Matted and Malnourished

A grim discovery was recently made in rural Eddy County.

After being contacted by a concerned family member, volunteers from Prairie Paws Rescue of Jamestown traveled to a residence in Eddy County on Friday, Feb. 23, about 10 miles northeast of New Rockford.

What they discovered were more than two dozen neglected and malnourished dogs and puppies, along with several deceased animals.

Kaye John, President and Co-Founder of Prairie Paws Rescue, was among those who first came to Eddy County on Friday, Feb. 23 and she described the poor conditions they witnessed.

"We had found a deceased dog and there were some deceased puppies on the property as well," she recalled. "Dogs were covered in mud, feces and matted hair, lots of matted hair."

She added that many were also malnourished and in need of food, which the rescuers immediately provided.

Rescuers made three trips to the property in total over the course of the weekend, and were able to rescue nearly every dog on the property with the owner's cooperation.

Eddy County Sheriff Paul Lies said the property owner in Eddy County had been unable to care for the dogs due to a health situation, and therefore won't be facing criminal charges.

The poor conditions were discovered when family members visited the residence while the owner was in the hospital.

"He cooperated," said Lies about why the owner won't be facing charges. "Basically he knew he couldn't take care of them anymore, and therefore wanted them to go somewhere, to a good place."

Contrary to what has been reported elsewhere, John said the owner was not operating a puppy mill.

Rather, she described the situation as a "backyard breeder" who had simply fallen ill, and become unable to properly care for the dogs. By comparison, puppy mills are much larger operations that often deal in designer dogs, she said.

Prairie Paws Rescue reported that about 26 dogs were rescued from the Eddy County property, the majority of which were labradoodles. They also found two female labradors and a standard poodle, which had presumably been mating to create the labradoodles.

John noted that it doesn't take long for a labradoodle's fur to become matted.

"If your health is poor and you can't get out to maintain these dogs outside, it really doesn't take long," she said.

The rescued dogs have now been groomed, fed, and are receiving much-needed care. They've also been accepted by several shelters and foster homes in the area, where they can continue living healthy lives and hopefully find a permanent home.

Anyone wishing to support Prairie Paws as they work hard to bring the labradoodles from Eddy County back to good health, can donate via PayPal on their website or mail donations directly to P.O. Box 1114, Jamestown N.D. 58402-1114.

Anyone interested in adopting one of these dogs is encouraged to contact Prairie Paws Rescue at prairiepawsrescue.com, where the pets up for adoption can be viewed and where a pre-adoption application is available.

John said several nearby organizations have agreed to take the labradoodles into their care, where they will also go up for adoption.

The James River Humane Society, the Aberdeen Humane Society, For Belle's Sake in Minot and Central Dakota Humane Society in Mandan all agreed to help out and care for some of the animals. Any donations received by Prairie Paws will also be shared with these organizations.

John said situations like the one in Eddy County aren't as rare as some might think, and are often occurring unbeknownst to local authorities.

"If you see something, say something," said John. "If you suspect anything like this is going on in rural Eddy County or in your neighborhood, contact authorities."