[StBernard] Puppy Mills

[Westley Annis]

	The following article, prepared by a CAPS investigator, originally
appeared in the July/August 2007 issue of The Animals Voice Magazine and is
reprinted here with permission from that publication.
	
	Inside a small glass enclosure, a tiny ball of light brown fur with
pointed ears and a black, whiskered muzzle nips at the tail of the
rambunctious littermate sharing his cage. The puppies bite each other's
ears, chew each other's toys, and snuggle up together to lay down for a nap.

	
	This is the scene at a typical American pet store. The situation
described here is at Petland in Iowa City, Iowa. The puppiesbehind the glass
range in breed from Shiba Inu to Shih-Tzu, from Dachshund to Golden
Retriever. The price to take home one of these eight-week-old bundles of fur
ranges from $500 to $1,299. But what owners of pet stores like Petland don't
want their customers to know is that the true cost of that puppy in the
window is more than you might think. 
	
	Less than 75 miles away, in a small Iowa town near the Missouri
border, the pet store puppies' parents spend every day of their lives in a
mass-breeding facility. There they exist in cramped metal cages on wire
floors strewn with dog hair and feces, with little or no access to food,
shelter, or veterinary care. Nearly 4,000 facilities like this one, known as
"puppy mills," are scatteredacross the Midwestern United States. They supply
pet stores and internet websites with more than 500,000 puppies each year.
	
	Forced to live in such horrendous living conditions, breeder dogs
are often crammed into cages for years at a time, without any socialization
or exercise. Females are bred as frequently as possible, often every six
months, until they are no longer capable of producing large enough litters
and are disposed of. Many puppy mill dogs are debarked by a metal rod shoved
down their throats to rupture the vocal chords in order to keep
mass-breeding facilities quiet. At five to eight weeks of age, puppies are
taken from their mother, packed into crates, and shipped to pet stores
across the country. Without adequate food, water, or ventilation, many
puppies don't survive the trip.
	
	An old story
	
	Animal rights activists have fought the inhumane treatment of
puppies raised in puppy mills for decades by boycotting stores that purchase
their puppies from such deplorable conditions and willingly sell them to the
unknowing public. Lobbyists have been successful in their push for better
legislation: in 1966, the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) was adopted as a federal
law to regulate the handling, treatment, and transportation of animals in a
variety of situations, including USDA-licensed facilities. So why are so
many pet store puppies growing ill or even dying just days after they’re
brought home from pet stores that claim they only purchase animals from
"reputable, local breeders?"
	
	According to Deborah Howard, CAPS president, "90 percent of pet
shops obtain their puppies from puppy mills" that completely disregard the
mental, physical, and emotional well-being of the animals they mass produce
each year. "Puppy mills exist solely for profit, with the dogs treated like
puppy-producing machines that turn feed into puppies, much like
factory-farmed hens are treated like egg-producing machines," said Pete
Smith, an undercover investigator for CAPS whose name has been changed to
protect his identity. "In both examples, the animals are often treated with
a minimal standard of care with little or no concern for their well-being.
The value of the dogs is not their worth as a companion, but as a means to
profit."
	
	Lack of enforcement
	
	Despite the horrendous conditions and numerous violations of the AWA
found in such facilities, most puppy mills continue to operate without
consequence. Howard argues this is a result of a lack of enforcement by the
USDA, whose implementation of the Animal Welfare Act has been "grievously
insufficient." 
	
	"The USDA has been extremely negligent over the years in its
enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act as it pertains to commercial dog
breeders and brokers," said Howard. "We have been investigating this problem
since 1995 and, in some instances, we have investigated facilities the day
after or before a USDA inspector found no violations. CAPS investigators
found numerous non-compliant items. Falsifying an inspection report is a
federal felony."
	
	After-sale cost of illness, disease
	
	In addition to the horrors suffered by puppies born within the
confines of puppy mills, the majority of these dogs are plagued by diseases
and congenital defects that result from unscrupulous breeding practices and
the lack of health and genetic screenings performed on breeding stock. It's
not uncommon for pet shop puppies to be treated for upper respiratory
infections, ear and eye infections, mange, coccidia, giardia, or even parvo
once they arrive at the store or their new home. Other problems, such as
luxating patellas and hip dysplasia, often develop later in these puppies'
lives, sometimes years after they were purchased.
	
	One person’s experience Larissa Kosarych knows these problems all
too well. Kosarych purchased Sampson, a pug puppy, from Pittsburg Robinson
Town Centre Petland in Pennsylvania on January 9, 2005. Growing attached to
the dog, she took him home where he "quickly became the love of my life."
	
	However, shortly after the dog arrived at his new home, Kosarych’s
veterinarian examined the paperwork provided by Petland and immediately
determined the dog was bred at a puppy mill, despite the fact that Petland
“fervidly denied it.” According to her vet, Sampson was most likely inbred
and would suffer genetic problems such as seizures that would notappear for
the next several years. Kosarych was devastated. 
	
	"I cried all the way home at the thought of not having a healthy,
happy puppy," she said. Less than five months from the visit to her vet,
Kosarych’s fears were realized when Sampson began to limp. 
	
	"I hoped that my puppy, only six months old at that time, had just
bumped his leg and that the limp would go away in a couple days," she said.
	
