WICHITA, Kansas – Wichita police are continuing their investigation at a home where they discovered a “puppy mill” last Saturday while searching a home in north Wichita.

Officers originally went to a home in the 500 block of N. Doris looking for drugs. But, what they found were 20 pit-bull-mix dogs, eight of which were puppies.

A Wichita Police Animal Control officer said legally police were required to give two of the dogs back to their owner.

“When the owner came to claim her dog, she made reference that there should have been a second animal also that was microchipped,” said Wichita Police Lieutenant Steve Kenney.

Those two dogs were returned to their owner, and police say the woman is not a suspect in the case at this time. However, the woman was given two citations; one for breeding animals inside the city limits, and another for failing to spay or neuter her animals. One of those dogs is pregnant and is expecting puppies within the next few weeks.

Because police had to return the dogs, some people in the community are unhappy.

“People are genuinely upset that we rescued these animals from a puppy mill, and then we had to give them back to the registered owner,” said Kenney.

An animal protection activist agrees.

“There is the fear that in two or three weeks when she has puppies, that those puppies are going to be sold for upwards of $1,200 to $1,500 a puppy,” said Sarah Coffman, founder of the Wichita Animal Action League.

Animal organizations like WAAL say they’re frustrated and worried that the dog’s owner will continue to breed the dpgs.

“We are all furious that animal control has to return these dogs to the people who have been breeding them for so long,” Coffman said.

By city ordinance Wichita residents can only own two pit bulls. Coffman says to change the animal protection laws the public needs to voice its concern to city leaders.

“Email them, and write them,” Coffman suggests. “Ask for a meeting, and go sit down in their office and tell them how it upsets them and as (their) constituent you expect them to try and work and make the city codes and regulations support animal control.”

Last year, 1,000 dogs were euthanized by Animal Control, and about half of those dogs were pit bull or pit bull mixes.

Wichita Police are urging pit bull owners to make sure they have their dogs spayed or neutered since that required by law.