SACO – It may have been just a regular parking lot off Interstate 195 in Saco on Saturday afternoon, but to a lot of people and a pack of dogs, it was pure heaven.

Oblivious to anything but their new owners, seven rescued dogs – saved within hours of being euthanized – licked faces, sat on feet and wound everyone up in their leashes.

Those who accomplished the rescues and celebrated in the parking lot were also, if only for a moment, oblivious to the controversy swirling around dog importation and the state Department of Agriculture.

After determining that a handful of cases of distemper were brought to Maine earlier this year by “parking lot dogs,” the state Animal Welfare Division has proposed rules that would require a five-day quarantine for all imported dogs.

About 30 rescue groups operating in Maine would be affected by the proposals, which would require quarantines that most rescue groups, operating on shoestring budgets, cannot afford. Quarantines now are completed at the out-of-state shelters that provide the dogs.

Maine’s rescue groups are banding together to fight the rule changes, which they say will result in the deaths of thousands of dogs.

One of the leaders of the opposition is Chris Hanson of Hollis, who founded Almost Home Rescue of Maine, the group that rescued Saturday’s dogs and coordinates with four shelters in Arkansas.

Using a network of 80 volunteers, Almost Home brings 700 dogs to Maine each year, saving them from euthanasia.

Every Saturday, dozens of dogs are driven north by a U.S. Department of Agriculture carrier to New Hampshire, where Almost Home Rescue volunteers transfer them to their own vans and take them to Maine, where adoptive families are waiting.

Last May, Animal Welfare Division Director Norma Worley blamed these imports for bringing distemper and other diseases into the state.

Not so, said Hanson, who said that for-profit puppy sellers often act under the guise of rescue.

“We are bringing in 700 animals a year, and that is just our group,” she said. “Maine rescuers all together are bringing in more than a thousand. We have never had a dog with parvo[virus] or distemper. How can you rewrite the rules without doing the research?”

Hanson said the Maine rescue groups nearly all import from the South, where shelters hold a dog for adoption for a single day before euthanizing it.

“These dogs are being hawked in supermarket parking lots, used as bait for dog fights …,” Hanson said. She added that most Maine shelters and kennels are half-empty and the dogs that are available are often “bully dogs,” not the type owners want, and especially not puppies.

In the South, many pet owners believe a dog is ruined if it is spayed or neutered, Hanson said, resulting in a serious overpopulation of unwanted pets. Dogs are often abandoned. “Dogs are hit by cars down there like squirrels are up here,” she said. She said New England has one of the country’s most successful spay-neuter programs and “enlightened” pet owners and that adopters often are referred to their local shelters first.

“I’m aware of the rescue groups’ concerns,” Worley said Friday, but said she could not comment on the issue now that the rule-making has begun.

In an interview last month, however, Worley described a very different picture of the “parking lot dogs” than that exhibited this weekend.

Worley said rescuers are using the Web to contact customers and selling the dogs for $400 each. She said those dogs often were not immunized before coming into Maine and that some groups are bringing in 30 dogs, twice a month, and are “getting rich.”

Hanson said she believes that information is false.

Most rescue groups charge about $250, which barely covers expenses, she said.

“It costs $125 just for the transport truck,” Hanson said. “Then add in all the veterinarian bills. Our dogs come to Maine spayed, neutered, after quarantine and immunized. Rescuers don’t work for profit.”

Hanson said the issue of sick dogs being imported “has been blown way out of proportion. Maybe the state didn’t realize how much we were doing.” It was her understanding that only three cases of distemper have been found and that there is no direct link between those dogs and rescue groups. Worley would not confirm this.

The dogs being imported are also providing thousands of dollars in revenue for the Animal Welfare Division in license fees.

Hanson said the only way to monitor the health of dogs coming into the state is to create a license system for rescue groups. “We would absolutely be in favor of such a system, but it is not even being considered as part of the new rules,” she said. Responsible groups are following the rules already, she added, while those skirting the law will fail to participate anyway.

In the month since Worley’s public comments, Hanson said, Maine adoptions have plummeted.

“Maine accounted for 70 percent of our adoptions each week until Norma Worley spoke out. Now that is about 10 percent. What she said is really damaging us,” Hanson said. “It is so important to us [rescuers] that we have some say in these changes.”

A coalition has been formed, Responsible Maine Rescuers United, to fight the rule change. Some of the participating Maine groups include Almost Home Rescue, Golden Retriever Rescue Lifeline, Loyal Hearts Puppy Rescue, Paws and Claws, Journey Home Dog Rescue, Dogs Deserve Better, Maine Coonhound Rescue, and Kennebec Valley Shetland Sheepdog Rescue.

The Maine Agriculture Department has set a public hearing on the proposed rule changes for 10 a.m. Monday, July 16, at the Maine Public Safety building off Civic Center Drive in Augusta.