Breeder who surrendered dogs was rescued during 2007 floods
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NEAR DOTY, Wash. -- The woman who surrendered her 65 dogs to authorities on Friday had to be rescued herself five years ago.
When Nancy Punches was trapped in her house by the flooded Chehalis River in 2007, she managed to save four of her foxhound puppies.
Those puppies have led to a total of 65 dogs, all of whom Punches surrendered to authorities on Friday.
Animal rescue teams said the dogs were found in deplorable conditions, living alongside mounds of their own waste. They said they had no choice but to seize the 45 dogs and 20 puppies.
"It was pretty bad out there, and for an animal to be living in that kind of condition is not something that's acceptable," said Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield.
Back in 2007 when Punches was rescued, she told KOMO News rising floodwaters prevented her from saving 16 of her adult foxhounds. But she managed to grab four of their puppies as floodwaters rose to within 10 inches of her ceiling, and they floated on a bookcase until they were rescued the next day.
"I was determined to save those puppies, those babies, because I know that my other dogs had drowned," she said.
A new home was donated, and Punches said her breeding operation started all over again with those four puppies. But the sheriff said somewhere along the way, it became too much for her to handle.
The dog breeding went unchecked and grew to 65 dogs with the 78-year-old breeder unable to maintain clean living conditions for them.
"She loved her animals. She cared about them. But for whatever reasons, things got out of control and beyond her ability to care for them," said the sheriff.
Rescuers found one of the puppies dead in a cage on Friday, and three of the seized puppies died over the weekend. Many of the dogs have parvovirus, according to authorities.
The sheriff said he will likely recommend that charges be filed against Punches.
When Nancy Punches was trapped in her house by the flooded Chehalis River in 2007, she managed to save four of her foxhound puppies.
Those puppies have led to a total of 65 dogs, all of whom Punches surrendered to authorities on Friday.
Animal rescue teams said the dogs were found in deplorable conditions, living alongside mounds of their own waste. They said they had no choice but to seize the 45 dogs and 20 puppies.
"It was pretty bad out there, and for an animal to be living in that kind of condition is not something that's acceptable," said Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield.
Back in 2007 when Punches was rescued, she told KOMO News rising floodwaters prevented her from saving 16 of her adult foxhounds. But she managed to grab four of their puppies as floodwaters rose to within 10 inches of her ceiling, and they floated on a bookcase until they were rescued the next day.
"I was determined to save those puppies, those babies, because I know that my other dogs had drowned," she said.
A new home was donated, and Punches said her breeding operation started all over again with those four puppies. But the sheriff said somewhere along the way, it became too much for her to handle.
The dog breeding went unchecked and grew to 65 dogs with the 78-year-old breeder unable to maintain clean living conditions for them.
"She loved her animals. She cared about them. But for whatever reasons, things got out of control and beyond her ability to care for them," said the sheriff.
Rescuers found one of the puppies dead in a cage on Friday, and three of the seized puppies died over the weekend. Many of the dogs have parvovirus, according to authorities.
The sheriff said he will likely recommend that charges be filed against Punches.
is this article supposed to soften us up, feel sympathy for this woman so we can better accept the charges being dropped?
Why the headlines over her rescue? We all villainize this woman who's only trying to make a living and live independantly. She's 78 freaking years old!  Her house was "donated," so obviously she didn't have the means or insurance to rebuild. Instead of "filing charges," why don't we send her some community service help so that she can continue in the only trade she knows? That way, she can maintain her independance instead of simply costing us money for a protracted trial, replete w/ a public defender for her, and then the jail time which will ultimately kill her. There are plenty of lawbreakers in that area, sentenced to community service that really aren't doing anything useful or meaningful. Many others are serving jail time and could be utilized for such service instead of simply costing us money to house and feed them.Â
 @bagsofdirt She was abusing 65 animals who were dependent on her care!!! The times of offering community service or any kind of help maintaining her dog breeding where long gone by the time she had more than 3 dogs. She was killing dogs to make money because she was unable to keep up.Why would you support this? Now is not the time to support her or try to assist her. 65 dogs were abused in her care and she needs to face the consequences of this now. No mercy for her what so ever!!!
