"More than" 200 Chihuahuas were rescued earlier today after a search warrant was executed in Benton, Pa. [AP]

  • fuzzyfuzzyfungus

    For all your tiny, high-pitched, alien dogfighting needs…

  • Robert

    I knew someone who had a problem with chihuahuas. I mean, she loved them, and would keep taking them in until her house was full of them. But she never had two hundred of them. Not nearly.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

    Animal hoarding, or a dodgy breeder / puppy mill?

    Toy breeds are the rage these days, and the animals are often supplied by terribly disreputable breeders. In addition to being raised in unhealthy conditions, they’re often badly bred. 

    • fuzzyfuzzyfungus

      Unless the local authorities are pretty out to lunch, or the hypothetical mill operators pretty canny indeed (both in terms of acting and in terms of book-cooking/money laundering/etc.) I would suspect that if they said ‘hoarding’ they meant it.

      It is a weird, and not especially tractable, disorder; but not all that uncommon on a national scale and rather more prominent ( http://vet.tufts.edu/hoarding/ ) of late. Somebody milling puppies for profit and somebody delusionally subjecting themselves and their animals to ghastly conditions just won’t look very similar, unless the miller is quite incompetent.

      • http://twitter.com/GinaMartinBlogs Gina Martin

        Sometimes, hoarders call themselves breeders, as in this case that I was part of the rescue effort for: http://www.kxxv.com/global/story.asp?s=13951780

        And we just had another Rottweiler “breeder” in NY, she sold online, that had 76 dogs in horrible conditions who got busted. The local Rottie Rescue that I support also helped with these dogs, the medical issues – totally due to neglect and bad living conditions – are really gnarly and expensive to fix.  http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Wallkill-Animal-Neglect-Rottweilers-Orange-County-Arrest-149577915.html

        It’s not just puppy mill owners that can be delusionally incompetent.  There’s also another Texas case with a pitbull rescue that just got in trouble for horrible conditions – rescuers who start “sanctuaries” and can’t say no to any dog, getting in over their heads, etc. http://www.khou.com/home/Former-employee-Pit-bull-sanctuary-where-298-dogs-seized-was-a-living-hell-162944076.html

         It’s all abuse when the conditions get so deteriorated.

        • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

          I can imagine this being common.

          When I rescued my dog I could have easily walked away with 20 – but one dog can be expensive enough (in terms of time and money) to care for, let alone a whole pack.

  • Jesse Noonan

    They’ve set up an emergency shelter for them in the Farm Show building in Harrisburg:  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/07/pennsylvania_farm_show_turned.html

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonathan-Vanasco/728395557 Jonathan Vanasco

    Not actually ‘rescued’, just removed and transferred to the state’s animal control system where they’ll be ‘evaluated for adoption’.

    If a rescue organization or no-kill shelter takes them in, then that’s being rescued.  For now, they’re just trading up from unsanitary conditions where they might die to sanitary conditions where they might die. 

  • http://twitter.com/Listener43 Listener43

    Oops. I read this wrong – thought someone was saving Chthulus.

    Oh well.