	However, a week went by and the limping persisted, forcing her to
return to the vet once more. An x-ray and joint tap of Sampson’s hip
provided the unfortunate diagnosis: legg calves perthes disease. Several
weeks and a large dent in her checking account later, Kosarych’s puppy was
back to normal – or so she thought. A year passed and Sampson’s vet noticed
his other hip also had a limited range of movement. Test results confirmed
the worst – another case of a legg calves perthes disease. The incidence of
the disease occurring in both hips was a strong indication that the
condition was hereditary and the result of poor breeding practices. Two
years and $4,000 later, Sampson is "almost good as new," but Kosarych is
still not satisfied. 
	
	"Spending this much money and putting a young dog through so much
was infuriating to me," she said. "I took it up with Petland on several
occasions, who managed to dodge my phone calls and otherwise ignore the
problem."
	
	It’s all about profit
	
	Consumers like Kosarych are not alone. A brief search on
RipOffReport.com, Better Business Bureau, and PetStoreCruelty.com's "Pet
Store Hall of Shame" reveals a slew of consumer complaints regarding various
pet stores and "breeders" across the United States.
	
	For years, animal welfare organizations such as CAPS and Last Chance
for Animals (LCA) have staged undercover investigations of puppy mills in
states such as Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arkansas, Nebraska,
Kansas, and Missouri. The footage provided by their hidden cameras and
recording devices unveil the shocking tale of these puppy mill prisoners who
have never felt their feet on solid ground and sometimes never get to see
the light of day. 
	
	"I've seen dogs so covered in matted fur I can't tell what breed
they are, and puppies' legs slipping through rusting wire floorings caked in
feces," said Smith. "This, however, may not be as bad as the dozens of times
I have walked into a kennel full of flies and the stench of ammonia to see
hundreds of dogs spinning in circles and leaping over each other in an
attempt to get my attention and have a moment's solace from an entire
life-time of being trapped in a cage." 
	
	Hearts United for Animals, a national nokill shelter, sanctuary, and
animal welfare organization, states that as many as 92% of puppies sold in
pet stores come from puppy mills seeking to maximize profit. These dogs are
not purchased from reputable hobby breeders whose goals include betterment
of the breed characteristics, preserving bloodlines, and providing early
socialization to the one or two litters they typically produce in a year. 
	
	"[Pet stores] just want to make money and don't care about the home
into which their puppies are placed," said Howard. "Reputable breeders do
not sell dogs to pet shops and, in fact, some breed clubs have rules that
forbid their members from selling to pet shops."
	
	Although investigations of facilities that sell to Petland reveal
the horrendous conditions that characterize puppy mills, the store argues
their puppies are only purchased from licensed, reputable, professional and
hobby breeders who have years of experience in raising quality family pets.
And pet store customers, encouraged to act upon impulses to take home that
cuddly ball of fur behind the glass, tend to believe them. 
	
	"Petland uses impulse buys to sell their animals. They train their
employees to do everything they can to close the sale before the customer
leaves the store," says former Petland employee Katie Field. "So many times
people enter the store without knowing they are going to walk out an hour
later with a puppy – I would consider that an impulse purchase." 
	
	Education needed
	
	So how do consumers looking to purchase a new member of the family
protect themselves from winding up with a puppy plagued by congenital
defects and prone to chronic physical, psychological, and behavioral
disorders? According to animal activist groups, there's only one way to
ensure you're getting a healthy dog from a quality breeder - don't buy your
puppy from a pet store. 
	
	"Reputable breeders will screen potential buyers," said Howard.
"They will ask many questions about you, your family, including your
animals, and your home. They will usually take back a dog for whatever
reason, even years later."
	
	Although it is indeed possible to locate a responsible breeder, most
animal welfare organizations advocate rescue dogs. "In light of the many
millions of animals that are killed each year in shelters, we highly
recommend that people adopt homeless animals from shelters and animal
control facilities," said Howard. "PetsMart and PetCo often have adoption
days for shelters and rescue organizations, and some veterinarians also take
in homeless animals." Other options available to those looking to purchase a
purebred puppy are breed specific rescue organizations and web sites such as
www.petfinder.com that allow prospective owners to search by breed, age,
size, and location. 
	
	For activists fighting the puppy mill industry, education of
consumers seems to be the only way to end the horrific plight of the pet
store puppy. 
	
	"The most unfortunate thing about the pet store monster is the
uneducated consumer," said Kosarych. "I was one a couple years ago when I
fell in love with the puppy in the window. I didn't know that by buying a
dog from Petland, I would only be greasing the puppy mill machine. 
	
	"I know that numerous people, just as naïve as I was about the
consequences involved in buying a dog from a pet store, still walk into
Petland everyday and allow themselves to be suckered in by the cute faces
and cajoling sales people. Virtually every time I meet a purebred dog owner
I am sure to tell them how good it was if they got the dog from a
responsible breeder and I follow up with the story of my "million-dollar
puggy." If the information makes just one person think twice about buying
from Petland, it has been worth my time." 
	
	Find detailed results of CAPS investigations of puppy mills, and
more information about pet stores, at our web site www.caps-web.org, along
with ways you can help.