A registered dog breeder in Stroud has been arrested for animal cruelty and booked into Lincoln County Jail, according to the Stroud police chief.
Chief Clint Gaylord said Jerry Hine, 83, owner and operator of Add Love Pets, LLC, was arrested and taken into custody on Tuesday. This was after over 400 Maltese dogs and puppies were seized from his property on Monday in a multi-pronged effort involving Stroud PD, Stroud Fire, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (ODAFF), the Tulsa Humane Society and other animal rescue groups.
Gaylord said they received a call Saturday night from Skiatook Claws and Paws Rescue over a disagreement with the owner when they arrived to take some of the dogs from his facility. On Monday, Stroud PD contacted ODAFF while also determining that Hine’s kennel license with the City of Stroud had expired on June 30. It was then that the Stroud Police escorted ODAFF to the facility for an inspection.
“The facility was just god-awful, nasty,” Gaylord said. “It was beyond anything that I’d ever seen as far as, just dogs on top of dogs and multiple dogs that just had feces matted to their hair, in their face, all over their bodies.
“There were dogs in there that had their fur actually separating from the skin, and multiple dogs that just looked mangy, unhealthy.”
He said some of the animals were matted so badly that they couldn’t defecate.
ODAFF took an ammonia reading, reporting that there were over 100 parts per million (ppm) in the air due the amount of urine.
Gaylord said they were told dogs can start losing their eyesight from extended ammonia exposure with a reading of 20 ppm.
After this, the police applied for a search warrant and were able to seize the dogs. The police chief said the dogs were transported to the humane society in Tulsa for further medical treatment and hopefully adoption.
Gaylord said Stroud PD has received several complaints about Hine over the years, but at those times, there wasn’t much they could do.
“The facility is.. it’s just not the cleanest facility, but as far as breaking the law or being per the Oklahoma law, being cruel to animals, we’ve never seen anything there that would arrive to the level of criminal prosecution,” he said, saying they would often call the ODAFF to check that Hine was complying with their regulations. “On that side, which is not necessarily a violation of a law, if he’s not complying, it’s just more of an administrative act that they can do differently, either getting to improve or revoke his license or whatever it is that they can do.”
He added that Hine has never had this many dogs before. At his last inspection by ODAFF in December 2024, he had about 180 dogs. The Tulsa Humane Society said this is the most dogs they’ve ever taken at once.
From here, the DAlook at the probable cause affidavit and decide what charges to file. There will also be a forfeiture hearing over the dogs, which Gaylord said was a “new rodeo” for the department. They’ve never seized dogs like this or of this magnitude.
Stroud resident Jennifer Martin at one point ended up with about 35 of the dogs at her home, after making a last-minute decision to try and talk to Hine on Monday after seeing posts on social media by Paws and Claws over the weekend.
“I was just shopping… and I was like, you know what, I’m going to go talk to him. I can really build a rapport with people. I’m a nurse, and I have to sometimes deescalate people.
“And so I went and I knocked on the door and he invited me in and it was horrible conditions,” she said, adding that she had to step back outside to breathe, the stench was so overwhelming.
After speaking with the owner, he agreed to let Martin take 60 dogs, although she ended up with just over half of that number.
When the police began seizing them, she handed them over.
“I just wanted to see it for myself, and I wanted to talk to him and hear his side of the story, and help him,” Martin said. “And he was really nice with me, and I think he’s just elderly, and I think it became like a hoarder status, and I think he lived there too.”
Hine believed the way they were living was normal, but it wasn’t, she continued.
The nurse attributed action finally being taken regarding Add Love Pet to the residents in the area raising the alarm.
“The citizens of Stroud, the citizens of Lincoln County, people sharing that post on Facebook that the rescue initially did… I think that’s who really needs to have the ‘good job,’” she said.
“I think it’s the whole community and everybody sticking together and trying to get this place shut down. I think it did the trick.”