A handful of the border collies taken by the nonprofit Clancy's Dream sit inside a horse trailer bound for Brown County, Indiana, on Monday. A total of 79 dogs were rescued from what the Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society called a "breeder hoarding" situation in Edmonson County on Friday.

“It’s a puppy party,” Sharon Cash said Monday as she helped load dozens of excited border collies into a horse trailer parked outside the Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society.

Cash was one of several volunteers from Clancy’s Dream, a nonprofit created to rescue and rehabilitate members of the popular breed, to make the trip down from Brown County, Indiana, to assist the shelter with its newfound bounty of canines.

The dogs, nearly 80 of them in total, were rescued from an Edmonson County property on Friday night. The humane society called it a “breeder hoarding situation” and described the animals’ living conditions as “horrible.”

“Overcrowded feces-filled kennels and dogs chained to trees throughout the property,” the humane society wrote in a Facebook post. “Nothing for food but whole dead chickens and rotten eggs that were chucked to them on occasion, discarded by the nearby chicken farm. Their water was green with algae and bugs, and all were malnourished and dealing with fleas, ticks, and skin issues.”

According to the Edmonson County Sheriff’s Office, Travis Basham, 49, of Bowling Green, was arrested and charged with the torture of a cat/dog with serious physical injury or death and cruelty to animals, second degree.

Lorri Hare, director of the humane society, said the shelter had actually managed to free up a bit of space right before it got the call from Edmonson County.

“We went from having a little bit of breathing room to having no breathing room again,” Hare said.

A total of 79 border collies and collie mixes were brought to the shelter that evening, ranging from month-old puppies to dogs of middle age. Thanks to the tightly connected world of animal rescue, the humane society knew just who to call.

“They were so nice. They immediately said they’d do whatever,” Hare said about the folks from Clancy’s Dream. “Breed-specific rescues are so amazing when it comes to networking.”

Kenny Shuck, the nonprofit’s founder, took his time looking over all of the energetic collies. A wide smile never left his face.

He said it was the largest intake of animals the group, made up entirely of volunteers, had ever been a part of, but he knew that he had to act once the humane society reached out.

“This will cost us probably $500 per dog,” Shuck said. “We thrive on donations and people who want to help us out.”

The rescue was made possible thanks to Shuck’s beloved border collie. Clancy, the organization’s namesake, who passed away in 2016 at just 10 years old.

“We were all pretty devastated because he was a great dog,” Cash said.

Shuck said the nonprofit was created just ten days after the dog’s passing as a means to keep Clancy’s memory alive.

“‘Clancy’s Dream’ is an odd name. I’ll be the first to say that,” Shuck said. “But he was my dog. Realistically, every dog we save is because of him, because if he would have lived his life we would have never started this. There’d be no reason to.”

The crew left for Kentucky expecting to take back about 30 collies. The day’s grand total came out to 39, 24 of them puppies.

{p dir=”ltr”}Once the group returns to Indiana, Shuck said two-thirds of the dogs will be going to foster homes. The rest will enjoy a temporary stay at his house, where the collies can take advantage of his fenced-in acreage and two lakes.

Jo Dee Lawson, the nonprofit’s transportation coordinator, said she had already compiled a list of 24 people interested in taking one of the collies thanks to the Clancy’s Dream Facebook page.

“These are good dogs,” Shuck said. “What’s going to happen is once they get out and get to running around on the property, everything will be fine.”

The nonprofit doesn’t charge adoption fees, but Shuck said their application is “very strict” to make sure the collies are going to owners with the time and space to properly accommodate the active breed.

“They literally are the smartest dog in the world,” Shuck said.

Shuck said the group sees Clancy in every dog that they rescue. He said the work makes for 12-to-14 hour days, but he wouldn’t change a thing.

“We saved them.”