Angels for Animals rescues 31 dogs from Logan County puppy mills

ELIDA - Nearly three dozen puppies will get a new lease on life thanks to the efforts of a local non-profit group.

Angels for Animals, an animal rescue group from Elida, went to several so-called Amish puppy mills in Logan County this week. The mission was simple - save the animals from deplorable conditions and almost certain death.

"The puppies were from Amish that all they do is breed the dogs to sell the puppies for profit," Sandy Laing, president of Angels for Animals, said. "There's a lady in Cincinnati that's been going to these mills every 30 days for about two years and taking what dogs they do not want instead of killing them, which is what they normally do. She gives them a small amount of money for each dog so they can continue living and have a wonderful life."

It was the first time the local group has traveled to a puppy mill to pick up animals. The mills, Laing said, do not let people inside to see the conditions. Animal rescue officials, however, get a sense of the conditions inside the mills once they assess the rescued animals, she said.

"All the dogs were kept in barns, all the buildings were unheated. A lot of the dogs are short-haired breeds so I'm sure they were very cold," Laing said. "Most of the dogs have not had much socialization so they're very shy. Most of them needed groomed because they are very smelly, matted. A lot of them had skin conditions from not being cleaned."

A veterinarian was spending Friday looking over the dogs and making sure they are healthy and up-to-date on vaccinations. A number of dogs were also sent out to be groomed and brought back to the facility, Laing said.

Puppy mills are fairly common around the area, Laing said. The mills are unfortunate, she said, because they don't treat the animals well, raising them to be sold at pet stores and elsewhere.

"We had one right here in Allen County in the latter part of the summer that we took their dogs," Laing said. "In the Amish communities they are a way to make money that's easy for the people. Unfortunately, they don't take good care of the animals."

The goal for Angels for Animals, a group that's been around more than nine years, is to find good, loving homes for the animals, Laing said.

"They'll be put up for adoption. The ones that are very shy will be sent to Allen Correctional Institution for the inmates to work with them," she said. "Some of them are nice enough that they'll go right into homes."

The conditions the animals live in before they are rescued is heart-breaking, Laing said.

"It absolutely breaks my heart as an animal lover to think these people are using them as a means to make money instead of going out to get a regular job," she said. "They're not here for that purpose. They deserve and need to be loved and cared for and we adopt them out with that in mind only."