Lewis County sheriff's spokesman Steve Aust said animal control officers seized 72 foxhounds, some of them puppies, from a home in the 400 block of River Road. A deceased dog was also found on the property.
Two Animal Control officers from Clark County helped with the rescue. They took 16 of the dogs to a Vancouver Humane Society.
The animals were living in deplorable conditions, said Aust.
"The puppies that were brought out were wading in inches of feces," said Pasado's Safe Haven spokesperson Amber Chenoweth.
Aust said the county had been working with the dogs' owner for the past few months in an effort to get her property up to code. However, it became clear that the owner, a woman in her 70s, would not be able to do so.
[The reason the woman in her 70s was "unable to do so" was because she didn't care. She churned out puppies like nobody's business, all for greed of money. She had been making money hand over fist for years like this so why should she work twice as hard at providing humane living conditions when the dogs continue to breed no matter what their conditions? She would have kept this up if they hadn't forced her to come to a crossroads.]
"This looks like a hoarding situation, a puppy mill situation," said Chenoweth.
The owner has given up custody of all the dogs, and all of the animals will eventually be available for adoption.
Pasado's Safe Haven was providing temporary shelter for some of the dogs, and the rest will be kept at various shelters.
A necropsy will be performed on the deceased dog, Aust said. The owner has not been [yet been] charged.
(KCBY - Oct 21, 2012)
