From LancasterOnline.com:

Oprah Winfrey's daily talk show airs in 117 countries, from Zimbabwe to Australia.

So when she featured grisly images of Lancaster County's infamous puppy mills on Friday's show, there was a little shame, but a lot more relief that the word is out.

"I'm not real proud of being a Lancastrian right now," said Lititz resident Shane Long, who tuned in to the 4 p.m. broadcast on NBC affiliate WGAL. "The images spoke for themselves. I'm hoping that something politically happens now that we're on the national news. Oprah was just the vehicle to get the word out there."

Winfrey featured correspondent Lisa Ling's hidden-camera footage of more than a dozen Lancaster and Berks county puppy mills on her hourlong talk show.

The footage was grim — so grim that Winfrey warned viewers, but asked them not to look away from the truth.

While the footage rolled, audience members could be heard gasping at the sight of filthy breeder dogs crammed into cages, dogs with chains embedded in raw neck wounds and a Plain farmer lifting large dogs off their feet by their collars.

Winfrey told the audience she saw a billboard in February just blocks from her Chicago studios asking her to feature puppy mills on her daily talk show, which is viewed by an estimated 49 million Americans a week.

The billboard was paid for by Main Line Animal Rescue, a Chester County shelter where thousands of breeder dogs have been rescued after being cast out from mills when too old or too sick to turn a profit.