The Story of the "OMBR 24"
On Friday, July 27th, Sherry, OMBR’s President, received a call about a man running a puppy mill in Oklahoma who was disposing of 30 adult bassets and assorted puppies from 9 weeks old and up. Sherry was told that if we did not pick up these bassets by Monday morning, he would shoot the ones that were left. So on Sunday afternoon, Sherry, her son Matt, and Phil, OMBR’s founder, went out to pick up these dogs. We didn’t know where we were going to put them – all our foster homes are full – but we couldn’t’ let them just be killed. So Sunday at 8 a.m., OMBR had 19 bassets in its care. By Sunday at 5 p.m., we had added 24 more – we had more than doubled our numbers!!!! The miller had given and sold breeding pairs, groups, and puppies to anyone who would take them. At this point, only 14 adults remained.
Phil tells the rest of this story in his own words:
"I thought the man was going to meet us in Westville, Oklahoma, and bring the bassets with him. He shows up at 3:45. Oh no, no dogs, "you need to follow me to where they are," and sure enough there is no way we could have ever found it otherwise. It was in a little squeezed in valley with a stream running through the middle of it that had been obviously flooding all summer. It had even tried to wash the mobile home away. Weeds were 7 feet tall. The bassets were in a fenced in area, actually two, there was a fence down the middle with a wooden shelter in the middle, completely taken over by these weeds.
Upon arrival 4 or 5 basset females met us, a little scared but friendly. They weren’t even in pens, they were running loose on the property. The other 10 were in the pens; 3 of them were totally scared and wild. While trying to herd dogs into the wooden building the man said, "Oh, looks like Rosie there has had her pups." We got quiet, and sure enough heard them in a wild weedier corner of the pen, crying. They had been born the night before, and had been laying in the open since then, in the 97-degree weather in the 7-foot-tall weeds. We found 7 of them right away. I was looking around and found one that crawled under the fence, where Rosie couldn't reach her to get her back in. While I was retrieving her, two of the free-running girls saw what I was doing and searched around and come up carrying two more (I was impressed with them!). So we found 10 freshly born pups in all.
It took a good two hours in 98% humidity to catch them all. It was an electric fence and it wasn't connected and apparently had not been for some time but, a two strand electric fence rain inside the pens.
| {This is the one of the few picture we got of the horrible conditions these dogs were being kept in. The miller was suspicious of us and since our first priority was getting him to give us all those dogs so we could get them out of that situation, we didn’t take any more pictures. The weeds right behind this view were at least 5-6 feet tall - one of the better kept areas.} |
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While Sherry was loading some of the bassets into her SUV she somehow found a basset laying in the weeds, trying to get to her. The man says, "Oh my wife hit her with the car when she was leaving this morning, I will take her to the vet tomorrow." Sherry told him NO, that dog was going to the vet right then, she was in shock. When we got to the vet, HE said her injuries were at least two days old. She had been left lying there, suffering and untreated, for all that time. They operated on her (her name was Josie) but she didn't make it; her diaphragm was hopelessly ruptured causing her to struggle for every breath she took. The pain she suffered must have been unbearable...
We have the 13 adults remaining; 2 male and 11 female adults, all beautiful pure-bred bassets. They have every worm known to man. There was one who was very skinny. Upon examination, she was found to be heartworm positive, and - get this - she had had a pregnancy and c-section two months earlier, still had the stitches from the c-section, and had nursed that litter of pups (which the miller then sold), and all this while heartworm positive. All in all, Sunday was about the worst I've seen in my little rescue career. "
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to donate to the care of these beautiful bassets rescued from these horrible conditions
All of these poor dogs were living in pens with weeds 7 feet high, exposed to the full blast of Arkansas’ heat and humidity, thunderstorms and rain, bugs and ticks and fleas. They were all covered with ticks and fleas. One was heartworm positive, two are very scared, and need some socialization. But most of them are remarkably friendly and sweet, considering what they have been through.
 
  
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