Puppy mill - 44 dogs
Asheboro, NC (US)Incident Date: Friday, Jan 3, 2003
County: Randolph
Disposition: Convicted
Case Images: 2 files available
Defendant/Suspect: Linda Johnson
Charges are pending against a local dog breeder after the Randolph County Health Department confiscated more than 40 undernourished animals Thursday afternoon.
According to MiMi Cooper, Director of the Randolph County Health Department, Linda Johnson (age and current address not reported), who bred dogs at 1565 N.C. 49 South, Asheboro, will be charged with multiple counts of cruelty to animals after the landlord of the former Williams' Sporting Goods Store complained 44 dogs were kenneled in squalid conditions there.
Gray Ferguson, Randolph County Cruelty Investigator, said Thursday evening she would seek 44 counts of cruelty to animals against Johnson today.
Cooper said she spoke with Johnson by phone after Ferguson received a seizure order from a magistrate, but Johnson did not give Cooper a current address. "Linda (Johnson) was living at the site at one time, but not now," Cooper said. "When I spoke with her, she admitted she was wrong but was having (financial) trouble. She gave no specifics. She verbally turned the dogs over to us."
Cooper said Dr. John M. Canipe of Asheboro Animal Hospital examined the dogs before the animals were taken to the animal shelter and reported all the dogs had worms and were clearly malnourished, though some were in worse condition than others.
Neighbors who spoke to Cooper told her the animals were only sporadically tended to over the last month, Cooper said.
Ferguson said she received a phone call about the dogs' condition Thursday morning and took the information to a magistrate for a seizure order. She began taking the dogs to the animal shelter around 4 p.m. By 7:30 p.m., the shelter was still making room for the dogs.
"We were already at capacity," Cooper said. According to Cooper, the kennel was visited last summer after neighbors complained of excessive noise. At the time, according to Cooper, the animals were in good shape and Johnson was advised on the laws she was violating.
Seized were full-bred boxers, weimaraners, Welsh corgis, Italian greyhounds, miniature dobermans, cocker spaniels and chihuahuas.
Cooper said the animals would be kept until after the case was concluded, nursed back to health and put up for adoption. "Chances are good we can place all the animals," Cooper said. "They are all pure-breds. I don't know when they'll be available. We may have to hold them as evidence. References |
