Group adopts dogs from kennel

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

It took trickery and an “insider” operation, but the saga involving Ivan Schmucker Jr.’s dog kennel appears to have reached a conclusion after an animal welfare group from Utah purchased 167 dogs from the Amish farmer in Bland County this weekend.
In a press release from Best Friends Animal Society, the organization announced it had bought the dogs from Schmucker after “an ‘insider’ worked with Best Friends to buy the dogs.”
The press release added that “this was something that had to be done under conditions of extreme security until we had the animal safely in our custody.”
According to John Polis, public relations manager for Best Friends, the transaction between Schmucker and the unidentified third party took place Friday evening. In a phone message left Saturday morning, in which he described a “breaking story,” Polis described that the organization “was able to acquire the dogs last night undercover.”
In a phone interview Monday afternoon, Polis refused to provide any details about the person or organization that helped serve as the intermediary between Schmucker and Best Friends.
“We didn’t think that we would have a chance to get the dogs directly from the breeder,” Polis said. “We were under the assumption that the dogs would not be sold to a rescue group.”
When pressed on why Schmucker might be unwillingly to sell to Best Friends, which operates the country’s largest sanctuary for homeless pets on 33,000 acres in Kanab, Utah, Polis speculated that it might be because the organization worked behind the scenes to try to get Bland County officials to deny Schmucker a Conditional Use Permit to operate the kennel.
Polis also refused to release information on the price Best Friends paid to purchase the dogs.
“There was no special effort to raise funds to do this,” he said, adding that Best Friends tapped into its own resources to make the transaction.
Multiple phone calls to the Schmucker residence were not answered Monday morning and his answering machine was not accepting messages.
Best Friends has been involved with the Schmucker controversy since it began in March when Schmucker’s business, Dogwood Kennels, was devastated by a fire that killed 192 dogs.
In the aftermath of the fire, it came to light that Schmucker did not have the correct permit for his kennel in the Mechanicsburg community of Bland County. After a heated public hearing and hours upon hours of behind-the-scenes research, in late June the Bland County Board of Supervisors granted Schmucker approval for a conditional use permit to rebuild the kennel.
Russ Mead, general counsel for Best Friends, spoke at a Bland County Planning Commission public hearing in early June to express the organization’s concerns about Schmucker’s kennel.
Polis said that Best Friends decided to purchase the dogs because there was fear within the organization and other rescue groups that the dogs would be sold at an auction to another breeder.
After the purchase was made, the press release stated that the dogs were transferred to 195 Sunny Road in Max Meadows on Saturday.
Teresa Dockery, chief operating officer for the Margaret B. Mitchell Spay/Neuter Clinic in Bristol, organized about 40 volunteers who helped prepare the dogs to be transferred to New York on Saturday.
She refused to provide more details of the “staging” location for the dogs, saying that it was “at a location that I’m not a liberty to confirm or deny.”
When asked why she could not provide more information, Dockery said the location was a “private residence,” and it was to respect the fact that the owners offered the space.
The volunteers checked the dogs purchased from Schmucker in what Dockery described as a “triage operation.” She said some of the dogs had health issues, but that all were fed and had received proper hydration.
She added the dogs were all vaccinated for rabies and given health certificates.
“All of the animals were found fit to travel,” Dockery said.
Polis said the dogs were transferred to Pets Alive No-Kill Animal Shelter in Middletown, N.Y., in two large trucks.
At the New York shelter, Best Friends will work with Pets Alive to give the dogs additional medical care and prepare them to be adopted.
Polis added that they already have received 100 applications by people hoping to adopt the dogs.
Dockery and Polis said Virginia PAWS, an animal welfare group out of Christiansburg, was also involved in the effort.
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .