The Humane Society of the United States says it has uncovered a large "puppy mill" in Hillsville involving more than 1,000 dogs.

After posting a “Virginia is for puppy mills” headline on its Web site last week and releasing information about a five-month undercover investigation claiming to have found nearly 1,000 "puppy mills" in Virginia, the Humane Soceity moved in on the Hillsville operation  -- Horton's Pups -- by week’s end.

Horton’s Pups — a commercial operation owned by Junior Horton of Hillsville — was visited by animal control officers and a veterinarian on Thursday following a tip by the Virginia Partnership for Animal Welfare and Support (VA PAWS), an animal advocacy group based in the New River Valley that's been working with the Humane Society.

Horton’s Pups, it turns out, had plenty of pups -- 1,080 to be exact.

That’s the number Carroll County Administrator Gary Larrowe counted when he first visited Horton’s property, located in Hillsville’s town limits. By Monday, Larrowe said the number had increased to more than 1,100 with the birth of additional puppies.

“The numbers are swelling,” Larrowe said Tuesday, noting that the discovery of so many dogs led him to declare a local disaster. That declaration brought in help from the state’s Department of Emergency Management. Even Red Cross workers showed up this week to feed volunteers who came to assist with a triage for the animals.

“This is an inevitable consequence of an out-of-control and irresponsible industry,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the national Humane Society. “My staff is all over it. Obviously, it’s a derivative of the investigation we did.

“Dogs are suffering because of this,” Pacelle added. “We are really surprised at the scope of large scale commercial breeding operations in Virginia.”

Carroll County officials said they were surprised, too.

Officials from the county, as well as the Town of Hillsville, worked with members of VA PAWS to make sure that the dogs would be cared for as a massive plan to remove them began this week.

Horton, who advertises his small-breed puppies on the Internet via the Continental Kennel Club Web site, agreed to surrender most of his dogs after talking with the officials, according to Larrowe.

The county administrator’s office issued a statement saying that Horton “has further been made aware that he will be under the close scrutiny of animal control officers to make certain that the  remaining animals are kept in proper conditions and are not subjugated to unacceptable breeding practices.”

The dogs found on Horton’s Hillsville property were kept in buildings and cages in several locations. Horton advertises CKC registered Yorkshire terriers, poodles, Maltese, Shih-Tsu and Lhaso Apso puppies, as well as many other breeds, on the CKC Web site, offering them for $250 to $500 apiece.

Reached by telephone Tuesday, Horton was not happy about turning over his dogs.

“I think it’s called dog-napping,” the 44-year-old Hillsville man said of the effort to remove dogs from his farm. “They just come in on me out of the blue.”

“I’ve raised dogs for 20 years,” he added. “I’ve got the best kennel in Southwest Virginia.”

Horton said he sells many of his puppies to Pauley’s Pups, a pet store in Ashland and also sells directly to the public.

He said he had kennel licenses for around 500 dogs but did not have them for all his stock because many of them were very young puppies.

“I’ve got a business license with the town of Hillsville,” he said. “They knew what was going on here. They knew I had a business.”

Larrowe said animal control officers were aware of Horton’s business but were not required to inspect it and did not know the magnitude of the operation. He said the animals he saw seemed to be healthy.

“Yeah, they’re pretty well cared for. But the numbers have just overwhelmed me,” Larrowe said.

Larrowe said a meeting with VA PAWS members on Friday produced a plan for the immediate care of the animals taken from Horton’s property. On Saturday, 43 adult dogs were removed and on Tuesday, 65 puppies were taken. Each animal was given a health check and rabies vaccination and scanned for implanted microchips. The animals also were photographed and given identification numbers. Staff veterinarians with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Carroll County Animal Control officers are overseeing the triage.

Horton’s Pups employs four workers, according to Junior Horton.

One of them, Timmy Bullion, was upset by the way the dogs were removed.

“The way I see it, they came here and stole all our puppies,” Bullion said. “My boss is losing about $450,000 worth of dogs. I don’t see how they can do something like this — take his dogs away when he bought and paid for them.”

Horton said no one offered him any money for the dogs and did not give him a time limit to reduce his stock by selling puppies.

He doesn’t think that’s fair.

“They’re my dogs,” he said. “I’m the one that’s got the time and money invested in them.”

But even Horton admitted that caring for over 1,000 dogs with four employees isn’t easy.

“We just work at it day and night,” he said. “I’ve got too many dogs and I know I do. But I think they should give me the right to get rid of them.”