Hundreds of dogs seized from commercial dog breeder
Clarendon, QC (CA)

Incident Date: Friday, Sep 16, 2011

Disposition: Convicted

Defendants/Suspects:
» Nicole Labombard
» Charlene Labombard

Case Updates: 2 update(s) available

Officials have swooped in on a puppy mill near Shawville, seizing more than 500 malnourished dogs from the "Paws R Us" kennel in what officials say could be the largest animal cruelty case in the Quebec's history.

The dogs were found Friday on a property in a rural area west of Montreal. They were living in poor conditions without sufficient food and water.

Guy Auclair, a spokesman for the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, said the scale of the seizure is without precedent in Quebec.

"We have had this kind of situation before, but [with] a lower number of animals," Auclair said in an interview Saturday.

Auclair said the dogs were different breeds and ranged in age from puppies to fully-grown.

Many were found suffering from skin and respiratory problems, he said.

They were placed under the care of Humane Society International, which had already transported several hundred dogs to a treatment center Saturday.

Other dogs received treatment at the scene.

"This is definitely one the largest operations that we've ever come across in Canada," said Lauren Scott, a spokeswoman for the organization who was at the site.

"It also involves some of the worst conditions we have seen to date. I personally can say that I found it heartbreaking to see what these dogs have endured."

The investigation is ongoing and charges could be laid against the operators of the puppy mill, Auclair said.

It will be up to the courts to decide whether the dogs will be put for adoption or returned to their original owners, he said.

Scott said she's hopeful that's the case.

"They just so desperately need a second chance so we'll be turning to the public for that," she said.

Paws "R " Us is owned by members of the Labombard family, who have been running the facility for more than 16 years.

Co-owner Nicole Labombard said that the confiscated dogs were not mistreated.

"There's a veterinarian that visits the facility every two weeks and vaccinates my puppies," she told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview Saturday.

Labombard says the facility has automated feeding equipment on every animal pen and that the visiting veterinarian would have told her if the puppies were malnourished.

"I'm losing my livelihood and I'm very upset," said Paws "R" Us owner Charlene Labombard on Friday, holding back tears. "It just breaks my heart."

The kennel does not screen the dogs for genetic disease, as some breeders do, but the buildings are cleaned and disinfected daily, Labombard said. The kennel breeds about 30 types of dogs in its barns.

Paws "R " Us kennel made headlines in 2006 when they sued Lorie Gordon, a Brockville dog owner, for libel because of comments she made about the business on an Internet bulletin board.

Gordon bought a Labrador retriever from Paws "R" Us and had it euthanized two years later after it developed a heart murmur and painful hip dysplasia.

The kennel gave her a golden retriever as a free replacement.

It scratched itself until it bled because of itchy mange and was now being treated for epilepsy.

Gordon was ordered to pay $14,000 after a judge found she had libelled the commercial dog breeder online.

The province has long been considered the puppy mill capital of North America, with an estimated 800 unregulated breeding operations in Montreal alone.

Quebec was named "the best province to be an animal abuser" in the

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