posted May 1, 2006
Chattanooga animal rescue groups came prepared with $14,000 for an auction of "puppy mill" dogs at Cartersville, Ga., on Sunday, and came away with 46 of the dogs.
Guy Bilyeu of the Humane Education Society said he brought $2,000 from a Virginia rescue group and the Southern Comfort Maltese Rescue from Chattanooga had over $12,000 to bid on the animals.
The dogs were from the estate of Katherine Culberson, kennel owner who died last month. She left 156 dogs that had been kept mainly in cages for producing puppies.
Mr. Bilyeu gave this account: "The auction was very poorly organized. Michael Prieto, the administrator of the estate and auctioneer, informed the crowd that the animals would be brought out one at a time and the minimum bid would be $100. They did not allow anyone to inspect the animals prior to auction and they had a list of animals that would be auctioned with breed, estimated age and sex.
"Rescue groups from Tennessee and Georgia had a brief meeting prior to the auction to coordinate who was going to bid on specific breeds.
"Six frightened animals at a time were brought out and were kept together in a very small wire crate. Prieto then explained that anyone that won the bid would have to go to the collections table, pay in cash and remove the animal from the property before they would be allowed to bid again. This created a major obstacle for the attending rescue groups. However, each group worked well together sharing funds and volunteers to enable the bidders to continue to bid.
"Prieto stood on the back of a pickup truck, was handed an extremely matted and elderly Pekinese and the auction began. The atmosphere quickly became frenzied as the rescue groups tried to 'purchase' as many dogs as possible.
"The crowd quickly realized that rescue groups were in attendance and were winning the majority of the bids. Maltese and Yorkies were the most expensive with many commanding $800-900 each. The crowd became very angry and began shouting at the rescue groups for not enabling them to get animals. Whenever someone not affiliated with the rescue groups won a bid, the crowd would cheer and clap. Many of the dogs had dental problems and terrible eye and skin issues, and none had been washed or brushed within recent memory, if ever.
"The crowd also started yelling at the auctioneer. Prieto was obviously influenced and on several occasions he ignored bids from rescue groups. Southern Comfort Maltese Rescue came with over $12,000 to try and obtain the Maltese. However, Preito ignored two bidders from that group and allowed the dogs to go to individuals outside of rescue.
"However, the vast majority of the animals did go to rescue groups. The various groups from Chattanooga acquired 46 animals. Southern Hope Humane Society took over 30 and I would guess the remaining groups took 20-30 or more.
"The other major problem was that everything had to be paid in cash and several of the attending rescue groups did not have a lot of cash. Southern Comfort Maltese Rescue from Chattanooga was best prepared and brought over $12,000.00 to bid on the animals. I brought another $2,000.00 to bid on animals from A Forever Home Rescue in Virginia.
"One of the rescue groups came with spay/neuter flyers and passed one to each of the individuals that got a dog that was not involved with rescue. Unfortunately, she was forced to leave the property by the sheriffs department.
"After the auction was over, everyone left except for the rescue groups. We stayed to wait for the animals that were too sick for the auction. Once the 16 arrived, they were dispersed to the rescue groups. We were able to acquire five.
"Once we were finished with this process the majority of the animals were loaded on the Humane Educational Society Mobile Adoption bus and we put the remaining in crates in the four other vehicles we brought.
"There were a total of about 10 rescue groups that attended to bid on animals and take those that were not available for bid after the auction was closed. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitutional, there were 156 total animals that were auctioned or given to rescue groups yesterday. 128 were auctioned for $40,000 and 28 went for free to rescue groups.
"Locally Southern Comfort Maltese Rescue took 20 Maltese from the auction. They were in horrible condition with several having few if any teeth. The Humane Educational Society took seven Pekinese, nine9 Chihuahuas, two Pomeranians and four Dachshunds. The smallest dog was a Chihuahua with one eye that weighed about three pounds. The teeth of many of the animals were so horribly caked with tartar that they could not close their mouths.
"Southern Comfort Maltese Rescue took the Maltese and another local rescue group got the Dachshunds. The Chihuahuas, Pomeranians, Pekinese and a lone Cocker that was neutered stayed at HES and today the National Pekinese Rescue group came to get the Pekinese and transport the remaining animals to A Forever Friends Rescue in Virginia.
"The auction was covered by local television, radio and newspaper reporters."
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |
