[News] PRAIRIEVILLE, Texas - 600 Dogs seized in Kaufman Co.
 

600 dogs Seized in Kaufman Co.

The majority of them are Chihuahuas, poodles and other small-breed dogs.
The Humane Society and sheriff’s deputies seized almost 600 dogs and about 15 cats Tuesday afternoon from a suspected puppy mill in Kaufman County.

The society said it started investigating the kennel, which is located near Prairieville just north of Mabank, when someone came to them asking for dog food donations. Representatives visited and found poor living conditions and malnourished dogs.

See the conditions for yourself. Watch the second clip in the video player.

The animals seized Tuesday were examined to determine which ones needed medical attention.

Representatives said most of the dogs were living in their own waste and many were under fed. Three dogs died after being rescued and several others have skin or foot conditions.

The majority of them are Chihuahuas, poodles and other small-breed dogs (That means Yorkies).

Deputies said kennel owner, 72-year-old Margaret Boyd, faces animal cruelty charges.

Boyd told FOX 4 she is fighting to get the animals back. A court hearing is scheduled for Friday and both she and the Humane Society plan to ask for custody of the animals.

"If loving the animal is a criminal, then maybe I'm a criminal," she said. "Because I work 6 o'clock in the morning until 11:30 at night taking care of these animals."

Hear more from Boyd. Watch FOX 4 reporter Fil Alvarado's story in the video player.

Prairieville is about 50 miles southeast of Dallas.

600 Dogs, Cats Seized in Kaufman Co.

I hope each and every one of the dogs will find a loving home!

OMG, Another one bites the Dust. DONT MESS WITH TEXAS. I hope the Judge throws the book at her.

I hope people in Texas especially will write letters to the judge expressing their outrage at this inhumane treatment of these animals.

I am sorry but this woman is 72 years of age and I am sure it is her only income and that is why she will fight to get her dogs back and sorry to say the judge will probably give some of them back to her as they are property.

GRR! I HATE hearing about these kind of stories...I just wish all of it will stop, but who knows how long that will take for people to stop doing these to poor dogs, and animals in general!

Thanks for posting it though! I'm glad that they got ALL of those poor dogs out of there...I just hope that they all, if not most of them, make it into loving homes! :-)

This Judge in TX, just ruled in favor of the Humane Society a couple of months age,[News] Fort Worth Texas - 500 Dogs Taken from Kennel. I will be shocked if she gets them back. The other 76 year old lady did not.

I am sad to see there is ANOTHER large kennel like this! I hope she does NOT get these dogs back. She is in way over her head to take care of that many dogs. And they said there are more being born every day.

I pray the judge does the right thing!

That is just so sad, how can people do that to small little animals that just need someone to love and care for them. They are Human.:mad:

I want to help! If you hear of any way that our rescue in Oklahoma can help, please let me know. Dallas is only about 4 hours from here. I want to foster one or more of these poor babies.

Lets hope for the dogs sake this happens again.:thumbup:

My wife and I are UAN EARS volunteers, and we worked the temporary shelter set up at the Kaufman County Fairgrounds.

Most of the dogs are going to breed specific rescues (poodles, shi tzus, chihuahuas, etc). Many of them have already shipped out -- the rest are expected to be gone by Friday.

There were a few yorkies, but not a lot of them. My wife is still there, and I'll let her know that the Oklahoma Yorkie group stands ready to help -- she'll pass it along to the incident commander and shelter director.

What's more important is that people in every state write their lesiglators and tell them that we *DEMAND* stronger rules to clamp down on puppy mills. There was a bill in the Texas Lesiglature that died earlier this year that would have made what this woman was doing a felony -- at best, it will be charged as a class A misdemeanor. It's actually unlikely that Mrs. Boyd will do any time.

If we want the culture of "dogs as livestock" to end, then we must no longer sit idly by.

