ms. Boyd’s house, which sits atop a small wooded hill at the end of a driveway marked with red “NO TRESPASSING” signs and is surrounded by clutter and shielded from neighbors by trees.

In a 2021 article in a publication called The Human Interest Story, Ms. Boyd said she was a wildlife rehabilitator certified by New York State and also worked as a veterinary technician.

John Di Leonardo, a wildlife rehabilitator who runs a rescue and advocacy nonprofit, Humane Long Island, said it was his complaint that got the authorities to respond. He said he grew suspicious after seeing online postings by Ms. Boyd about rescued animals she was not licensed to keep, like crows and mallard ducks. Upon stopping by the home, he said, “It smelled like a hoarder house.” He added, “There were red flags all over, lots of clutter and wildlife on the property.”

During the house search, Mr. Di Leonardo helped the authorities remove the animals for placement with rescue groups.

These included ferrets, squirrels, ducks, chickens, geese, turkeys, hedgehogs, chipmunks, rabbits, crows, starlings, doves, guinea pigs, voles, flying squirrels, parakeets and tortoises.

“The level of neglect was unconscionable,” said Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina of Suffolk County.

Inside, Mr. Di Leonardo said, “There was feces and garbage everywhere, with many of the animals cooped up in cages in their own filth without food or water.”

He said many of the animals had illnesses including bone and staph infections. For example, he said, a Pekin duck with a bone infection had to be euthanized and another duck was drained of two pounds of fluid from an infection.

Officials with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said Ms. Boyd had no record of infractions related to her wildlife rehabilitator license. The officials said the agency assisted with the search and removal at the house last week and would investigate further.

In the 2021 article, Ms. Boyd said she and Mr. Wechsler were avid beekeepers and sold the honey to help fund the rehabilitation of baby animals.

“I love being able to save them — they’re all little souls,” she said in the article.

She spoke of helping to rescue more than 300 animals in the first half of 2021 alone and also making pets of 30 of the rescues. She said she would bring sometimes 45 baby rescues to work with her.

“It takes an hour to just get them all loaded into the car,” she said in the article.

Mr. Di Leonardo called the situation “a classic case of animal hoarding disorder.”

“Having more than 200 animals in a suburban home is ridiculous,” he said.

Nate Schweber contributed reporting, and Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.