Community rallies to help animals after puppy mill bust in Wicomico Co.

Cars drove in and out of the Humane Society of Wicomico County’s parking lot Tuesday afternoon. Each person  was walking in with bags of dog supplies in hand. This comes immediately after more than 300 dogs were taken-in after a reported puppy mill bust in Eden.

Susan Robinson, a Salisbury resident says,”It breaks my heart. I have two dogs myself and love our animals and I can imagine what these poor animals have gone through so the least that I could do is go and buy donation that they need here.”

Wicomico County State’s Attorney, Matt Maciarello took a tour of the society Tuesday afternoon and he says their main priority is the animal’s health.

“This is not something that any county would be ready for having 300 and something dogs brought into their facility. Some of them were pregnant so since they have taken custody of the dogs they’ve had multiple live births,” says Maciarello.

Maciarello says the best way the community can help is by donating supplies and allowing the humane society to do its job.

“In a perfect world you see these 300 beautiful dogs that can be donated or given to good homes but its not that way. These animals are in various degrees of health issues and hygiene issues,” says Maciarello.

As for legal charges, nothing has been filed as of Tuesday. The Humane Society is currently working with veterinarians to document physical evidence. The Wicomico County State’s Attorney office has donated a go-pro to help this process.

Clay Groton, the Wicomico County Assistant State’s Attorney says, “We have had some cases where all they had are photographs where it will be only one side of an animal. It’s not going to capture the complete picture, especially if this is something we bring in front of a jury.”

The State’s Attorney office says there is no timeline for when the investigation is expected to be completed. It will be up to the Humane Society’s discretion on when they think the dogs are healthy enough to start being adopted.

47 ABC have reached out to the Humane Society, but as of Tuesday there has not been word on where they are in the investigative process. The  Wicomico County Attorney’s office tells us this is an ongoing investigation and their focus right now is the health of the dogs and collecting as much evidence as they can.

For more information on donations click here.