Kennel owner gets dogs back

Dogs seized from a Wyoming kennel last week are being returned, the kennel's owner said Monday.

“I got a phone call and was told to go to Dubuque and pick up six of them and start bringing them home,” Harold Buzz Powell said Monday afternoon.

Powell said he collected the first six of about 40 dogs that were taken from his Thunder Ridge Kennel on March 15. He said he expects the rest to be released this week.

Acting on information from local animal welfare advocates, Jones County sheriff's deputies and a U.S. Department of Agriculture agent raided Powell's USDA-licensed kennel just east of Wyoming. They seized 59 of the 100 dogs housed there.

Powell said two veterinarians who examined the dogs “are on our side,” and the dogs were seized only because the warrant required any animals requiring medical attention to be taken.

“The reason they were seized was because of the way the warrant was wrote,” Powell said. “It said ‘any med attention,' even if it was a scratch, or a little dental (injury).'”

Powell predicted at the time the dogs would be returned, but he said Monday's action isn't vindication.

“Not even close,” he said. “But I stand next to my word that we take good care of our dogs. We're not a puppy mill and we take care of our dogs and this proves it because it's only seven days and they're already coming back.”

Efforts Monday afternoon to contact Jones County Attorney Phil Parsons weren't successful.