WASHINGTON — Some of the adult dogs arriving at the Montgomery County, Md., animal shelter Thursday acted like newborn pups with splayed legs, wobbly as they tried to walk. They had never been on solid ground.
At first, they didn’t know how to eat from a bowl, so accustomed were they to the troughs at the puppy mill in southwestern Virginia from which they had just been rescued. Several had matted hair around their eyes and couldn’t see. The pads of their feet were sore or cut from being confined to wire cages.
When word of the dogs’ plight surfaced last week on the website of the Humane Society of the United States – that officials in Carroll County, Va., had seized nearly 1,000 dogs from a suspected puppy mill – reaction from animal lovers was immediate and intense.
Volunteers from the Washington region joined others from Florida and New York who streamed to the rural town of Hillsville near the North Carolina border. Families began calling to ask when they could adopt the dogs. Donations rolled in; PetSmart sent a trailer full of kibble and other supplies.
“It’s been incredible,” County Administrator Gary Larrowe said of the outpouring. Larrowe had declared a state of emergency after hundreds of dogs were found living in filthy cages. Officials said they think it is the largest suspected puppy mill ever found in the state.
Volunteers from a local animal rights group said that when they made an undercover visit to dog breeder Junior Horton’s property, they were overwhelmed by the numbers of dogs crammed into wire cages in several outbuildings. In one, whelping mothers lay with their distended bellies under heat lamps, waiting to give birth. The dogs appeared to have food and water, but feces under their cages had not been cleaned.
A decision on whether to file criminal charges against Horton is expected within a few weeks.
