With the long overdue raid on Almost Home kennels in PA, there are many questions being asked, especially how did the kennel pass inspection after inspection, year after year. Damn good question! Are there some scary answers coming to light?? Read on and find out for yourself….

Inn 2006, Gov. Rendell, in the “first step toward addressing inhumane conditions at the growing number of commercial dog breeding operations,” pink slipped the Pennsylvania Dog Law Advisory Board and appointed some new people to weed out the corruption and do-nothing attitudes that were so pervasive.

Since then he has been working and fighting to pass legislation to bring puppy mills under stiffer regulations and at least create a more humane environment.

Now we are seeing that much of his efforts seem to be for naught. Those that are supposed to oversee and and inspect these hellholes seem to be letting them get away with murder… literally. How is this happening? How can these places be passing inspection only to be raided shortly thereafter bring the hellish conditions to the light of the public eye? What excuses can the dogs wardens give?

The answers to these questions may be as disturbing as the hellhole puppy mills themselves according to a recent column by Bill White of the Morning Call.

Breeding dogs were brought away with empty eye sockets full of flies, eyes long dead for untreated infections, splayed feet from a life on cage wire and a host of other medical problems. The owner of Limestone Kennels was raided by Pennsylvania SPCA agents and charged with some 23 counts of animal cruelty.

This is a kennel that had up until then been receiving ’satisfactory’ inspection reports from those assigned to oversee the welfare of the dogs. The kennel was re-inspected by other wardens, the license revoked and the wardens who made the initial ’satisfactory’ reports were reassigned to desk duty.

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Steve Thomas Hudson or Morganton, NC, operated a fruit and vegetable stand just feet from dark, tiny airless sheds where almost 2 dozen dogs were living in deplorable conditions.

“The wretched stench of dog feces surrounding the quarantined dogs as they barked at the presence of humans. Inches of feces covered the floors. Abandoned metal objects surrounded the dogs in the small sheds that provided little to no sunlight.”

Burke County Sheriff’s Maj. Banks Hinceman said it’s been years since he’d seen animals stuck in such deplorable conditions as the sheds at the produce stand.

Animal control officers found 17 dogs, 4 puppies and one dead dog, 4 dogs were found locked in the cab of a pickup truck parked in the sun. A total of 25-30 dogs were found.

They were numerous complaints from the public which led to the investigation. One officer had to don a full body suit to enter the appalling shed while others had to wear masks to cut down on the stench.

Hudson told officers that he just kept taking in stray sand it just got out of hand. Typical hoarder mentality, sadly.

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Carrie Cagata, owner of My Best Friends, Inc. rescue and accomplices, James Cullen and Shannon Kraham, who were rescuing shelter dogs and selling them for profit and leaving the ones they couldn’t sell to starve or die at ‘the farm,’ are now facing additional charges.

They must have really pissed some people off with their ‘rescue scam’ because this is the most serious I’ve seen the system take something like this in a while aside from multitudinous charges laid against puppy millers. It’s about damn time too! Most likely there will be some plea bargaining and reduced charges in the end but hopefully just the sheer quantity of charges will remain enough to add up to a stiff sentence! Trash like this needs to be removed from society!

On Monday, Lee County detectives leveled 120 additional charges against Cagata, 40, and two other suspects in a Fort Myers animal adoption scam that resulted in the maltreatment of scores of dogs and cats.

Cagata, the alleged ringleader, and her alleged accomplices, Shannon Kraham, 25 and James Cullen, 29, originally each faced 60 felony counts of animal cruelty and 60 misdemeanor counts of animal abandonment, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Cagata, who turned herself in at 11 p.m. Thursday, has been re-arrested on the additional charges.

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