Junior Horton, owner of Horton’s Pups in Hillsville, VA is known for running one of the biggest puppy mills in Virgina and the November 2007 raid, made him notorious and vilified. Charged and convicted on 40 charges: 14 for animal cruelty, 25 for animal neglect and one for failure to obtain a dog license, Horton got what I would call a slap on the wrist sentence.
The judge in the case, General District Court Judge Edward Turner suspended 12 years of jail time for the misdemeanors and suspended much of the fines associated with the criminal charges. For the 14 counts of cruelty, he suspended $2,250 of each of the $2,500 fines. For the 25 counts of neglect, he suspended $450 of each of the $500 fines. He imposed the mandated $25 fine for the charge of failing to obtain a dog license. The total for all fines amounted to $4,750.
Over 700 of the over 1000 dogs seized from Horton were rehomed but Horton can still run his business although with no more than 250 dogs.
Not satisfied, Horton appealed his conviction but thankfully Circuit Court Judge Brett Geisler upheld the lower court’s ruling and imposed the same sentence.
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Lester Farmer, 54, of 6612 Bridgersville Road, Elm City, NC, has been charged with 7 counts of felony animal cruelty, one for each of the dogs that were seized from his home. Farmer bred Shih Tzus but the dogs that authorities rescued bore no resemblance to any Shih Tzus I’ve ever seen!
Hairless, diseased, infected, these poor dogs are in horrible shape and if they do all recover, it will take months.
Wilson County Animal Enforcement officers seized the dogs and transported them to For the Love of Dogs, a non-profit shelter and clinic, at 5146 Quaker Road in Wilson.
“This is one of the worst groups I’ve ever had the opportunity to help,” said Max Fitzgerald, who operates the shelter.
The shelter is trying to nurse the dogs back to health. All have severe mange, likely caused by months of neglect in a poor environment, according to veterinarians.
“These dogs were in some of the worst shape we’ve seen,” Fitzgerald said.
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This is Hammer, a sweet and beautiful Golden Retriever. Unfortunately his life up until now has not been one to envy. All he wanted was love and all he got was neglect and a heavy chain embedded up to an inch deep in his neck!
The photos taken several days ago when Hammer arrived at the vet’s office to treatment, were gruesome. He’d been chained to a tree outside a trailer in Proctorville, Ohio. that was where he lived and that was where he stayed. You’ll see his ‘home’ in the video below.
“I’m so angry and mad. If the owner had just paid attention to the dog once a day for just five minutes, he would have noticed the problem! Said Dr. Steve Mahnken with Best Friends Animal Hospital in Winfield.
Dr. Mahnken doesn’t mix words when expressing his rage over the neglect of this loveable Golden Retreiver–Hammer. The dog arrived at his animal hospital in Winfield three days ago with a heavy chain imbedded in his neck!
“The link was partially buried in his neck and I had to cut it to slip it out. You’re talking a half to one inch. I could stick my finger in up to my first knuckle,” said Dr. Mahnken.
In photos taken before the tedious surgery to remove the chain. You can see the links have become a part of hammer’s neck-a process the vet says takes at least five to six months to happen. Dr. Mahnken says the infection was so advanced, it’s stomach-turning.
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The little dog arrived at the Rainbow Bridge, and a pack of dogs rushed up to greet him. He braced himself, expecting a fight, but this was the first pack that wagged their tails and kissed him instead of attacking him. It was beautiful here, and everyone was nice to him. None of them had been born in a puppy mill, like he had, and used for dog-bait fighting and left to die in a shelter because he was a mix-breed battle-scarred cur and wasn’t cute. They explained why they were waiting for their humans who loved them.
“What is love?” he asked, and God let him go back to earth and find out. Warm, and dark, he squeezed in with the others and waited for the day to be born. Scared, he held back as long as he could, but finally got dragged out, by his hind feet. Hands without fur held him gently and rubbed him dry and opened his mouth and guided him to a warm nipple with milk. He didn’t get a good hold on it, because one of his big fat brothers pushed him aside. The human hand moved the other puppy to another nipple and held his body, so he could drink.
“Ahhh, that’s better, ” he thought, and drank until his jaws got tired and he curled up to sleep next to his warm hairy mother. “I remember this,” he mused… “Too bad I’ll have to grow up to be hit, left out in the cold and rain, and used for dog-bait fighting, and die as an unclaimed rescue dog. I remember what it’s like, being a dog.” he thought sadly.
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