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Puppy Mill Shutdown For Failure To Pay Taxes

Last updated on Thursday, June 4, 2009

(MAUCKPORT) - It was good enough to take down Al Capone, the attorney general took down a Harrison County puppy mill using a failure to pay taxes charge.

Attorney General Greg Zoeller says the criminal investigation against the Mauckport breeding operation continues.

63-year-old owner Virginia Garwood and her 26-year-old daughter Kristen Garwood are accused of failing to pay sales tax on their business totaling more than $132,000.

Officials seized 240 dogs, some of whom tested positive for a gastro-intestinal disease that can spread to humans.

Zoeller says the entire operation was an issue of consumer protection, which is a main focus of his office, but the tax issue was the best legal tool he had to dismantle the business.

Zoeller says when you combine the consumer fraud of the business claiming healthy animals for sale and the health threat posed, he felt an obligation to shut the place down.

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