The judge (Johnny Perry, if you are looking to add to your Christmas Card list) ruled that she must forfeit all of the dogs. He ordered her to reimburse the HSUS and UAN for the cost of running the temporary shelter. He also ordered that any of the dogs that the Vets agreed (it takes 2 to agree) to euthanize be given that relief (thankfully, I think there is, maybe, 4-5 out of the 550+ dogs), and that *ALL* of the dogs be spayed or neutered as soon as possible.

She kept referring to the dogs as her "inventory" and "assets" during the trial, and Judge Perry mentioned that as he looked over the Tax records she entered into evidence, he didn't see any valuation of "inventory", so she may want to have a talk with a tax attorney. Given this ruling, she'll never own a dog again.

Just to give you an idea of what this place was like, I overheard one of the vets (Dr. O'Bryan from Tyler, a truly GREAT man) talking to one of the techs. She asked if it was true that none of the dogs tested positive for heartworm. He said that yes, it was true, and he wasn't surprised. The environment at the ranch was so bad, that it was unfit for mosquito larvae. Can you imagine how contaminated a place must be that it can't sustain mosquitos?

Ok -- my last post about my time in Kaufman...
 

As a UAN EARS volunteer, my job was care and feeding of the animals. Basically, you go through the cages, you feed, then you come back and clean. Rinse, repeat.

As you go, you assess those that need immediate attention from the vets (again, amazing people). There is very little time per dog, but you find the time to hold them, to talk to them, to try and let them know that someone does really care.

On one of the cleaning runs, my partner was working a bottom cage with 2 yorkies. Suddenly, she stood up and told me to run and get a vet and disposable cat litter pan with a puppy pad in it.

When I got back to the cage, she reached up and gently set a newborn puppy into the cat pan. The vet arrived, and we figured out which one was the mom (as the vet said, "I don't think it's him"), and moved him into a cage of his own, then rushed the mom (who was starting to deliver another puppy) into the maternity area.

That afternoon, as we went through the cages, I visited the boy. He was so scared, and yet so sweet (licking my hand as I cleaned his cage). He truly touched me.

I left the shelter on Sunday (I had to go back to work), but my wife stayed behind. She called me on Monday to tell me that the boy had not been claimed by any rescue organizations, and did I want to adopt him. We got the paperwork filled out and set up. She bought a travel crate.

Fast forward to last night. Mrs. Boyd had been boarding 8 dogs among her "inventory", and the Judge had stated that the owners of those dogs had until 6:00 on Tuesday to claim them. A woman came forward at 5:45pm. She had the paper work, she had his microchip number. He was 3 months old -- he had been in this hideous place for 1/3 of his life. He was matted to the skin. But he was hers, and we had to release him to her.

Sorry about the maudlin post -- just needed to vent a little.

I am so sorry you didn't get the little yorkie! Why in the world would you let a place like this board your baby?! I just don't get it!!! :mad:

I am glad that they have all gone to rescues. I know it must be hard to work something like this. I know that I would want to bring home as many as I could fit in my suv just to give them a good place to recuperate. Poor babies! I am so glad this lady can't have any of them back and sounds like she opened a whole new can of worms when she talked about "inventory" & "assets".

To be fair to the owner, Mrs. Boyd had a pretty nice storefront in Mesquite (eastern suburb of Dallas) where she sold the dogs. She never let a customer, including boarders, come out to "Klassy Kennels".

But that's where my fairness to the owner ends. I mean, seriously, who boards a 2 month old puppy for a month? Ugh!

I am so glad to hear that she is not getting those dogs back. I had seen this when if first came out on the news, but I had not heard if she was getting them back or not. If anyone knows were the yorkies are fostered, please let me know. I would love to adopt one of them.
Theresa

Thank you so much for coming here and reporting what you know. Too many people will turn a blind eye to what happens to these poor animals as it breaks their hearts. Unless everyone stands up and starts demanding more then nothing will change. First USDA rules have to change as these are companion animals and second we need to make sure the judicial system goes after these people and throws the book at them. I really have a problem that our companion animals are treated as property but that is the law.

puppy mill ?
 

