Well, here's what's going on up there as I understand it. (disclaimer - I may be wrong or fuzzy on some points.)

These dogs were being kept by a man illegally living on crown land. He thought he was going to run the Iditarod with them, if that gives you some idea of his state of mind. They were all chained, poorly fed, abused, and generally in pretty bad shape.

The reason PAWS is able to get these dogs is that a) there is no SPCA in Creston, (PAWS was started to take care of the local animals because of the lack of an SPCA) and b) the RCMP kicked the guy off crown land. The dogs had to go somewhere, and they're going to PAWS - the local non-profit no-kill group.

Unfortunately, PAWS only has a small capacity and there are a lot of dogs. They're taking as many off the mountain at a time as they can, but they really are a small organization. The dogs are getting cleaned up, taken through veterinary care, and going into foster homes. Right now, more than half the dogs are down and being taken care of. PAWS is waiting to release some information because as I understand it, they really don't want the remaining dogs exposed to a swarm of media people.

The cats were horribly abused, and well beyond the point of being saved. That's why they were put to sleep. I don't have any more details there, again there will be more information once all the animals are taken care of. I doubt they were being sold to anyone with the condition they were in.

PAWS is doing an amazing job up there, and if anyone is able to give them a hand, they sure could use it. They're in desperate need of foster homes, dog food and supplies, and financial help.

Gail has the link to PAWS' site on her post, so I was going to pass along the pictures - but I can't seem to get my link to work. I'll post those later on. I hope this takes care of some of your questions.

- Leilah