They always love their dogs. Love them to death. So, so sad.
The flood was that sudden. The nearby bridge was holding back debris form 3 other bridges that had collapsed. So when the one near us broke, it was like emptying a bath tub,but faster. We all lost houses and were rescued by helicopter
How could the original dogs not be saved, the flood wasn't that sudden.
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Classic hoarding case, holding on to these ones due to the loss of the others
@yeahguy ...never been in a flood have you? Have no idea how strong water currents are?  I went down there after the flood, got on the FEMA volunteer list w/ my little John Deere tractor w/ bucket loader and scooped out many garages, driveways, animal stalls, restored berms, buried dead cows, horses, sheep and dogs etc. I sat on a lot of pickup tailgates w/ my knee high rubber boots dangling in the mud and munched sandwiches w/ those flood victims. Many were strong, young people physically. Many said it was all they could do to get onto their roofs let alone save anything else. There was much debris left over even from the St. Helens eruption that got suddenly flushed free resulting in waters in some areas that were rising at six inches per minute.
 @bagsofdirt  @yeahguy solid answer, thanks for the contribution
Charges SHOULD be filed against this woman. Her negligence is clearly abuse and animal abuse is a punishable offense. This story makes me sick.
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Animals are helpless creatures. They rely on us to take care of them properly. If you spot an animal or animals that are not properly being taken care of, it is your responsibility to report those people and have an agency come in to rescue those animals. Some people should not be allowed to own pets, period.
78-year-old ??? Sad story - someone should have intervened before she ended up with 65 dogs! And what are you going to do - throw her in jail or fine her money she doesn't have? Find her a guardian and let her have 1-2 fixed dogs. I would love to take one but I already have 1 rescue dog and a very small place.
@readyaim321 She shouldn't be allowed to own any animals, period. Failing to take care of her animals is abuse. She is an animal hoarder. One or two "fixed" dogs is going to turn into five because a hoarder isn't ok with having just one or two. Five is going to turn into twenty. Next thing you know she's back up to an overwhelming number again and Animal Control is going to have to rescue these animals again, even though they don't have the resources to keep rescuing large amounts of dogs because of an irresponsible backyard breeder.
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Her age isn't an excuse. When she rescued those four pups back in 2007 she should have had them fixed but she didn't. She was allowing this dogs to breed over and over. Who knows what other defects these poor dogs have due to their breeding or should I say inbreeding.
 @Tattooed_Angel  @readyaim321 It sounds like she is in rather sad shape herself.  I hope it makes you feel better to call her names.  As for charges, I agree that charges should be filed, but I would suggest that the penalty should be restrictions to her posession of animals, not jail or absurd fines to be paid out of her Social Security income.  Reducing her to eating dog food doesn't make much sense to me.
