rockin'robin
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ADOPTion info
If you want to adopt one of the dogs, the cost is $80 and will include an interview. For more information, e-mail jaxpets@coj.net or call (904) 255-7384.
By Deirdre Conner
Dory wasn’t always her name. If she ever had one before, no one now knows what it was.
Few people would recognize her from her past, anyway.
The tiny 2-year-old dog was one of 62 animals seized in October 2009 from a Jacksonville home that authorities called a puppy mill. At the time, she looked nothing like the now-inquisitive dog whose eyes stare out from silky black fur.
Now Dory, like about 40 other dogs from the case, are getting a second lease on life.
After news of the case hit the newspaper, many readers called in, offering to adopt the animals. But they had to remain in city custody until the case resolved this month.
Now the animals, which originally included 47 dogs and 15 cats, are legally free to be adopted out. The cats were placed with rescue groups.
Chief Scott Trebatoski said the dogs will make affectionate pets for the right owners. Some of the dogs may need to be housebroken and some may also need special medical care because of the lasting effects of their early years.
Authorities found the animals living in “absolute squalor” inside the home of an elderly couple living in Mandarin. Most of the dogs were Maltese and Shih Tzu females of breeding age, covered in urine and feces, their fur so knotted and dirty that animal care workers had to shave them. One was missing a limb, but it was so matted, workers didn’t discover that until the animal was shorn, Trebatoski said.
“I thought most of them were black and brown,” he said. The dogs, most of them white and fluffy, now occupy an entire room at the animal shelter.
The couple, Doris and Bruce Pflughaupt, told The Times-Union in October they were experienced animal breeders that had just gotten behind on animal care after they were beset by health problems, she with cancer and he with dementia. At first, they sought to keep the animals.
Ultimately, the couple fell into worse health and had to move from the Mandarin home into care facilities, Trebatoski said. A guardian was appointed to represent them and their estate.
They were not criminally charged, but a judge awarded custody of the animals to the city and forbade the Pflughaupts from owning animals again, Trebatoski said. The settlement they reached with the city was for about $5,000, Trebatoski said, about half the cost of the medical supplies needed to treat the animals, many of whom were very sick. One of the dogs died; another needed emergency surgery for an eye that was about to rupture, he said. PetSmart contributed about $6,000 to cover the remainder of the medical supplies.
Overall, the cost to care for the dogs since last fall — including food, shelter and medical treatment — topped $100,000.
Dogs seized last year in Jacksonville now readied for adoption | jacksonville.com
If you want to adopt one of the dogs, the cost is $80 and will include an interview. For more information, e-mail jaxpets@coj.net or call (904) 255-7384.
By Deirdre Conner
Dory wasn’t always her name. If she ever had one before, no one now knows what it was.
Few people would recognize her from her past, anyway.
The tiny 2-year-old dog was one of 62 animals seized in October 2009 from a Jacksonville home that authorities called a puppy mill. At the time, she looked nothing like the now-inquisitive dog whose eyes stare out from silky black fur.
Now Dory, like about 40 other dogs from the case, are getting a second lease on life.
After news of the case hit the newspaper, many readers called in, offering to adopt the animals. But they had to remain in city custody until the case resolved this month.
Now the animals, which originally included 47 dogs and 15 cats, are legally free to be adopted out. The cats were placed with rescue groups.
Chief Scott Trebatoski said the dogs will make affectionate pets for the right owners. Some of the dogs may need to be housebroken and some may also need special medical care because of the lasting effects of their early years.
Authorities found the animals living in “absolute squalor” inside the home of an elderly couple living in Mandarin. Most of the dogs were Maltese and Shih Tzu females of breeding age, covered in urine and feces, their fur so knotted and dirty that animal care workers had to shave them. One was missing a limb, but it was so matted, workers didn’t discover that until the animal was shorn, Trebatoski said.
“I thought most of them were black and brown,” he said. The dogs, most of them white and fluffy, now occupy an entire room at the animal shelter.
The couple, Doris and Bruce Pflughaupt, told The Times-Union in October they were experienced animal breeders that had just gotten behind on animal care after they were beset by health problems, she with cancer and he with dementia. At first, they sought to keep the animals.
Ultimately, the couple fell into worse health and had to move from the Mandarin home into care facilities, Trebatoski said. A guardian was appointed to represent them and their estate.
They were not criminally charged, but a judge awarded custody of the animals to the city and forbade the Pflughaupts from owning animals again, Trebatoski said. The settlement they reached with the city was for about $5,000, Trebatoski said, about half the cost of the medical supplies needed to treat the animals, many of whom were very sick. One of the dogs died; another needed emergency surgery for an eye that was about to rupture, he said. PetSmart contributed about $6,000 to cover the remainder of the medical supplies.
Overall, the cost to care for the dogs since last fall — including food, shelter and medical treatment — topped $100,000.
Dogs seized last year in Jacksonville now readied for adoption | jacksonville.com
