Collier County Sheriff's Office deputies rescued 50 dogs from a woman's home in Golden Gate Estates near Everglades Boulevard, where she was accused of breeding and selling dogs without a license.
The Collier County Sheriff's Office arrested Olga Kapishon, 63, Wednesday for breeding and selling mini golden doodles and maltipoos and acting as a vet without a license.
"Some of them can be very fearful and just crazy fearful. So you need to have a board-certified veterinary," said Dr. Deirdre Carver-Raffa, from Town and Country Animal Hospital.
While the dogs are currently receiving care at Collier Domestic Animal Services, they are not up for adoption as they still technically belong to their owner. Carver-Raffa explained the challenges potential adopters might face if they were to take in these dogs in the future.
"I would say if you really want to adopt that dog, you need to be very experienced with training and handling dogs," Carver-Raffa said. "And work with them in a gentle, slow way, and start slow and gentle and move through till you get to the point of what you want."
She also warned of the medical challenges that come with inbred and experimented animals.
"So if you're going to adopt a dog from that type of situation, you're going to have to understand that you may have chronic issues for the rest of the life of that dog," Carver-Raffa said.
The county stated that this remains an active investigation, and until it concludes, the dogs are still under Kapishon's ownership. Kapishon is currently in a hold by ICE as she is from Ukraine with Canadian citizenship.
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