GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — 98 dogs arrived on a plane to Gerald R. Ford International Airport Friday afternoon. Authorities shut down a puppy mill in the Midwest, sending hundreds of dogs across the country.
The Bissel Pet Foundation is helping the rescue, and brought the dogs to Michigan via plane.
"These dogs have lived in pretty tragic circumstances," said Brittany Schlacter, with Bissel Pet Foundation, "They're from locations where they didn't really receive human interaction. They were with other dogs and crowded conditions. They likely never received medical treatment of any kind, very little grooming, and they were just bred."
Due to the sensitivity of this dog rescue, the Bissell Pet Foundation, who is helping relocate these animals, won't disclose exactly where the puppy mill was.
The dogs are all about a year old, at least. It is believed most of them were used for breeding, some having already had multiple litters.
There are a wide range of breeds, mostly smaller dogs.
"They never have walked on grass," said Jen Self-Aulger, executive director of Harbor Humane Society, "They don't know how to jump down from furniture. They haven't been used to having regular meals, toys, things like that."
225 dogs were rescued. Half of the dogs being relocated were rescued from a puppy mill and surrendered by a commercial breeder.
Harbor Humane took in 28 dogs.
"Our dogs will all be going into foster for a few weeks to just really kind of have that decompression period and acclimate," said Self-Aulger, "Then we'll work on finding them adoptive homes."
As this is a large scale operation, the Bissell Pet Foundation and the National Mill Dog Rescue are accepting donations. Click here to learn more on how you can help.
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