Repeated calls from a Henry County kennel requesting that animal control pick up stray dogs prompted an investigation that led authorities to halt operations at the business, Premier K-9.
On each occasion, the starving and emaciated strays were purebreds -- the kind of canines Premier K-9 advertises it trains and breeds, said county animal control Director Gerri Yoder.
Yoder suspects the kennel, owned by businessman Art Washington, may have been dumping its unwanted dogs on the county.
“These dogs were extremely fearful or they were extremely aggressive, and in every case they were malnourished to the point of emaciation,” Yoder told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.
“Now whether it is just a coincidence that all these purebred working breeds just happened to show up stray at Mr. Washington’s, I can’t say,” Yoder said.
State regulators have halted operations at Premier K-9 and barred Washington from accepting any new customers at the Ellenwood business while an investigation continues into inhumane treatment of dogs in his care.
State and county inspectors issued citations after a Tuesday visit to the kennel uncovered purebred dogs being kept in what was described as deplorable conditions, according to Channel 2 Action News.
More citations may be coming if Washington cannot present records showing he’s cared for the animals properly, such as providing rabies vaccines, Yoder said.
Efforts to reach Washington were unsuccessful Thursday.
Yoder said she visited Premier K-9 on Thursday and found attempts were being made to care for the animals.
“They are making concerted efforts to rectify the conditions at the shelter,” she told the AJC.
The animal control director said she is meeting with Washington next week to go over his record-keeping and said Washington has been “very cooperative” during the investigation.
Conditions at the kennel on Ward Road in Ellenwood, however, suggest a long-term lack of proper care for animals, Yoder said.
During the visit this week, inspectors found a general lack of sanitation, including debris, animal waste on the floor, animals with feces matted to their hair, piles of dog hair, overflowing sinks and thick spider webs everywhere, Yoder said.
“The lack of cleanliness of the kennel was not something that happened over a weekend,” Yoder said. “The conditions at the kennel were a direct result of long-term neglect.”
The director said Washington “had an excuse” for everything inspectors found.
Premier K-9’s website advertises the kennel sells and imports “only the highest quality German Shepherds, German Rottweilers and Presa Canarios in which we ship worldwide.”
The kennel lists among its clients athletes and music stars, among them Joe Johnson of the Atlanta Hawks, former boxer Mike Tyson, the group Outkast and singer Monica.
Art Washington is also a former business partner of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who went to prison two years ago for lying about his involvement in dog fighting. Vick now plays with the Philadelphia Eagles.
The purebreds Premier K-9 promotes, however, are the same dogs animal control inspectors have been called to pick up as strays, the county animal control director said.
To be sure, the county gets calls from the public about strays every day, Yoder said.
“But it was very odd that about twice a year we would get calls from Mr. Washington’s staff that said there were stray dogs at the kennel,” she said. “The types of stray dogs that we were picking up from Premier K-9 were sort of suspicious.”
Yoder said the strays “were always” purebred Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Doberman Pinschers and other prized canines. “They were never the Georgia brown dogs, the hound dog mix,” she said.
It was around the first week of August that the county received another call from staff at Premier K-9 that there were four strays at the kennel, Yoder said. Animal control found three purebred German Shepherds and one purebred Rottweiler.
“The conditions of the dogs were extremely poor,” Yoder said. She said they were covered in fecal material, which led investigators to believe they were kept in unclean crates. Two adult German Shepherds that should have weighed 80 to 90 pounds weighed around 40 pounds.
“We suspected that these were animals that actually were not stray but were animals that, for some reason, the kennel was dumping for whatever reason,” Yoder said.
The local Humane Society took possession of one of the German Shepherds, and both Yoder and the Humane Society alerted the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Animal Protection Division about conditions at the kennel.
Those calls prompted the inspection at Premier K-9 on Tuesday.
Yoder said Washington was not at the kennel during Tuesday’s inspection. He told her he was in the Dominican Republic.
Washington was served animal control citations for inhumane treatment of animals on Wednesday.
Channel 2 also reported that Premier K-9 was operating on a revoked business license and did not have a breeder’s permit.
Since news of the problems at Premier K-9, Yoder said Henry County animal control has been flooded with calls from people complaining about the business.
“We had never received a single complaint” before Tuesday’s inspection, the director said.
The animal control director also has advice for pet owners and others who have concerns about kennels or are thinking about leaving their pet with a kennel.
“If they suspect abuse, neglect, ill-treatment of animals, they need to call their local animal control office,” she said.
“If you are leaving your animal for boarding or training, you never leave your animal until you can absolutely walk through the entire kennel. Don’t just leave your animal at the front lobby.”
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