More than 100 dogs rescued from Bloomfield puppy mill

When Sara Varsa walked into a mobile home on Wednesday in Bloomfield, Ind., she was not shocked by what she saw.

Stacks of wire cages filled with adult dogs and puppies crowded into conditions unfit for pets.

But these were not pets to the owner, said Varsa, deputy director of Emergency Services for the Humane Society of the United States. They were money.

Varsa, along with other members of the HSUS and other animal-rescue organizations, was at the residence of Darlene Clark, owner of the business Love My Pets, to confiscate the 113 dogs she used for breeding and selling.

An investigation by the Indiana Attorney General’s Office found that Clark owed about $294,293 in sales tax from the sale of dogs and puppies that she bred.

Since Clark could not pay back the taxes, Indiana had the legal authority to seize the inventory, which in this case were dogs.

Clark is currently under a temporary restraining order preventing the continuation of her business, said Andrew Swain, chief counsel for the Revenue Division of the Attorney
General’s Office.

There will be a hearing Dec. 7 to make the restraining order permanent, Swain said.

“The law doesn’t give the court any leeway when someone owes taxes,” he said. “The restraining order will be made permanent until everything is paid in full.”

Failure to remit sales tax is a class D felony in Indiana.

Indiana Attorney General spokesman Bryan Corbin said the investigation began in June when two consumers complained that they purchased a pug puppy for $500 from Clark who did not charge them sales tax.
 
Corbin said they reported that the puppy was diseased and though the customers spent $2,986 in veterinary bills, the animal soon died from complications of pneumonia, dog lice and Coccidia, an infection contracted when dogs ingest
fecal matter.

Varsa said the conditions they found in the facility were typical for what is commonly referred to as a puppy mill.

“These animals were well fed, but it wasn’t any kind of existence for them,” she said.

Varsa said roaches were all over the facility, and Anne Sterling, Indiana state director for HSUS, said some dogs were also covered in feces.

Sterling said when their teams arrived on the property, they began to assess the situation right away.

“We were most concerned with the health and safety of the animals,” Sterling said, “and we were looking to see if any needed immediate medical attention.”
 
Justin Scally, manager of the HSUS’s Puppy Mill Task Force, said only a couple of dogs were taken to a fixed medical facility instead of the temporary housing set up for the dogs in better condition.

James McNamara, executive director of Pets Alive Spay/Neuter Clinic in Bloomington, opened up the facility to the animals removed from the puppy mill.

Sterling said after having a full checkup from a veterinarian, all the dogs will be distributed in shelters throughout Indiana to be adopted by families.

Varsa said in this situation it was very evident that these animals were for profit and
not pets.

“If the owner was walking through the facility,” she said, “they are looking at dollar signs not animals.”