Catching Up: Shelter finds homes for 62 Great Danes

How's Rudy? And Tara? And Loki, Doc, May, Kallisti, Ike, Vanessa, Amanda, Stella, Athena, Harmony and Jordan?

They're fine, said Deb Broge, director of the Green County Humane Society, which a year ago took over the care of 46 dogs, most of them Great Danes, that were confiscated from a single family home near Albany. Two of those dogs were pregnant, so in all, the society's shelter took in 63 "extra" dogs.

What happened to them?

It took up to three months, but "all but one went out to adoption, including five through (a Great Dane) rescue," said Broge.

"We initiated a special adoption process that was pretty thorough," she said. It had to be, as Great Danes have special nutrition needs and prospective adopters needed to know that such a big dog has special needs.

"We had people from quite a few states applying to adopt," said Broge, who is heading an effort to raise $850,000 for a new shelter in Monroe to increase the space from 3,000 to 13,824 square feet.

Deputies found almost four dozen Great Danes in the house, living with four people. The people were arrested and, according to Green County District Attorney Gary Luhman, two defendants took deferred prosecution on animal mistreatment charges. Trials for the two others are scheduled for this summer.

(c)2012 The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.)

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