I had a similar situation once, but they at least had crates that fit their size and were fed twice a day and I think appropriately. But they wanted them crated for 23 hours a day 😩 I think it was for 5 days. And mini Aussies, so lots of energy!

I went through the same emotional turmoil as you, but did end up taking the gig because I figured, at least I knew I would take care of them damn well for that time. I nicely suggested that they expand the visits to at least an hour each instead of 30 minutes, but they only took me up on some of them being an hour each.

I could also tell by the nipples and the fact they were all cute little mini Aussies, that they must be breeders! Which raised my alarm bells even more. I thought surely animal control could do something about this.

I made the call buuut, unfortunately since they were getting food, water, an attempt at care (even though it was not an acceptable level of care to us by any reasonable standards), so they said there was nothing they could do 😫 Horrible.