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11/10/2007 10:01:14 PM · #1 |
Don't know how far this story has spread but county officials took approximately 980 dogs from a puppy mill in Hillsville, VA this week. Rescue organizations from up and down the east coast rushed in to help, including the shelter I volunteer for in northern VA. They asked me to come over and take pictures last night as the trailer arrived with the rescued dogs. Some went into foster care (moms and puppies), some went to other local shelters, and some stayed with us.
The dogs we got weren't in bad shape, except for having no idea how to cope with anything outside a small wire cage, but we're working on it. This was my favorite shot of the night:
It actually wasn't a bad way to spend a Friday night ;-) |
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11/10/2007 10:12:07 PM · #2 |
| Bless the Beasts. Thanks for reporting such a happy event. |
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11/10/2007 11:11:22 PM · #3 |
Most puppy mill puppies are sold through pet stores. As long as the uneducated public are willing to spend hundreds of dollars for dogs in pet stores, those pet stores will keep buying cheap dogs out of puppy mills. As long as the the states that most puppy mills reside in won't enact laws that have some real teeth in them, people will keep setting up puppy mills. The people that are really behind this puppy mill have probably already skipped to another state and set up another breeding ground, leaving the people that got caught to face the minor chages if any.
Besides being a travisty to the animals, it's just as bad for all the people that buy puppy mill pups and then find out they either have to spend thousands in vet bills a few years later because of the poor health or are heartbroken when they lose the animal much too soon because of those same health problems.
We've been fighting puppy mills for years, but so few states have real laws and the AKC won't do anything because they would lose the registration money they get from all these dogs that get registered.
At least there are people like you, Mary, that are willing to step in and do what you can for the animals when a place like this gets shut down. It's a termindous burden on the volunteers, vets, animal control agencies, rescue groups and those that take the animals in.
Mike
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11/11/2007 09:21:07 AM · #4 |
The sheer volume of dogs involved with this one was pretty amazing, and the dogs lucked out when the owner agreed to give them up rather than fight anything in court. Laws and practices vary, but typically when animals are seized pending the outcome of a court case they have to be kept in the possession of the local animal control people for however long it takes. I can't imagine there are too many animal control facilities set up to handle that kind of volume!
Everyone on our end pitched in quite cheerfully. It's nice to be part of such an effort and know these dogs are very close to living happily ever after in someone's home. They definitely have socialization issues and may have health issues, but people seem to be more willing to commit to solving and/or living with these problems when they know the animal's story.
For more info on the whole Hillsville rescue, see the HSUS website. There's a video there that shows the animals in their original cages (stacked in wire-bottom cages where they lived 24x7, with the urine and feces flowing downward) and then being processed through a triage sort of area and going to rescue groups.
Oh - I got an email last night from one of the other volunteers saying she enjoyed my pictures because when she was working she only saw a small piece of the goings-on, while I was running around trying to capture a little bit of everything to tell the story. Happy to have made her happy :-) The rest of my photos are in my SmugMug gallery if anyone wishes to vicariously share in the effort. Technically these aren't the best pictures I've ever taken, but I told the story I wanted to tell. |
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11/11/2007 01:42:14 PM · #5 |
| i would love tp help these dogs in some way. i have tried to contact several rescue groups and have not gotten a response. I am hoping they are so overwhelmed with support they do not need any more help. However, just in case I am an experienced dog person. I have groomed, shown, and whelped puppies. If I can be of help let me know or who i can contact.Thanks! |
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11/11/2007 02:16:46 PM · #6 |
Kudos to you Mary for being involved and for documenting the story. What a horrible situation - the things people think they can do for $$$. I cannot believe that so many animals could be kept there.
I want that beagle lol
Keep up the great work!
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