On an adjacent downtown property, a short stroll from the quaint restaurants and art galleries lining Salem Street, David Watts had long shared his crumbling house with what authorities say was a flock of about 80 sheep.

"He lives upstairs, and the sheep were living downstairs," Apex Police Sgt. Robert Towell said. "He considered them pets."

Investigators originally estimated the flock at 60. This morning, officials said the number was 80.

The sheep, which Watts occasionally walked around his residential neighborhood on a leash, are now in the custody of the Wake County Animal Care, Control and Adoption Center.

Director Michael Williams estimated that about half the sheep are in such poor condition that they will have to be euthanized.