@Tattooed_Angel No, she does not at all sound like a hoarder. She sounds like a perfectly fine, responsible breeder who became elderly (as everyone does) and gradually became unable to do things that she had done all her life. I think we have all seen elderly people whose formerly well ordered lives have gone to pieces. However, I agree with readyaim321, it's tragic that someone didn't help her before things got this far out of control. Of course she didn't spay or neuter the 4 puppies she managed to save from the 2007 flood. Those were the last dogs from a breeding program she had probably worked on for most of her life. Non-dog people totally don't get this. It isn't a matter of a dog is a dog is a dog. A dog that comes from a line of carefully bred dogs has fewer health problems, better structure (which is vital for every dog sport --- herding, hunting, agility, frisbee dog, lure coursing, EVERYTHING), and greater aptitude for his specialty than some mixed breed dog resulting from a series of random, accidental breedings. I know this article makes it sound like she just bred those four puppies and their offspring over and over -- which would cause severe inbreeding -- but I doubt that happened, because these dogs look pretty good. More likely (and this IS just a guess on my part) she bred her female dogs to carefully chosen males that belonged to other people.Â
@Tattooed_Angel BREATHE, Angel, and read the rest of my second sentence. The article doesn't tell us much about this lady except that she is 78 years old. I have known many people who excelled in their careers and then went to pieces when they were old. Old age is a cruel enemy. I don't know if this lady had Alzheimer's or just the normal mental deterioration that so often comes with age, but it is entirely possible that she gave her dogs very good care until her abilities and perceptions became impaired by age. This is, of course, a guess on my part. I base that guess on the earlier picture of dogs in a kennel run. The kennel was not some patched together mess of junk. It was a good, chainlink kennel run. That leads me to believe that, in better days, this was a neat, well run kennel. Also, in the original article, the investigating officer stated that authorities had been trying to work with the lady to improve conditions for her animals. They don't do that with some hoarder who absent mindedly stuffs a large number of animals into a small, filthy area. The officer's attitude implies that they had reason to hope she could do better. If she had a reputation for running a good kennel in the past, it would explain why he thought that.Â
@grmnshepherdess A "perfectly fine, responsible breeder", no matter what age, would recognize that an animal living next to a mound of its own filth is unacceptable under any circumstances. 65 dogs crosses the line into hoarding when her inability to give up what she clearly can't care for impacts the ability of the animals to lead healthy, happy lives. A responsible breeder would have recognized she can't adequately care for the dogs and given them to another responsible breeder. And I am a dog person; I understand the process, and living in excrement has no place in it.
@grmnshepherdess A responsible breeder ends up with 65 dogs? A responsible breeder doesn't know when enough is enough and STOPS? A responsible breeder keeps animals in such filty conditions? A responsible breeder doesn't vaccinate their dogs and they die of Parvo?
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Yeah right, she sounds like a perfectly normal, responsible breeder. Yeah freaking right.
Expect more puppy deaths if there's parvo involved now. Â Unless someone needs a special breed for hunting or herding, I just don't see the need for a purebred dog, especially as many come from awful conditions like this. Â If everyone just rescued a dog, it would put people like this out of business. Â I hope the rest of the dogs survive and find clean, loving homes.
@Doxie Most purebred dogs do not come from conditions like this. Anyone who "does not see the need for a purebred dog" has simply never had one. I have owned mixed breeds and purebreds and there is absolutely no comparison. A purebred dog is a specialist. He is born knowing what his job is and how to do it. I recently watched a video from a wonderful breeder here in western Washington. It showed some of her tiny border collie puppies seeing chickens for the first time -- and herding them. It was just one excellent example of how profoundly wonderful a purebred dog truly is.  I have often heard that ridiculous wheeze about how EVERYONE should rescue a dog and boycott those nasty old breeders. There is nothing wrong with rescuing a dog, if that's what you want, but whether you are rescuing a "pre-owned" dog or getting a young, well bred dog with no baggage, where on earth do you think dogs come from? Even mixed breeds descended from dogs of SOME breed. If all breeders are wiped off the earth, there will eventually be no dogs (in shelters or anywhere else) except sickly, badly built mongrels resulting from accidental breedings of back country curs.  If you own or have owned a "rescue" dog that turned out to be a great dog, know that somewhere in that dog's ancestry there were dogs that were carefully bred for their ability and temperament. BREEDERS are the reason that hip dysplasia hasn't ruined the entire German shepherd breed. BREEDERS are the reason epilepsy is becoming more rare in Australian shepherds. BREEDERS are the reason hip and eye problems are becoming increasingly rare in a whole list of breeds. If anyone reading this has a breed that you especially admire, THANK A BREEDER.  Â
 @grmnshepherdess  @Doxie I said 'many', not most purebreds come from conditions like this.  You and I have had this discussion before and we can agree to disagree.  Most people do not require a specialist of any kind and have animals only as companions.  I had a purebred bichon who had so many problems, he died at only 7.  And our dachsund has epilepsy.  Both rescues.
