USDA closes C.C. Baird

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

ST. LOUIS–C.C. and Patsy Baird, of Williford, Arkansas,
longtime suppliers of random-source dogs and cats to laboratories,
have paid a record penalty of $262,700 to the USDA for breaking
“practically every regulation and standard applicable to dogs and
cats,” USDA attorney Colleen Carroll told Todd Frankel of the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch on February 1, 2005, three days after the
settlement was finalized.
The Bairds’ daughters Jeannette and Patricia reportedly also
worked in the business.
Wrote Frankel, “The agreement between the USDA and the
Bairds calls for the fine, plus the permanent loss of the family’s
four animal breeding and dealer licenses and the threat of an
additional $250,000 fine if they are caught handling animals in the
next five years. As part of the deal, the Bairds neither admitted
nor denied the allegations.”
Frankel said that about 90 dogs and 120 cats rescued from the
Baird kennels were up for adoption.
In August 2003 federal and state investigators turned over to
rescue groups about 125 dogs seized from the Bairds. Many were
believed to be lost or stolen pets.
Last Chance for Animals called the USDA action a victory,
after an eight-year campaign against the Bairds, “but Carroll said
her office’s investigation did not rely on the group’s work and she
never viewed the videos” that LCA sent her, Frankel wrote.