Humane Society makes room for rescued E. Oregon dogs

About 100 neglected animals on their way to Portland for new homes

Pamplin Media Group, Dec 8, 2009, Updated Dec 8, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Courtesy of OHS

Oregon Humane Society staff member Sandra Farnsworth comforts one of the dogs rescued this week from a Harney County house. The organization plans to bring many of the dogs to Portland for care and adoption.

The Oregon Humane Society is bringing about 100 dogs in distress to Portland this week from an Eastern Oregon farm where many of the animals lived in holes covered by planks in sub-freezing temperatures.

The dogs belonged to three people in Harney County who were charged this week with several counts of animal neglect. County Sheriff David R. Glerup called the Humane Society for help after local social workers visited the property to check on a complaint brought by an 11-year-old child living there. State officials have removed all the children from the property.

The owners surrendered ownership of the dogs to the county, which will turn them over to the Oregon Humane Society for care and adoption. The owners will be allowed under an agreement to keep some dogs at the property.

When Glerup and his deputies arrived at the house near New Princeton, Ore., about 20 miles southeast of Burns near Malheur Lake, they found dozens of dogs living in holes or chained to farm equipment with little shelter from the recent frigid temperatures.

The dogs were subsisting on cattle carcasses from a local meat processing plant. The property was littered with bones and cattle skeletons. Also visible were the unburied remains of at least one dead dog.

“Most of these dogs, despite their living conditions, are friendly to people and want to be around us,” said Sharon Harmon, Oregon Humane Society executive director. “I hope we can get them into loving homes in time for the holidays.”

A Humane Society rescue team will return with some of the animals to the Portland shelter at about 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9.

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