@Doxie  Excuse me, Doxie, I didn't mean to LAND on you. I had just finished reading an article from a facebook friend on how breeders are currently being persecuted.  My zeal to educate the general public about the importance of breeders may have reached flame thrower intensity. You are correct that not eveyone has the same requirements for a dog. Remember when we were young and dating and some older person would say, "There is somebody for everybody?"  It appears to me that the same is true when matching up people and dogs. One of my friends adopted a small, sickly, crippled dog from a Third World country. It cost her a fortune in vet bills and basically couldn't do anything. WHY?!  I don't know, but it made her happy and the dog was well cared for, so I guess all is well. On the extreme opposite end of the scale, in my circle of friends, we are teammates with our dogs and we compete vigorously in our chosen sport. Good physical structure and strong work ethic are as important to us when choosing a dog as it is to the Mariners' front office when they are choosing a new player. I am 100% in support of dog rescue and the people who do it. Rescue dogs also have their place. For example, law enforcement often gets drug sniffing dogs from shelters because a dog that is dumped by the owners because it gets into everything can turn out to be exactly the dog needed to check baggage, freight, etc. in an airport. My motivation in writing to these comment threads is to help fight the anti-breeder propaganda. I am sincerely sorry to read that your dachshund has epilepsy. I know that you truly love your dogs. I hope your vet is able to help you manage the disease so your dog has a long and comfortable life.
 @Doxie I agree. I've rescued 4 dogs (none pure breed) so far in my life, and a cat. Anyhow, this is a very sad story. That's too many dogs for anyone to care for, let alone a 78yr old. I feel bad for the dogs...it must have been terrible for awhile.
 @lovinTruth yeah, we're on our 6th dog and had 2 rescue cats that lived to be 19.  One dog had major health issues, probably was a puppy mill dog and inbred.  I want to feel sorry for this lady, but I am having a hard time. Â
 @lovinTruth All our children have 4 legs too.  There are lots of great people working in rescue, I have no doubt these dogs will find their way into the right homes.  Can you imagine having to bathe them though, when they were walking in poop?  Yuck!  But I know kind-hearted people do that too. Our friend is a groomer and donated lots of services to the organization we ended up getting our latest dog from.  God bless them all.
 @Doxie Exactly! We'd have it no other way! We only have one dog now. and 3 cats. We don't have kids so these guys are very much our babies! Our other dog had to be put down because of illness. She was 13 yrs old and we rescued her when she was 2.Â
Yes, these surrendered dogs do look quite healthy. I am surprised by how healthy they look. :) Serious trust issues most likely, unfortunately. I do hope they make it into a loving and healthy family where they can be loved, played with, and nurtured relentlessly. :)
 @lovinTruth You're describing our lives now, but I can't imagine anything different.  They give us so much in return for all the turds we pick up.  For instance, they have given us fleas even though they hardly go outside!  But all is forgiven, dogs are awesome.  One just jumped up here and gave me a punch in the cheek to tell me it's potty time, haha.  Fortunately, the dogs surrendered look to be in pretty good health, though they may have trouble trusting or attaching, but hopefully not.
 @Doxie LOL yeah, you're right. I had 2 rescue dogs for 6 years. Caring for them, walking, playtime, nurturing them, and picking up doggie doo was quite the job even with the two of us.
 @lovinTruth 15, haha, I had 3 for about a year a while back and it felt like my life revolved around potty time and picking up poop.  She shouldn't even have ONE dog, they were climbing around in a foot of feces!  Gag, I just had a reflexive moment there.
 @Doxie Yes, seriously difficult to feel sorry for this woman. How could she not see this earlier? Like at 15 dogs?