Breeder: Gayle Duncan
Business name: Gayle’s Country Pups
Address: 13077 Liberty Hill Rd.
City, State Zip: Cameron, OK 74932
Year: 2015
USDA License: 73-A-2640
Date of CAPS Investigation: 05/22/15
Time of CAPS Investigation: 10:32am
Weather at time of investigation: 64 degrees Fahrenheit and mostly cloudy
Breeds: Australian Shepherds, Yorkshire Terriers
Approximate number of dogs observed at time of investigation: 33 dogs, 4 puppies
I was shown around the property by Jeff, a man who identified himself as Gayle’s brother-in-law (Caucasian male, about 45 years old, 5’9”, 250 lbs., with short gray hair and a very short gray goatee). The kennel consisted of a whelping barn, a breeding barn for Yorkshire Terriers, and two Australian Shepherd pens.
Yorkie building
The Yorkie breeding barn had two rows of elevated indoor/outdoor cages on each of two sides, constructed of treated wire and PVC piping. There were 16 cages per side, with self-feeders and water dishes in the indoor cages. Most of the cages had a layer of rubber matting on their floorings. Metal doggie-doors allowed access between the indoor and outdoor cages. Each cage held one breeder, with one cage containing a litter of four Yorkie puppies just under eight weeks of age.
Two additional buildings, with elevated indoor/outdoor cages on each of two sides, were on the property, though they contained no dogs. Jeff explained to me that Gayle has cut back on the number of dogs she houses and the buildings used, in order to house more breeders.
Whelping/grooming building
The whelping barn was a single-room structure with six indoor whelping cages stacked three high; all were empty at the time. Five plastic tubs were stacked on top of the whelping cages, and a grooming area and laundry machine was located in the same room.
Australian Shepherd pens
Two outdoor Australian Shepherd pens, each with a single dog, were near the residence on the property. Jeff said that Gayle Duncan had mated these two dogs. The pens had chain link walls and dirt floorings. The bottoms of the chain link walls were covered in rust (Sec 3.1 Housing Facilities, General (c) Surfaces (1) General requirements (i) rust). Metal feed and water dishes inside the pens were covered in a thin layer of brown stains (Sec 3.11 Cleaning, Sanitization, Housekeeping, and Pest Control (b) Sanitization of primary enclosures and food and water receptacles). The water dishes had green algae on the inside surfaces (Sec 3.11 Cleaning, Sanitization, Housekeeping, and Pest Control (b) Sanitization of primary enclosures and food and water receptacles). One pen contained a single dog house and the other contained two, and none of these dog houses had windbreaks on them (Sec 3.4 Outdoor Housing Facilities (b) Shelter from the elements (3) Wind breaks). In the pen containing two dog houses, one of those houses had about four inches of plastic surrounding the area where the original doggie-door had been completely chewed off. The area surrounding it was covered in teeth marks and rust (Sec 3.1 Housing Facilities, General (c) Surfaces (1) General requirements).
In an unoccupied pen between the two pens housing dogs, there was a random assortment of clutter (Sec 3.1 Housing Facilities, General (b) Condition and site). In this unoccupied pen there were plastic dog house parts and about a half-dozen cardboard boxes. A 50-gallon plastic barrel was between this pen and an occupied pen. Collected near the occupied dog pens and against the walls of these pens were objects such as cinder blocks, a bike, a bag of fertilizer, an air hose, and wooden boards. In addition, yard equipment was piled up against one pen so that it ran across one six-foot long wall of the pen and along half of the front of the pen.
One of the dog pens had an active electric wire running along the bottom. Jeff told me that the dog in this pen would try to dig out of that area. He said, “They just, they want outta’ that pen and they want affection and attention.” He then told me that the dog tried to bite him, after which, when he arrived on the property on his four-wheeler, he purposefully ran the dog over (Title 21 Ch.67 Section 1685 Cruelty to animals – felony abuse of cruelly beating an animal). He said that whenever he visits the property he brings a gun with him to shoot the dog in case the dog attempts to bite him again. The dog put his nose up to the pen wall and let me touch it without acting aggressively towards me at all.
