Breeder: Harries, Larry & Carole
Business name: Harries K-9 Ranch
City, State Zip: Alpha, MN 56111
Year: 2007
USDA License: 41-A-0023
USDA Inspector: Catherine Hovancsak, VMO
Date of CAPS Investigation: 2007-07-23
On site at the time of investigation: approximately 60 dogs and 40 puppies.
Breeds: Poodles, Shih Tzus, Pekingese, Mixed breeds
The Harries’ facility consisted of a whelping building and breeder building.
Whelping building
The whelping building had indoor/outdoor enclosures on each of two sides. The investigator only saw dogs inside the building, in pens made with plastic walls, plastic-grating floorings, and wire doors. Metal doggie-doors allowed access between the indoor and outdoor pens. Water dishes were on the floorings, and plastic self feeders were attached to the pen doors. The entire kennel had an extremely strong ammonia odor (3.2(b) Ventilation).
A matted Poodle was loose in the kennel. The Poodle’s head was shaved, but the rest of the dog was covered in dirty clumps of fur (3.1(a)-Structure); (2.40-Vet care).
The pens housed either whelping mothers with their puppies, a pair of breeders, or a litter of puppies. The legs of the puppies, all less than eight weeks of age, were constantly slipping through the holes of the flooring grates (3.6(a)(2)(x)-Primary enclosures). Mr. Harries commented about the puppies’ legs slipping through the floorings: “Now, my inspectors aren’t real happy. They said, ‘Well you need… the puppies step through that.’ Well they do the first couple days after I take them out of the whelping box. And they (USDA inspectors) finally gave up. And they said, ‘Well, you should have something solid in there.’ I put something solid in there and that’s where they go make their messes.”
When asked about being fined by USDA or having USDA take any of his dogs, he replied, “They’ll write you up and give you a warning. ‘You got to be fixed next time.’ But they don’t say anything to me anymore about the grating. I’m just not going to make it change.”
One pen contained two Poodle breeders, one of which had thick mats covering its body (2.40-Vet care).
Another pen, containing a whelping Pekingese mother and puppies, had a brown puddle in the concrete walkway outside its doorway (3.1(f)-Drainage and waste disposal). Mr. Harries said he cleaned the walkway out every couple days, and that every one to two weeks he cleaned out from under the plastic grates (3.11(a)-Cleaning of primary enclosures).
All of the pens had a dirty build-up on their walls and doggie doors (3.1(c)(3)-Cleaning). The water dishes all had a brown, dirty build-up on the inner and outer surfaces and contained yellowish water (3.10-Watering).
The plastic floor gratings had fecal build-up covering the inner surfaces of the holes (3.1(c)(3)-Cleaning).
Breeder building
The breeder building had two stacked rows of indoor/outdoor cages on each of two sides. These pens had plastic walls and ceilings and plastic-grating floorings. Plastic sheets were positioned under each row of cages to catch debris and excrement. There were about five dogs of various breeds per cage; some of the cages were empty.
The walls and doggie doors all had a brown build-up on their surfaces, and there was feces build-up in the holes of the grating floorings (3.1(c)(3)-Cleaning).
One Shih Tzu had mats on its face, another had a recessed left eye, a Chihuahua’s tongue was constantly hanging out of its mouth all the way to the chin (2.40-Vet care).
A metal broom pan under an occupied breeder cage across from the doorway was filled with dried feces (3.1(b)-Condition and site).
