200 pages detail cruelty

Standing before officials this month, the target of Augusta County’s largest dog cruelty case called the state veterinarian’s investigation into his kennel an overreaction and a joke.

Three months after authorities seized 99 dogs from his Stuarts Draft kennel, Kyle Brydge asked to keep the permit that allows him to maintain his operation there. The Zoning Appeals Board postponed a decision for 30 days to seek more information.

Perhaps Brydge should have let sleeping dogs lie.

Before the board now is state Veterinarian Rachel Touroo’ 200-page report detailing flea infestations, blindness, dehydration, dental disease and malnourishment in the sometimes-pregnant, small-breed female dogs kept at Oak Leaf Kennel on China Clay Road.

Board members will consider that report, others from Augusta County animal control officers and prosecutors and a wave of letters from locals, animal-lovers and the Humane Society of the United States that beg the county to deny Brydge’s permit request.

“In one case, a dog’s leg was so badly matted with hair and feces that ... circulation appeared to be constricted,” wrote Justin Scally, manager of the Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society’s Wilde Puppy Mills Task Force. He traveled to Stuarts Draft on Aug. 21, when the animals were seized. “The smell of the pus and infection ... was extremely overpowering ...

“I would strongly urge you to reject any and all kennel license requests from Mr. Kyle Brydge and his wife,” Scally concludes.

He labeled Oak Leaf a “puppy mill,” saying animal welfare there was secondary to profit. Merriam-Webster defines a puppy mill as “a commercial farming operation in which purebred dogs are raised in large numbers.”

Two million to 4 million puppies from puppy mills are sold each year in the United States, according to the Humane Society. Though mass breeding operations have been around for decades, they have received increased attention over the last 15 years and more recently in Virginia.

The Humane Society made Old Dominion a focal point for combating the problem, posting a report two years ago with the headline: “Virginia: The Next Puppy Mill State?” After a five-month Society probe, Virginia last year passed a law that, among other things, barred commercial breeders from maintaining more than 50 dogs older than 1 without approval under a local ordinance.

In the case of Brydge, 45, a judge restricted him to six companion animals after he pleaded guilty to 102 assorted misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty, inadequate care and improper recordkeeping,

Judge Michael Quigley Jr. in September ordered the kennel owner to pay $10,890 in restitution, limited the number of animals he could own and directed the county to “issue or amend” a special-use permit to accommodate that number. The county requires permits for anyone owning more than four dogs.

Zoning board members were not aware of the judge’s allowance for six dogs, Kyle Brydge contended.

“They did not have the final paperwork,” his wife, Kim Brydge, 36, said.

The Brydges also have contested the wording of Quigley’s order, which names the couple as respondents, but later refers only to Kyle Brydge regarding limits on the number of dogs he can own.

Kim Brydge insists she can own as many dogs as she wants, but said the couple will not be dog breeders again.

“My husband, he put everything into and it was taken away. It broke his spirit,” she said. “We’re the ones who made children happy on Christmas.”

County Attorney Patrick Morgan said the question of the permit relating to Kim is “a factor in considering how to cancel or amend the conditional use permit.”

The current permit allows 106 dogs on the Brydges’ 17-acre property. The zoning board previously denied a request to increase that number to 250.

Because Brydge was convicted, his permit came up for possible alterations at the zoning board meeting Nov. 5.

“He was trying to say that the people that came out there did something wrong,” zoning board member Daisy Brown said. “We told him to prove it to us. He’s getting his information together.”

So, too, are officials, who requested animal control, veterinarian and court records, said Zoning Administrator John Wilkinson.

Quigley’s order and court records do not detail the condition of dogs at Oak Leaf.

Touroo, however, compiled 700 pages of field notes to produce a 200-page report. A copy obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request describes the cruelty and violations:

n water ranging from “slightly dirt to filthy,” and some dogs without water;

n molded food

n 35 clinically dehydrated dogs

n 41 underweight dogs, including three severely emaciated;

n “no records” of breeding and sales.

Found in “Pen #8” of 51 pens were three dogs without water and only two plastic barrels for shelter. Molded feces surrounded them. On the rare occasion the pen was cleaned, water and chemicals would strike the dogs as the filth was blasted to a corner and covered with paper — not removed, Touroo wrote. The two pugs and a Boston terrier kept there were dehydrated.

Pregnant and lactating, the terrier needed eye surgery and was scarred from “puncture wounds consistent with dog bite wounds,” Touroo wrote.

The report goes on, pen by pen, dog by dog.

“[Touroo] did a very thorough job,” Scally said, describing her work as typical in a cruelty investigation.

He said animal cases that make it to court require as much proof as other criminal matters.

“Each and every dog is evidence,” he said.

Gary Webb, Augusta County’s most veteran animal control officer, said the cruelty case is the largest in county history at the area’s biggest kennel. Webb could not think of another commercial breeder in the county — defined by the state as a breeding kennel with more than 29 dogs.

“This became a huge operation,” Webb said.

“We’ve made visits and made recommendations and tried to work to help [Brydge] be in compliance,” Webb said. “I think the numbers alone cause ... a greater effort than a person can handle.”

“This has really been our first large kennel,” Webb said. “I hope something good comes out of it to give us direction down the road.”

The Humane Society helped get the seized dogs adopted working with Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals operations in Augusta County and Norfolk and the Washington Animal Rescue League.

Kim Brydge, who had not read the state vet’s report, said she disagreed with descriptions read to her over the phone.

“I can’t say that every dog was healthy. There could have been something. But nothing life-threatening,” she said. “If they were in bad shape, how could they have been adopted out?”

The local SPCA orchestrated the adoptions of about 40 dogs, but some animals with more serious conditions went to special rescues and still might be in need of homes, Director Debbie Caywood said.

Wilkinson said numerous letters and e-mails have arrived since Kyle Brydge spoke before the zoning board. Most ask the board to revoke his permit. Scally’s Humane Society letter voices equal concern for Kyle or Kim Brydge owning dogs.

Kim Brydge said people writing letters don’t know the facts.

Now they might.