Cruelty seizure at a suspected puppy mill in NC leaves scores of schnauzers and other dogs in desperate need.

Today the ARC Field Team deployed to Chatham County, North Carolina on the rescue of approximately 214 schnauzers, mini-schnauzers, other breeds, and designer mixes. These dogs lived in filthy and dangerous conditions at a suspected puppy mill. Many of the dogs, including newborns and pregnant mothers, lived in their own waste in high ammonia levels, matted, and now suffer from untreated medical, physical, and social conditions requiring urgent care. This is Operation Carolina Torment.

ARC responded alongside Bissell Pet Foundation to an urgent request from the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office for assistance. The Nashville Humane Association also provided essential field and transport support on the ground.

Upon discovering the severity of the conditions — including the remains of ten deceased dogs, including three dead puppies — and the large number of surviving dogs in need, the Chatham County Sheriff’s office reached out to BISSELL Pet Foundation, which immediately reached out to ARC for coalition help. Animal Rescue Corps is overseeing the rescue operation and sheltering, medical needs, transport, and care of all the animals, as well as legal and evidence documentation assistance for law enforcement., and working alongside BISSELL Pet Foundation on providing operational planning, field removal, and field volunteers. The dogs are all being relocated to Animal Rescue Corps’ Rescue Center. There ARC will provide urgent medical, physical, and social care for each dog for as long as it takes to secure custody.

This is a large-scale cruelty case. These dogs have been raised, sold, and bred for profit in a suspected puppy mill, without regard for their health or needs.

Animal Rescue Corps is providing care to all the surviving dogs from this case – over 210 dogs & puppies.

ARC is working to help bring the suspected puppy mill proprietors to justice, and this case is still developing. Because of the large number of dogs rescued in this active cruelty case and their poor conditions donors and volunteers are urgently needed to help Animal Rescue Corps raise the rest of the funds and care for the dogs until permanent legal custody is obtained. At that point, as the dogs are ready, they will be matched with and transported to ARC’s network of vetted placement partners in high-adoption regions.

With the compassion and generosity of ARC’s donors and volunteers, we can ensure these dogs never return to the suspected puppy mill they’ve been rescued from, and, together, we can give each of these dogs the life full of love and care they deserve.

Large-scale emergency rescues like Operation Carolina Torment are why ARC was founded. ARC’s focus is to help the animals who suffer in numbers too high for local municipalities to help, and to support law enforcement agencies in cruelty cases to help bring offenders to justice.

And we need your help to succeed. Each of these 200+ pups is a special individual who urgently needs your compassion today.

With your help, their new lives begin now.

If you are in a position to help today with a donation to support the deserving dogs of Operation Carolina Torment and all ARC’s work, please do. Every act of your generosity makes a difference and helps to bring an abused or neglected animal to safety.

And, if you are in a position to volunteer, please sign up today. Opportunities are always available in ARC’s Rescue Center outside Nashville, TN, as well as sometimes nationally and beyond. We sometimes offer travel stipends.