134 dogs rescued from unsanitary kennel

One hundred thirty-four dogs were removed from a Cherokee County kennel Tuesday after the state Agriculture Department found the animals living in unsanitary and unsafe conditions, officials said.

The dogs were turned over to the Atlanta Humane Society, said Venessa Sims-Green, the department’s agriculture manager.

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Elissa Eubanks / eeubanks@ajc.com

Workers at the Atlanta Humane Society tend to one of the rescued dogs.

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She said the department launched an investigation of Richards’ Kennel on Hester Drive, near Cumming, after receiving a complaint last week from someone who bought one of the kennel’s dogs at a Pendergrass flea market. The dog had sarcoptic mange, a skin disease that can be transmitted to humans, Sims-Green said.

One of the kennel’s owners, identified as Garnelee Richards, has agreed to surrender the state pet dealer’s license she has had since 1996, Sims-Green said.

Richards also is being cited for inhumane treatment of the dogs, which were among 162 animals — including one bird — found at the kennel, she said.

Inspectors spent part of Monday and Tuesday at the kennel and found several problems, including inadequate waste disposal and unsafe enclosures that had “wires poking out,” Sims-Green said. Some of the dogs had no shelter and were being left out in the cold, she said.

Tommy Irvin, commissioner of agriculture, said this is “one of the largest number [of dogs] we have had to rescue.”

Sims-Green said the animals taken to the humane society did not have sarcoptic mange, and generally, appeared to have been well-fed.

Richards was allowed to keep the other 28 animals, she said.

The agriculture department last inspected Richards’ Kennel in August 2008 and found some “housekeeping violations,” but nothing “as severe as this time,” Sims-Green said.