Where do you go to report puppy mills. there is a woman in Bulverde, TX .When we were looking for a yorkie. I got her name from the interet. she had a breeder she was retiring. We got her but she was in horrible shape all her teeth were gone. her back leg is numb from being in a cage I am asumming now. but she has about 6to 10 diffent breeds and she cross breed them as well. she had cockers, king charles, yorkies, silkies, s**t zue, haveneese, papillions, pugs, poms, you name it she had them. she probably had close to 200 dogs.

Start with her county's local humane society. Also loop in the sheriff's office of the county she is in.

That said, things are about to get MUCH harder for stopping puppy mills in Texas. There was a bill passed in the last lesiglature session that takes effect on 9/1. SB408 updated the due process language in the section of Texas law that deals with animal cruelty cases (Sect 821). Before this amendment, the owner had appeal rights against a seizure if the animal was being put up for sale, but not if it was going to be give to an animal rescue or euthanized. Now, the appeal applies to any seizure. Under the new language, the owner must put up a bond to care for the animals during the appeal process which must be complete within 25 calendar days. But, elsewhere in Texas law it states that if you can't afford an appeal bond, the judge can waive the requirement for the bond -- meaning that all of the costs can be put on the organization running the temporary shelter. I fear that means that organizations like Humane Societies will have to think harder and be more selective about which puppy mills they go after.

Please folks -- regardless of where you live, stop what you are doing and write to your state representatives TODAY. Tell them that you don't accept that the rights of the puppy mill operators are more important than the rights of the animals. Tell them that cruelty can never be condoned or permitted in the name of profitability. Unless we can drown out the voices of folks like "Responsible Pet Owners of Texas", and lobby groups that feel that animals are chattel and the owners can do whatever they feel like, we are going to see an end to seizures instead of an end to puppy mills.

I'm sending this to Peobody. I would call the Humane Society asap....

I would start with:


Bulverde
Bulverde Area Humane Society PO Box 50, Bulverde, TX 210-438-7387

Bulverde
 

The Bulverde, Texas, City Code provides for inspection in cases like this. The property would have to be under the jurisdiction of the City. (If it is outside, then the County Sheriff would probably be the person to notify. The non-emergency number for the Comal County sheriff is 830-620-3400.)

Sec. 2.02.013 Inspection of animals and premises

Upon reasonable suspicion of animal abuse, mistreatment, neglect, or the existence of a harmful or nuisance condition, animals and premises where animals are kept or maintained shall be subject to inspection by the animal control officer, at any reasonable hour, or, in cases of emergency, at any hour.

I can’t find a number for the animal control officer. The city website shows this number for the police department’s code enforcement officer (Steve Simpson) who can direct you to the animal control officer, if it is someone else. 830-438-3612, X 216

If they don’t have the proper USDA kennel license, that would be an option.

Post back if you don’t get results, and we’ll find someone else to report it to.

Yet another resource -- the HSUS Puppy Mill Taskforce has a "Tell us your story" page at Tell Us Your Story. The info that is put on this page is read very carefully by the task force's enforcement team.

Thanks for caring enough to let folks know. This is how they get stopped!

It was on the news tonight.....the lady in Kaufman, and her husband, have both been arrested on animal cruelty charges. The animals have been placed with the Humane Society.

Like I said, Dont Mess with Texas. They are coming down on animal cruelty....

Yeah, I am so happy to hear they have been arrested and will not be getting the dogs back. I hope this sends clear message out there so that other people will stop running these type of places.

I am so proud of the state of Texas for coming down on animal cruelty! (my home state :) )

Congratulations Texas...:D

Hopefully high puppymill states will see that other states (judges) are willing to stand up against these horrible conditions animals are kept in.

I think it would be great if people would send notes to the judge thanking him for doing what was right for these animals.:thumbup: