Humane Society seizing animals in SE Minnesota

The Animal Humane Society is in southeastern Minnesota working on one of its largest animal cruelty cases in recent memory.

The society says Friday it is seizing more than 200 animals, including about 120 rabbits and 80 dogs. Most of them are small breeds including pugs and Boston terriers.

The society was contacted last week by the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office after deputies investigated a property in Viola Township and found animal carcasses.

A Human Society investigator and a sheriff's deputy returned to the property on Thursday with a search warrant and found unsanitary conditions in a puppy mill setting.

Olmsted County Sheriff Sgt. Scott Behrns says the animals were living in "deplorable" conditions.

Society workers returned Friday to remove the surviving animals and take them to the society's facility in Golden Valley, where they were to receive medical treatment.

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