60 pups dead in inferno
By ROBERT MILLS, Sun Staff

LOWELL -- About 60 puppies of various breeds were killed yesterday afternoon as they were transported in a specialized tractor-trailer that caught fire between deliveries at pet stores in Salem, N.H., and Nashua.
State police said the puppies were all between 8 and 12 weeks old.
Deputy Lowell Fire Chief Patrick McCabe said the truck's driver had left an unidentified pet store in Salem, N.H., about 4:15 p.m., and that another trucker notified him via CB radio that his truck was on fire about 4:50 p.m.
The driver, Joseph Price, 40, of Joplin, Mo., quickly stopped the truck in the breakdown lane of an access road leading from Interstate 495 south to Route 3 north, but was unable to save any of the puppies, McCabe said.
"There was no possible rescue effort," McCabe said. "The guys (firefighters) went in to make sure, but once we got a look inside, we knew."
Joplin and passenger William Iriarte, 50, of Nesho, Mo., were unhurt.
There was already heavy fire in the rear of the 18-wheeler's trailer when the driver got stopped and called 911, McCabe said. When firefighters arrived, the truck was nearly fully involved in flames.
McCabe said the puppies were likely dead from smoke inhalation before the truck even stopped, because it appears the fire started inside the trailer near a ventilation fan. He said it was not the flames that killed the young dogs.
"By the time he was aware of the fire and got the truck stopped, they were probably gone," McCabe said. "The fire was actually in the trailer itself."
The puppies were stored in small cages that lined the trailer, McCabe said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but McCabe said it may have started in the ventilation fan of the trailer, which was custom-built to haul puppies to pet stores.
Once firefighters got on scene, they were able to extinguish the fire within minutes. The fire had already burned through the trailer's aluminum roof.
Police could not immediately identify the owner of the truck, but a sign on its charred remains at Coady's Towing Service in Lawrence, where it was towed after the fire, identified it as belonging to Hunte Delivery Systems.
Hunte's Web site claims the company is the "the world's leading distributor of pure-bred puppies to pet stores."
No one could be reached at the company's Missouri headquarters last night.
Trooper Thomas Ryan, a state police spokesman, said the company made appropriate arrangements for the deceased puppies.
He said the state police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section and Crime Scene Services Section were both called in to investigate, and that the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was notified.
"We had our Commercial Vehicle Enforcement team out there to check the truck and make sure no equipment violations caused it," Ryan said.
No charges had been filed as of last night.
The access road from Interstate 495 south to Route 3 north was closed while the investigation was conducted.

This really sucks. What's worse is I'm more upset about this than reading a story about an overloaded schoolbus in Bogota tumbling over a cliff.

That is really fucked up. I wonder if they were from puppy mills.