I didn’t know that this sort of thing was news. Used to happen to our dogs fairly often. The trick we learned is to use heavy scissors or something to clip off the ends of and therefore DEFLATE the quills (partially) before pulling them. Clip ‘em, leave ‘em for a bit (20 mins), then get the pliers and do it all as fast as possible.
499 quills...and it wouldn’t have been newz....but 500 quills brought it to Olympic proportions. :)
Did you ever use the vinegar and baking soda soak to soften them?
http://www.alaska.net/~springer75/quills.htm