Thursday, July 22, 2010

Inside a puppy mill rescue and compulsive hoarding

Wayne Pacelle

he name Sea Breeze Kennels conjures up nothing but pleasant images. But as our Wilde Puppy Mill Task Force discovered, the facility by that name was anything but pleasant. Working with deputies from the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Office, our team found more than 100 dogs living in absolute filth and squalor, and plenty of sick and ill animals. The Humane Society of the United States and its partners have now rescued these dogs, and you can see details of the raid and the rescue effort on this video.

Seeing these images reminded me of the images I saw last night on Animal Planet in its new
series about animal hoarding. That six-part series, which will highlight The HSUS’s rescue work in selected cases and airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, focuses on people with a mental disorder that results in their having more animals than they can reasonably care for, and the homes of these hoarders soon become overtaken by the smells of urine and feces everywhere. The homes become one large litter box, rarely if ever cleaned, and these hoarders increasingly become estranged from their own families.

The images from the Mississippi puppy mill were even more disturbing than the hoarding cases profiled last night, and they were pretty awful. We at The HSUS are committed to rescuing animals in distress, but most importantly to prevent animals from getting into these circumstances in the first place...." More

No comments: