This is about my experience at a Puppy Mill in Tennessee. 

It's been a long, long day.  No words could possibly convey the emotions that have manifested into my soul.  Though I am completely exhausted, I am going to try to the best of my ability to describe what happened today.  It will most likely be long, but please read, I feel EVERYONE needs to hear this. 

 Karen (one of my rescue partners) and I headed out early this morning.  We arrived at the store where a table was set up by the Humane Society to take applications from people who wanted to "adopt" a dog.  They were allowing 4 cars at a time, who were escorted by a wonderful volunteer, to go to the puppy mill site.  Because we are breed rescue, they allowed us at the front of the line which saved us possibly hours of waiting for our turn to go.  The ladies from Humane Society were very nice, very tired, and very, very sad about the whole ordeal. 

 We followed the escort to the site where the dogs were.  The house is hidden in the middle of nowhere....a "cow path" through creeks and mud and rock about 2 miles long was the road to their house.  There were no other houses around.  We pulled into the driveway.  The first thing I saw were dozens and dozens of starving horses in a "pasture' off to the left.  When we approached the house,
I noticed about 15 dogs tied to trees with chains in the front  yard.  They all seemed to have a litter of puppies beside them.  To the left of the house were rows and rows of cages of small breeds crammed 2,3, or 4 dogs per cage....sitting in their own waste, scared to death.   There were about 20 or more dogs running lose around the house...50 or more running lose in the woods.  Behind the house were at least 30 dog houses or huts that were set up to house even more of the little dogs.  They were nasty.  There was also an old broken down trailer...I was told NOT to look in there if I cared anything at all about my own sanity.  As I scanned the property for the Labs and Goldens I was told to follow the escort, he would take us to them.  We followed a path behind the house, up a huge hill of mud for about 1/2 mile...out into the woods (thank God for 4 wheel drive). There at the top of the hill, completely out of site from the house, were more "kennels"...about 30 or more 5 x 5.  All the dogs
were all standing in about 5 inches of mud mixed in with their own waste.  It stunk to the high heavens.  We sank up to our ankles in it as we went in to get the dogs.  They were hard to catch because they were so afraid.  None of them looked too thin, but none of them had water, and to be honest, I
don't know how water could have ever been given to them seeing as how they were on top of a mountain, 1/2 mile away from the house.  The escort then pointed us in the direction of MORE dogs as he left and headed back down the hill.  We ventured about a thousand yards even further from
 the house and found about another 30 dogs.  We were warned NOT to look down into the valleys and ditches..dead animals lay everywhere....horses, dogs, puppies.  Coyotes had their feast on several of the puppies on the hill and we were told that bones and animal parts were everywhere.  The smell
was outrageous.  These dogs were so timid that we had to actually carry them to the car to put them in crates.  The dogs were covered in mud and waste, and so were we.  There were several moments when I honestly thought I was going to lose it....last nights dinner and this morning's cereal. 

 On our first trip we brought back 3 Golden Retrievers and the only Labrador who was there.  A yellow male, about 6 months old.  I am waiting for Golden Retriever rescue to come back and take the Goldens...one of whom is pregnant.  I cannot even give an estimate on all the dogs I saw who were pregnant, and I certainly couldn't guess on how many litters of puppies I saw.  They took pictures of all the dogs with I.D. cards and sent us on our way.

 We had to ride home with all the windows down to air out the car and keep from gagging.  When we got home, we took the dogs out of the crates one at a time.  We bathed them in Tide, actually had to scrub the mud and waste off of them and dried them off.  One of the Goldens had hair matted down so badly that I had to give him a "haircut".  The dogs were so sweet.  They just sat there, still as could be while we bathed them.  They were scared to death.  After they were all bathed, I moved my own rescues out of the big kennel and put them in the smaller ones.  My rescues are crammed in kennels
now.  The puppy mill dogs did not know what to think of the big area set for them to walk around...with nice, small, clean rock under their feet rather than mud and poop.  We gave them buckets full of fresh water and all the food they could stand to eat. 

We changed our shoes, scrubbed out the crates, changed our clothes, and headed back out again.  On our second trip back to the mill, we were allowed to go there without an escort.  We went back because there was one more golden retriever who we could not catch on our first trip.  We also got out 8 Skipperkees and Karen took them back to Knoxville with her to the Skipperkee rescue.  The animal control officers had to catch the other Golden with a live trap.  It was then  that we also found her one remaining puppy.  Who knows what happened to the remainder of her litter.....they were part of the ones who were on the hill.  So, off we went again...with an 8 week old golden pup, the puppy's mother, and 8 Skipperkees. 

 The lady who was running the puppy mill came out briefly to watch.  She totally gave me the creeps.  She was probably in her 40's, had short dark hair, a mean look on her face, and a patch on her right eye.  She is being forced to bring back the 150 dogs that she had moved off the property before
inspection could occur.  She was tipped off that the Humane Society had a warrant to search her property, so she took out as many dogs as she could.  Since they had refused to feed the dogs, the Humane Society was doing all the feeding and slowly getting cages cleaned out.  They finally got all the dogs that were on top of the hill down to the bottom where they could be observed and "adopted". 

 People came from all over this weekend to help out with the dogs.  Many came to take home a dog and some came just to help.  The placement of dogs will not be considered permanent until the court case is settled.  There is a chance that the court will insist that all dogs be returned to her (God forbid).

 What you have read is only a small sample of all the things that happened.  There is no possible way I could ever truly describe it to you.  The disgust, the filth, the abuse and neglect...it is all much more than I myself have even absorbed at this point.  That woman's face will forever haunt me...her
smirkish grin as if to say..."you idiots, I'm just gonna do it again." 

 Please. Everyone.  Make an effort to educate just one person today or tomorrow or the next day.  Encourage that person to tell one person.  Until everyone stops buying the puppies at pet stores, it will never end.  Until everyone passes by the pet stores who sell these puppies it will never end.  Don't buy dog toys there, don't buy food there, don't even buy a collar or leash there.  Until they are boycotted, this will never, ever end....for the one puppy mill  raided today is only proof that many, many more still stand.

 If you don't mind, say a prayer for the 350 or more dogs whose lives are at great
risk...due to human greed.