Bloomberg’s Daughter Rescues 88 Puppies And A Pregnant Cat

The Humane Society's Ashley Mauceri, Amanda Hearst and Georgina Bloomberg with rescued North Carolina puppies. Photo by Kathy Milani/The HSUS

Her dad may be a billionaire, but mayoral daughter Georgina Bloomberg got her hands dirty yesterday – freeing matted and mistreated dogs from an alleged puppy mill in North Carolina.

Bloomberg was part of a Humane Society of the United States team that rescued 88 dogs and one pregnant calico cat in an all-day raid on a breeding operation whose owners are accused of letting dogs fester in their own filth without water or care.

“These animals are some of the worst we’ve seen in North Carolina,” said Kim Alboum, the group’s North Carolina director. “They’re in their feces. They’ve had nails growing into their paw pads, ear infections, eye infections.”

Bloomberg and her friend Amanda Hearst, the model and publishing heiress, spent the day working with veterinarians to examine, catalog and treat the array of French bulldogs, pugs, Pomeranians, Chihuahuas and terriers found in rural Jones County.

“They have really wanted to get into some hands-on work,” Alboum said. “We hope they will come back to North Carolina, because they were really great to work with.”

Hearst founded a charity called Friends of Finn after unknowingly buying her dog Finn from a store that relied on unscrupulous breeders. Bloomberg is better known as an equestrian and children’s book author, but helped set up a star-studded gala last year to benefit the Humane Society.

“In New York, people tend to go to dog stores. It’s something that we’ve been telling our friends not to do for years,” Bloomberg told local station WITN-TV. “Now we finally have first-hand experience.”

Mistreated dogs await rescue from a North Carolina breeder. Photo by Diane Lewis/The HSUS

Bloomberg and Hearst went onto the property right after six officers from the Jones County Sheriff’s Department secured the scene, said Capt. Justin Eimer, the department’s chief of operations.

“It was kind of surprising, being as how they’re such high-profile individuals, just how down to earth they were,” Eimer said. “Some people were concerned they might overshadow the gravity of the situation. But they were there working with the [Humane Society] all day long.”

The Humane Society is trying to change North Carolina law to tighten regulations on large-scale animal breeders, and has raided seven other puppy mills in the state since last year.

“They were not malnourished, but it was really just the horrendous conditions,” Eimer said. “It’s bad. Not nearly as bad as some of the dogfighting rings we have, though.”

The sheriff’s office was seeking arrest warrants last night for animal cruelty charges for the breeders, who WITN identified as George and Joyce Brown. No one answered the phone at their home.