But it wasn't the treatment of the animals that prompted the officials to take them away - and cite the woman who was responsible for the dogs.
Animal control officers and Cumberland County SPCA officials converged on the Golden Grove Kennels and removed dozens of dogs.
"The dogs are for the most part healthy. There are some issues that we will deal with immediately. You can 't have 77 dogs in a space this size," said Bev Greco of the Cumberland Co. SPCA.
Debra Schaser-Graef owns the property. She breeds golden retrievers for profit. However she also operates a non-profit, raising and training medic alert dogs and dogs for the hearing-impaired. Her capacity is for 35 to 40 dogs but she had 77, many kept inside her house.
Schaser-Graef says she's looking for a bigger property for her non-profit canine hearing companions.
"I need a bigger facility, but it takes money. I go without pay, and we make sure the dogs don't want for anything, but it's very hard to find the funding," she said. There are a number of code violations including septic and plumbing issues and inadequate roofing that must be corrected by month's end if the kennel license is to be renewed. Most of the dogs taken away were corgi-pomeranian mixes, so-called "designer dogs." They are now at the Cumberland County SPCA shelter ready for adoption.
"Any of them who are spayed or neutered, we could let go as early as tomorrow," said Greco. The shelter is located on Delsea Drive, Route 47 in Vineland.
