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.

Winfrey producers called MLAR founder Bill Smith just a week after the billboard went up.

Since word got out about Friday's topic, local anticipation has been building for weeks. E-mail alerts darted not only among animal-welfare groups, but also among the wider population.

They tuned in Friday at the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office, where prosecuting animal abusers and illegal puppy-mill operators has become a priority in the past year or so.

"Unfortunately, we have too many illegal puppy mills, so media exposure such as this can lead to much-needed support for our upcoming efforts," said Lancaster County District Attorney Craig W. Stedman. "It is pretty simple. The more community and media support we have, the more successful we can be."

Meanwhile, Humane League of Lancaster County's Kerry Flanagan also tuned in. She has been to a few county puppy mills, and she's cared for their "cash crop" products at the Route 30 shelter.

"It's horribly upsetting for people who have never been to a puppy mill to see footage like that, but it's no different than what I've seen," she said. "That's really what puppy mills look like. It's really that bad."

The League often ends up footing the bill for vet care and shelter for animals seized from puppy mills and criminal cases of abuse. Flanagan said the show's message was presented well and could have an impact on where people choose to get pets.

"I thought the show really highlighted the connection between puppy mills and the overabundance of animals flooding shelters, which is really the problem here in the heart of Lancaster County," Flanagan said. "I thought it was great. Maybe now people will think about adopting from shelters instead of buying from pet stores and the Internet."

Helen Ebersole of United Against Puppy Mills didn't see the 4 p.m. broadcast, but taped it to watch Friday night. She said the footage might have been graphic, but she's glad it's out there.

"It's human nature for people to avoid the truth. People tell me, 'I can't watch that.' But I tell them to just watch a little of it because this is the fact of what it is," she said. "This was not sensationalizing — these are the facts."

Heidi Prescott of The Humane Society of the United States said the exposure Winfrey gave the issue in a single hour packs a powerful punch that even the most committed welfare groups can't match.

"Oprah just did more for the puppy-mill issue than any pending policy change we could pass," Prescott said.

Long, who has two Jack Russell terriers, said he often sees yard signs opposing puppy mills outside Lancaster homes. But it was Oprah's show that gave him new perspective on the anti-mill movement.

"I always thought of those yard signs as being a weird, radical thing," he said. "But now that I've seen the show, I kind of want to put one outside my house."

E-mail: slindt@lnpnews.com