The owner of what is believed to be one of the largest of Virginia's unlicensed commercial dog breeders surrendered his dogs in Carroll County Thursday morning.

The owner, Junior Horton, surrendered most of his dogs earlier.

Carroll County officials have summoned help from state emergency officials and the Red Cross to help care for the more than 1,100 puppies.

Animal control officers and a veterinarian visited Horton's Pups in Hillsville on Thursday and found 1,080 puppies. That number swelled with births over the weekend.

Horton says he had kennel licenses for around 500 dogs but did not have one for all of them because many were very young puppies.

He feels says things aren't fair and called it "dognapping." He says he's raised dogs for two decades and has one of the best kennels in southwest Virginia.