Dogs' Best Friends to the Rescue

A 4-year-old Pekingese "spent her whole life in that crate, delivering litter after litter after litter," said J.C. Crist, president of the Montgomery Humane Society.

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The animals were groomed and vaccinated. They also got names -- Pearl the poodle, Snook the Puggle and Red Sox, a Boston terrier.

"They have toys now, but a lot of them don't know what to do with them," said Ashley Owen, a Montgomery shelter official. "They were deprived of playtime, affection, love, attention, toys, bones."

In Fairfax County, animal control officers returned late yesterday with 32 dogs of all ages, including some that were pregnant. They said the dogs needed to be examined and given a rabies vaccination, if appropriate, before they can be adopted. The dogs -- which were distributed among shelters in Fairfax, Alexandria, Arlington County and the District -- won't be available for adoption until at least next week, officials said. Loudoun County officials also brought back some of the dogs.

"We've gotten calls all day from people who are very interested in coming in to help," said Karen Diviney, director of the Fairfax animal shelter. "The phone has been ringing really all day."

It was dark outside the Fairfax shelter yesterday and dripping chilly rain when the dogs arrived, and the police trailer they arrived in was emblazoned with an ominous label: MAJOR INCIDENT SUPPORT UNIT.

But inside the trailer, the poufy white Lhasa apsos and curly-coated poodles looked joyous, leaping up and down on the pastel-colored towels that lined their cages and yelping to the shelter staffers and police officers who cooed over them.

"That is the cutest little haircut," said Diviney, pointing to a bichon fris¿ with a mass of fur covering its eyes. "That one looks like a little Jack Russell. And this one is going to end up in my right pocket!"

Animal welfare advocates say that puppy mills -- unlicensed, illegal facilities that breed large numbers of purebred puppies -- have proliferated as demand has increased and dogs have become easier to buy, over the Internet or through newspaper ads. Such animals are often kept in small wire cages, receive inadequate veterinary care and are not domesticated, advocates say.

"It's a huge problem," said Tara deNicolas, a spokeswoman for the Washington Humane Society. Although large puppy mills are often found in Midwestern farm states, her group recently rescued three beagles from an illegal operation in Southeast Washington.

Stephanie Shain, director of the Stop Puppy Mills campaign for the Humane Society, said her group started an investigation of puppy mills in Virginia last year after receiving calls from people who adopted animals from pet store that were unhealthy and died.

Undercover investigators from animal rights groups visited Horton's property several times between April and August and made hidden-camera video recordings of hundreds of dogs kept outside in wire containers. The dogs were all manner of breeds, including Yorkshire and Boston terriers, Cavalier King Charles spaniels, poodles and Jack Russell terriers. The activists showed their video to Carroll officials, who began their investigation.

(Videos can be seen on the Humane Society's Web site at http://www.hsus.org/).

Juan Lopez, director of rescue operations for the Montgomery Humane Society, said he was stunned to see where the hundreds of dogs were penned up, in rabbit hutches on stilts lined along a sloping valley.

"That's when it hit me -- the sheer number and the sheer lack of compassion," he said. "All of these animals were used for production, and that's it."

Staff writer Karin Brulliard and staff researcher Karl Evanzz contributed to this report.