Eighty-three Great Danes rescued from a Missouri property in a mission called RISE

Doges Editorial · 2026-05-14 · 5 min read

Daisy's Dane Sanctuary led an eight-hour operation in Granby, Missouri on May 11, removing 83 Great Danes — including dozens of puppies — from a property where five dogs had already died and newborns were in need of IV fluids.

Before dawn on Monday, May 11, volunteers from Daisy's Dane Sanctuary in Pleasant Hill, Missouri loaded their vehicles and drove southwest toward the small town of Granby. They called it Mission RISE. They already knew something of what they would find — two puppies from this same property had arrived at the sanctuary the previous week, one of them with strangulation injuries, the other discarded after failing to latch onto a nursing mother. But the full scale of the situation only became clear when they pulled in.

The full scale was 84 dogs.

What the property held

Granby is a town of roughly 1,800 people near the Missouri-Arkansas state line. The Newton County Sheriff's Office had been building a case around a property there, and when Daisy's Dane Sanctuary arrived alongside authorities, they found conditions that CEO Chrissy Scott would later describe as 'extremely poor.' Eighty-three Great Danes and one doodle were living on the property, ranging in age from newborns to senior dogs.

Thirty-five of the 84 were puppies. Dogs were wandering loose across the property. Many were visibly underweight. Some had been eating trash. Five dogs had already died before the rescue teams arrived, according to reporting by KMBC and People.

Two weeks old and on a drip

Among the most critical cases were puppies only two weeks old — animals that, under normal circumstances, would not yet have been separated from their mothers. These were transported to Pleasant Hill Animal Control, where veterinarian Dr. Zach Patterson was waiting. He started IV fluids on the most dehydrated animals immediately.

These dogs haven't received even the minimal care you would expect.

— Dr. Zach Patterson, veterinarian treating the rescued animals

The sanctuary's prior connection to this property deepened the weight of what they found. The puppy that arrived with strangulation injuries and the one that had been discarded after failing to nurse — both were already receiving care before Mission RISE confirmed the broader picture. Their cases had been a warning. On May 11, the warning became a number: 84.

The eight-hour operation

Moving 84 dogs — most of them Great Danes, a breed that regularly weighs between 100 and 200 pounds and stands up to 32 inches at the shoulder — is not a small logistical undertaking. The volunteers worked for eight hours. They removed not just the dogs but the full complement of animals on the property: two cockatiels, a boa constrictor, four scorpions, a tarantula, and a sugar glider.

The conditions we encountered were heartbreaking. This operation required physically and emotionally exhausting work from all involved.

— Chrissy Scott, CEO and founder of Daisy's Dane Sanctuary

An arrest

Devin Harris, 48, was arrested in connection with the case and charged with animal neglect or abandonment by the Newton County Sheriff's Office. He is being held at the Newton County Jail. The criminal investigation is active, which means the 84 rescued dogs remain in protective custody — they are safe, but not yet available for placement.

For Daisy's Dane Sanctuary, the active criminal case creates a specific challenge: the dogs can't be released for adoption until the investigation concludes, which means the sanctuary is absorbing the cost and care of 84 animals — many of them in poor health — for an indefinite period. Those who want to support the rescue can follow updates at Daisy's Dane Sanctuary's social media and website, where information on donations and fostering will be posted as the situation develops.

The particular challenge of the Great Dane

Great Danes occupy an unusual position in shelter and rescue networks. They are, by most accounts from the people who have lived with them, remarkably gentle dogs — affectionate in a way that's slightly absurd given their size, prone to leaning against people, famously unaware that they are not lap dogs. Their lifespan is shorter than most breeds: roughly seven to ten years, which makes every year consequential. A senior Great Dane at 8 years old has, statistically, already lived most of its life.

They also cost more to care for than smaller dogs. More food, more space, higher veterinary costs for breed-specific conditions including cardiac disease, bloat, and joint deterioration. Large dogs spend significantly more time in shelters than small ones. Breed-specific rescues like Daisy's Dane Sanctuary exist because general shelters often can't adequately accommodate them — the infrastructure doesn't exist, or the expertise isn't there, or both.

Taking in 84 Great Danes at once — including multiple newborns on IV drips and seniors who have never known consistent meals or clean bedding — stretches even a well-organized rescue operation to its limits. The volunteers who drove southwest before sunrise knew, in a general sense, what they were getting into. The specific weight of it waited for them in Granby.

What comes next

Recovery from prolonged neglect is not quick. Dogs that have known only chaos and insufficient food can take weeks before they begin to trust a consistent food source. Animals from overcrowded, squalid conditions often carry physical damage — infections, parasitic load, joint deterioration — alongside behavioral responses that take patient and consistent work to begin to address.

The senior dogs among the 84 carry a particular weight. Whatever years they spent on that Granby property were years without adequate care. What's left of their lives — clean beds, scheduled meals, a person who learns their preferences and honors them — matters more because those years are what they have left.

The volunteers called it Mission RISE. They drove before dawn, they worked for eight hours, and they drove back to Pleasant Hill with 84 dogs who had no idea yet what any of this meant. Figuring that out is the part that takes the longest — and the part, for a sanctuary like Daisy's Dane, that is the whole point.