--- title: 'Concentration Camps for Dogs': Revisiting a Searing LIFE Classic description: Recalling a 1966 LIFE article that cast a cold light on an industry in which dogs were bought, stolen and sold like cogs in a machine canonical: https://time.com/3589751/concentration-camps-for-dogs-revisiting-a-grisly-life-classic/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-20T16:47:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:02.883Z og:title: 'Concentration Camps for Dogs': Revisiting a Searing LIFE Classic og:description: Recalling a 1966 LIFE article that cast a cold light on an industry in which dogs were bought, stolen and sold like cogs in a machine og:url: https://time.com/3589751/concentration-camps-for-dogs-revisiting-a-grisly-life-classic/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7df7e963142e2937/698769123c16399bc044ffed/141117-stolen-dogs-1966-08.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Photo from LIFE mag article, 'Concentration Camps for Dogs' og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Concentration Camps for Dogs': Revisiting a Searing LIFE Classic twitter:description: Recalling a 1966 LIFE article that cast a cold light on an industry in which dogs were bought, stolen and sold like cogs in a machine twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7df7e963142e2937/698769123c16399bc044ffed/141117-stolen-dogs-1966-08.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Concentration Camps for Dogs': Revisiting a Grisly LIFE Classic by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 20, 2014 4:47 PM UTC  Scene at a dog dealer's compound, 1966. Scene at a dog dealer's compound, 1966.Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 20, 2014 4:47 PM UTC In February 1966, LIFE published an article and a series of shocking photos that generated a huge outpouring of letters from the magazine’s readers. Many of the letters were among the most passionate that the long-lived weekly ever received. The subject of the article? Not the war in Vietnam. Not an attack on Civil Rights marchers by police. Not another frightening escalation of the already-frigid Cold War. This time, the outrage was in response to an article on dogs. Or, more accurately, an article on the inhumane — indeed, the horrifying — treatment of dogs by men and women who, as LIFE put it, were “taking advantage of the growing demand for dogs for vital medical research” and, in the process, were cashing in on a “lucrative and unsavory business” built and maintained on the misery of man’s best friend. Titled “Concentration Camps for Dogs,” and featuring unforgettable pictures by LIFE’s Stan Wayman, the eight-page exposé cast a cold light on a shadowy — but, at the time, legal — business in which “dealers rove the country paying a buck or two to anyone who comes forward with a dog, and no questions asked.” --- > “” --- In the summer of 1966, Congress passed the [Laboratory Animal Welfare Act](http://awic.nal.usda.gov/government-and-professional-resources/federal-laws/animal-welfare-act). President Johnson signed it into law on Aug. 24 of that year. A quarter-century later, however, when LIFE was publishing as a monthly, the magazine ran another, equally appalling feature on “puppy mills” operating in the U.S. — this time with pictures by the Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist J. Ross Baughman. (Read about that story and others that Baughman shot in the course of his extraordinary career in his new memoir, [_Angle_](http://www.amazon.com/Angle-Fighting-Censorship-Threats-Pulitzer-ebook/dp/B00NKUI0CC/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411667237&sr=8-1&keywords=J.+Ross+Baughman), published by VisionsPress.) Humanity’s ruthlessness in the pursuit of money is, evidently, something that has always been — and perhaps always will be — with us. But here, on the 60th anniversary of the Nov. 22, 1954, founding of the [Humane Society of the United States](http://www.humanesociety.org/) (motto: “Celebrating Animals, Confronting Cruelty”), LIFE.com recalls that 1966 article — and republishes Wayman’s photographs — in tribute to those who battle barbarity in all its forms. Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at [@LizabethRonk](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk).  "Lucky," an English pointer ("a pathetic, emaciated horror," in LIFE's words) rescued from an Oklahoma fair in 1966. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A dog dealer's bleak compound, 1966. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ![In a shed behind \[dog dealer Lester\] Brown's house, dogs, pigeons and other creatures were jammed into filthy coops. The only food in sight was the stale bread piled in a washtub.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt716046506d7d058b/698769108e060132334589a0/141117-stolen-dogs-1966-03.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. In a shed behind Brown's house, dogs, pigeons and other creatures were jammed into filthy coops. The only food in sight was the stale bread piled in a washtub. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ![This woebegone springer spaniel was one of only a handful of dogs in \[dog dealer Lester\] Brown's inventory of over 100 animals that appeared to be fit. Obviously he had just got there.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte34478fba7efc61b/698769102dce01b9759dbd16/141117-stolen-dogs-1966-04.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. This woebegone springer spaniel was one of only a handful of dogs in Brown's inventory of over 100 animals that appeared to be fit. Obviously he had just got there. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Aroused by early-morning raid on his animal compound at White Hall, Md., Lester Brown confronts Frank McMahon who represented the Humane Society. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ![Skin and bones and not much else is all that is left of this young beagle, staked out in \[dog dealer Lester\] Brown's yard. Beagles are rated by most dog dealers as a 'hot item.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec61d5dd094a8655/69876911e53aba123b4d5f40/141117-stolen-dogs-1966-06.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. Skin and bones and not much else is all that is left of this young beagle, staked out in Brown's yard. Beagles are rated most dog dealers as a "hot item." Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Too weak to crawl to the frozen entrails scattered in Mr. Brown's yard, this collie was not rescued. The humane society could fit only 28 of the worst cases in its truck. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene at a dog dealer's compound, 1966. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Some of the 103 dogs on the raided property stand chained to wooden boxes. The yard is a clutter of sheds, lumber and junked cars. In foreground are frozen entrails, the usual ration for the dogs. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene at a dog dealer's compound, 1966. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. In the raid on Brown's compound the police found this female dog frozen inside a box. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. One of 28 sick dogs rescued in raid is hoisted by Mrs. Helen Crews of Baltimore County Humane Society into a truck for trip to animal shelter. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Angered by the disappearances of their family pets in Clarke County, Va., Mrs. William Mitchell and her neighbors put up signs to discourage thieves. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Tiny is a purebred English setter belonging to G. R. Lloyd of Boyce, Va. One day last August, Lloyd found Tiny's chain cut in the backyard. When he heard the dog was at a local point, he set out to reclaim her, only to be told she had been stolen again. The Animal Rescue League of Reading, Pa. traced her to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. They had purchased her from a Pennsylvania dealer. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. He has no fancy bloodlines, but to Thomas Connollys of Newton, Mass. Lancer is the family pooch. The dog was picked up and impounded one day after delivering the Connolly children to school. After 10 days he was sold to Harvard Medical School, but during a transfer of quarters he chewed through his leash and escaped. He struck out for home, over 20 miles away - and made it. He was still wearing his Harvard School tag and the family let him keep it. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Reds is a year-old Irish setter who vanished one day from her Philadelphia neighborhood. She was sold to a hospital in New York which cooperates with humane societies seeking the return of stolen pets. A doctor spotted Reds as such a dog and called an animal rescue league into the case. Several people came to claim Reds, but when the Grill family of Philadelphia appeared, the dog went into a spasm of joy. So did six-year-old Kelly Ann. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Lucky, seen in the first picture in this gallery, regained health after being rescued. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Lucky the English pointer with admirers. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Lucky on the way to his new home. 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