Posted: October 3, 2008, 5 a.m. EDT
Hundreds of animals were rescued from two kennels in Canada within the same week, according to animal welfare groups.
The first rescue mission took place Sept. 26 in Rawdon, Quebec, where a team of volunteers seized 118 animals, including 110 dogs and seven cats, as well as one rabbit. Most of the dogs were emaciated, stacked in wire cages from floor to ceiling, according to the team of United Animal Nations’ Emergency Animal Rescue Service, or EARS, volunteers.
These animals are being cared for by volunteers and veterinarians who are helping feed, exercise, and medically treat and clean up the dogs and cats at an emergency shelter in Montreal.
The second mission resulted in the rescue of 157 dogs and one cat from a kennel in similar conditions in the Canadian province of Quebec on Oct. 1, according to the Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The dogs were taken to an emergency shelter for care.
“Conducting two puppy mill raids in Quebec in less than a week is completely unprecedented,” Alanna Devine, acting executive director at the CSPCA, said in a statement. “Quebec is known as the puppy mill capital of North America, and it is time for the public to stand with the Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to shut them down.”