150 dogs seized from N.C. breeder
More than 150 dogs were seized Tuesday from a Danbury, N.C., breeder who was selling dogs for thousands of dollars but raising them in conditions authorities described as unhealthy and inhumane.
“I’m very ashamed that this happened in my county, and I’m appalled at how the dogs were being kept,” Phil Handy, Stokes County Animal Control officer, told Fox News in Greensboro.
The dogs were seized from Dan River Bullies, which sold English bulldog, French bulldogs and Shih Tzu puppies. (Its website was taken down yesterday.)
Officials with the Humane Society of the United States said the dogs appeared never to have been groomed or vaccinated, and lived in stacked cages, their food thrown on the floor next to their feces.
The Guilford County Animal Shelter in Greensboro took in 130 of the animals, many of which had multiple health problems, including infected eyes, skin and teeth, shelter director Marsha Williams said.
The rest of the animals were taken to Raleigh and Charlotte.
Veterinarians said several of dogs were old, but appeared to have spent most of their lives being bred.
The property is owned by Lucile Mabe, who authorities said could face multiple animal cruelty charges.
Williams said the case once again shows the need for strong puppy mill legislation in North Carolina.
“We need to change that and make it stricter, where they’re getting inspected and they’re required to have medical attention for their animals,” she said.
Posted by jwoestendiek February 8th, 2012 under Muttsblog, videos.
Tags: animals, breeder, breeding, dan river bullies, danbury, dogs, english bulldogs, french bulldogs, guilford county animal shelter, hsus, humane society of the united states, lucille mabe, marsha williams, north carolina, pets, puppy mills, raid, seized, shih tzus, stokes county
Comments
Comment from Tina
Time February 8, 2012 at 8:46 pm
Good points, KateH!
The danriverbullies.com website is already offline. Based on the cached pages – bad grammar and all – and some other complaints filed from people who got puppies from this place in the past, I’m very surprised it took this long to shut them down.
Good riddance!
Now to find all those poor pups good, loving homes…
Comment from Further Info
Time September 9, 2012 at 10:50 am
Hooray for the progress made in NC this past year to expose and shut down these “concentration camps”. This goes a long way to educate the public as well. Bravo!!!
Comment from KateH
Time February 8, 2012 at 7:10 pm
I wonder what it will take to get people to understand that if they are looking at a website and there are many different breeds of dogs (and possibly mixes of those breeds) available from one person, that it’s a freakin’ puppy mill!!!!!! Good, eithical breeders only breed one breed (or very occasionally different colors/sizes of one breed, like poodles) so they can do it well – and they don’t have puppies available any day of the year.