Chester official: ‘Controlled chaos’ finding homes for 116 dogs from puppy mill

Except for the constant chorus of dogs barking around back and the occasional ring of the phone, the Chester County Animal Shelter was relatively quiet Friday afternoon.

It was a stark contrast to the scene exactly one week prior, when Animal Control officials were scrambling to find foster homes for 116 Dobermans that were seized from an alleged puppy mill in Richburg.

Capt. Dwayne Robinson Sr. of the Chester County Sheriff’s Office, who oversees Animal Control, described the scene as “a controlled chaos.”

“There were people everywhere, there was barking everywhere,” he said. “It went on all the way through the night and through the weekend.”

Authorities were alerted the morning of Sept. 23 of multiple dogs possibly living in deplorable conditions at a home on Richburg Road in Richburg. They ended up seizing 116 Dobermans, which ranged in size from puppies to full grown adults. Officials say the dogs were malnourished and living in deplorable conditions, including lying or walking in their own waste.

The owner, 47-year-old Jordan Johnson, has been jailed on 198 charges, including 116 counts of ill treatment of animals, according to officials.

Before abuse animals are placed in a foster home, they are examined and cleared by a veterinarian, Robinson said. Part of the process of finding foster homes for seized animals is checking out the prospective foster home.

“We do an extensive background check on them, see what the living conditions are that we’re putting (the animals) in,” he said. “Most of the animal family knows each other. There are a lot of people that can verify and vouch” for each other.

Much of the legwork in finding homes for the animals had already been completed by Laura Long, adoption and rescue coordinator for the shelter, who spends a lot of time networking and staying in touch with rescue groups around the state and the country.

Robinson said they had commitments within 24 hours for people to take in all 116 dogs, but Animal Control employees worked all through the night Friday, throughout the day Saturday and into Sunday making sure the dogs were picked up.

Some foster homes took one or two dogs while others took as many as 10, Robinson said. A local veterinarian with an office in a nearby county took 18 dogs to that facility.

Another part of the fostering process is a temperament test to make sure the dog and “foster parent” will get along, Robinson said. Foster parents can take the animals to their own veterinarian and forward the bill to Animal Control, but Robinson said many foster parents prefer to just pay the bill on their own.

“We get a lot of donations that come in to pay for the vet bills,” he said.

This week, Southern States Cooperative in Rock Hill announced it would donate 2,000 pounds of dog food to the Chester County Animal Shelter to help feed the massive influx of dogs.

Robinson said they’ve received calls about the Dobermans from people as far away as California and the United Kingdom, and those inquiries continued the entire week after the puppy mill bust. While they appreciate the outpouring of support, he said, there are plenty of other animals in the shelter that need help and homes.

“We could not believe the support we got in just a little bit of time,” he said. “It makes you feel good to know that once you ring the bell because there’s a crisis, folks will come.”

The Dobermans seized from the Richburg home will remain in foster care until the case is resolved in court.

“They’ll stay there in foster, be loved like they should be and be taken care of and have a lot of happy days ahead,” Robinson said. “It’s gotta be better than it was.”

This story was originally published October 2, 2016 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Chester official: ‘Controlled chaos’ finding homes for 116 dogs from puppy mill."