These three adorable puppies are part of a litter of seven born to a mom who is part of the "stock" of a careless backyard breeder. He wanted pure, game-bred pit bulls. Because he didn't pay enough attention to his best bitch, what he got was a litter of pit/lab pups. Cute, maybe, but worthless.

       His solution? Kill them all at age 4 weeks, when it became obvious that they would not pass as purebred. Death by bludgeoning or worse, as "bait" for older pitbull puppies, would have been their fate had not his wife stepped in.

       This courageous woman braved her husband's wrath and spirited the pups off to the local animal shelter -- where, ironically, they would have been euthanized because of their young age in accordance with shelter policy, if an all-breed rescue had not been able to foster them. The seven pups were named for Olympic champions, and have since all found loving Forever Homes.

       As far as we know, their mother is still serving the backyard breeder. We can only hope he's more careful with her in the future -- and that his wife is still around if he isn't.