MANHATTAN — The mayor's youngest daughter, Georgina Bloomberg, may have been reared in the lap of luxury, but she was not afraid to roll up her sleeves to help rescue dogs living in fetid conditions at a suspected puppy mill in rural North Carolina.
Bloomberg, a dedicated animal rights advocate and avid equestrian, was part of a rescue operation Wednesday with the Humane Society of the United States that found Chihuahuas, French Bulldogs, Dachshunds and Pomeranians living crowded in small wire enclosures in their own feces, the organization's officials said.
"These animals are some of the worst we’ve seen in North Carolina," Kim Alboum, the group’s North Carolina director, told the City & State website. "They're in their feces. They've had nails growing into their paw pads, ear infections, eye infections."
Alboum told City & State that Bloomberg and her friend Amanda Hearst — the publishing heiress and model who also participated in the raid — "have really wanted to get into some hands-on work."
Hearst founded the Friends of Finn charity to raise awareness about puppy mills after unwittingly buying her dog Finn from a questionable breeder. The younger Bloomberg is a member of Heart’s group and also helped organize a star-studded gala last year to benefit the Humane Society.
The rescuers removed 88 dogs and one pregnant calico cat, according to City & State. Many of the dogs, who were brought to the local SPCA shelter, appeared malnourished and suffering from various ailments. They will be treated by a team of veterinarians before being considered for adoption or placed in foster homes, Humane Society officials said.
The breeder used local newspaper advertisements to sell puppies to unsuspecting consumers, according to the Humane Society, which has worked on seven puppy mill rescues in North Carolina in the past 10 months.
"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 North Carolina station WITN-TV. "Now we finally have first-hand experience."
