Charges 'Unlikely' For Couple Accused Of Running Puppy Mill
Charges 'Unlikely' For Couple Accused Of Running Puppy Mill - Local News Story - KHBS NW Arkansas
POSTED: 7:20 pm CDT March 24, 2009
UPDATED: 8:20 pm CDT March 24, 2009
PARIS, Ark. -- Logan County Sheriff Steve Smith said his department began receiving complaints against Leonard and Sandra Krupenski two years ago.
The complaints accused the couple of having unsanitary living conditions for hundreds of dogs and puppies at their 82-acre residence, just outside of Paris.
Smith said over the past two years he had numerous conversations with the couple and encouraged them to diminish the number of animals on their property.
Follow up visits to the property showed no signs of improvement, which prompted Smith and officials from the U.S. Humane Society to execute a search warrant.
Officials seized more than 300 dogs and puppies, along with other animals including horses and turtles.
"The lady (Sandra Krupenski) would claim that she loved every single one of these animals -- that they were her babies -- and that they would die without her," said Desiree Benton, director of the Arkansas Humane Society.
Benton said the seizure was the second largest puppy mill bust in Arkansas history.
Smith said the couple was a licensed dog breeder in the past, but recently had their license revoked. An official with the United States Department of Agriculture told 40/29 News that the Krupenski's were not "active" licensed breeders.
Smith said despite the large volume of animals, he believes the couple wasn't intentionally neglecting the animals.
"These are elderly people who were unable to care for them as they should have been," Smith said. "It wasn't intentional neglect -- it was unintentional I believe."
Benton disagrees.
"(It was a) typically puppy mill," Benton said. "They don't see anything wrong with how the dogs were living."
Both Smith and Benton said the state and local government don’t have enough resources to handle animal cases of this magnitude.
“Our state is so over populated with animals (and) we have so very few shelters,” Benton said. “We have three counties in the entire state that have an actual municipal county funded animal shelter."
Smith said it will be up to the prosecuting attorney whether to file animal cruelty charges against the Krupenski's. He said charges will be "unlikely" since the couple relinquished custody of the animals to the U.S. Humane Society.
The seized animals will be taken to shelters across the country to be cared for and eventually adopted.