Puppy mill - 63 dogs seized
Millington, TN (US)Incident Date: Friday, Feb 1, 2008
County: Shelby
Disposition: Alleged
Case Images: 3 files available
Alleged: Patricia Kinney
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
Shelby County authorities busted a puppy mill in Shelby Forest today, confiscating 63 dogs and charging the owner with running a kennel without a license.
Six agencies descended on 6690 Walsh Road to remove the dachshunds, Jack Russell terriers and other dogs.
The animals appeared to be relatively clean and to have a normal weight as a dozen animal shelter personnel and deputies removed them from cages and placed them in carrying cases.
But the living conditions included some squalor.
The dogs were contained in about 40 wood-and-wire cages, each sitting on stilts.
The cages, clustered under trees about 100 yards behind the brick home, stood in an unkempt backyard amid a menagerie of roaming chickens, geese and pheasants.
The cage floors contained feces.
And the bare, muddy ground underneath the cages was marked by several areas where animal waste had been accumulated in large piles.
Charged with the zoning citation is Patricia Kinney.
She cooperated with authorities, voluntarily giving up the animals.
The case against her began when somebody purchased from Kinney a dog, which got sick. The buyer informed the Memphis Humane Society, which alerted the Health Department's rabies control, said L.C. Garth, manager of the Vector Control office.
The Health Department contacted Kinney earlier this week and had a look, counting about 100 dogs, Garth said.
Kinney apparently removed dozens of dogs by the time authorities returned today to cite her and remove the animals, Garth said.
Normally, the department prefers to surprise kennel violators, but that didn't happen this time due to factors Kinney did not elaborate upon.
Also participating in today's operation were Memphis, Bartlett and Collierville animal shelters, the Sheriff's Department and construction and codes enforcement.
The citation against Kinney is a zoning code violation and will be heard in Environmental Court.
Kennels are supposed to have drainage connected to a sanitary sewage system. Kinney's kennel did not have proper drainage, Garth said.
The dogs, a number of them pregnant, were being taken to other shelters to be evaluated, cleaned and given any needed treatment.
Area veterinarians will house the animals, which will be offered for adoption, said Nina Wingfield, supervisor of the Collierville Animal Shelter.
Garth told reporters that Kinney did not want to make a public comment.
Case UpdatesAnimal control officers took 63 dogs from a suspected puppy mill in Millington last Friday.
Officers on the scene described pretty poor conditions, but those who took the dogs in say things are very different for them now.
Dozens of dachshunds, tens of terriers, and even a poodle stand quietly when a visitor enters a room at the Bartlett Animal Shelter. Normally, dogs would bark and beg for attention, but these dogs just look at you with those sad puppy eyes that whisper "take me home."
Until Friday, the dogs lived behind a Shelby Forest home in conditions some animal officers described as being much like a puppy mill. "They were very happy to seem to get baths and be out of the cages." said Kim Scheu of the Bartlett Animal Shelter.
Scheu says the 20 or so dogs the city took in, had serious grooming problems, including toenails that were WAY too long.
Other than that, she says there were fairly well fed, and not malnourished at all.
Shelter managers say the dogs can be very lucrative, especially if they're bred 3 or 4 times a year, producing a litter of as many as 4 or 5 puppies.
And apparently they lived in hutch-like cages officers suspect they rarely got to leave.
Shelter managers say many so-called puppy mill operators mean well, but lack the means and know-how to run a healthy operation. "They think they're doing something really good, breeding and making a living at it and if you're responsible with it that's one thing. But what we see is, these puppy mill situations are not very responsible. And it's not good for the animals." said Scheu.
Too many animals in unsanitary conditions can and do spread disease, that's why the animals taken have to be carefully checked out before they can be offered for adoption.
"They will all be spayed and neutered this week and they will be available at 11:00 on Thursday." Scheu explained.
The woman who ran the puppy operation on Walsh Road near Millington, Patricia Kinney, faces charges of running a kennel without a license, and a Shelby County zoning violation. | Source: WREG - Feb 4, 2008
Update posted on Feb 6, 2008 - 11:40AM |
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