Backyard breeders may appear to be the nice neighbor next door-in fact, even seemingly good-intentioned breeders may treat their breeding pairs as family pets. Some backyard breeders may only breed their family dog once in awhile, but they often are not knowledgeable on how to breed responsibly, such as screening for genetic defects. Responsible, proper breeding entails much more than simply putting two dogs together. Because puppy mills and backyard breeders choose profit over animal welfare, their animals typically do not receive proper veterinary care.
Animals may seem healthy at first but later show issues like congenital eye and hip defects, parasites or even the deadly Parvovirus. When puppy mills and backyard breeders flood the market with animals, they reduce homes available for animals from reputable establishments, shelters and rescue groups.
Every year, more than , cats and dogs enter shelters in Washington State-6 to 8 million animals enter shelters nationwide. Sadly, only about 15 percent of people with pets in the U. Please enjoy this video from Jackson Galaxy, a well-known cat behaviorist and host of How much will it cost to care for a new animal companion? As you begin your research, here are some things to consider: Puppy mills Puppy mills are commercial breeding facilities that mass-produce dogs and cats in cat mills for sale through pet stores, or directly to consumers through classified ads or the Internet.
Animals in puppy mills are treated like cash crops They are confined to squalid, overcrowded cages with minimal shelter from extreme weather and no choice but to sit and sleep in their own excrement. I turned to John Goodwin, the director of the puppy-mills campaign for HSUS, and asked him how many puppies sold in this country — at Petland and Citipups and a thousand other pet stores — come from puppy mills as dire as this one.
That vastly ups the chances that the dogs are from mills, not from reputable breeders. Another click shows you ghastly shots of the mills those stores buy dogs from. Pet stores usually buy their dogs from federally licensed breeders, meaning kennels with five or more breeding females that breed a lot of pups.
Both Petland and Citipups deny they sell mill dogs, but reams of evidence and buyer complaints collected by HSUS argue otherwise. Yates was arrested and charged with animal cruelty. Twelve counts were filed against her; a hearing is scheduled for February.
Varsa, a veteran of 50 animal-welfare raids, was quarterbacking the care of those hundred-plus dogs at a temporary shelter in a warehouse. When told what Yates had said, Varsa pointed to two poodles, both of them desperately underfed.
Delicately, she lifted the male from the crate and put him, trembling, in my arms. He was blind in both eyes and had thumb-size infections where his molars used to be. Since dogs first crossed the Siberian land bridge and set foot in human encampments in North America, they have been much more than pets and companions to us — they made life tenable in this primal place.
They chased off wolves and bears while we slept, caught and retrieved the game we ate, and dined on the garbage we left behind. Over the course of 10 millennia, a bond was forged between species that hunkered together for survival.
Once inside the door, though, they were in for good, to be loved and spoiled like toddlers. The number of pet dogs in America boomed between and today, tripling to almost 80 million. Where once you adopted your pup from the neighbors, now there is a Furry Paws down the block with dozens of designer puppies in the window.
Of course, in America, we industrialize anything that turns a profit. Beginning in the s, struggling pig and poultry farmers began breeding puppies for extra income. The USDA only licenses a fraction of all kennels, about 2, of various sizes, which can range from five adult breed dogs to more than a thousand. Three years ago, the USDA passed an amendment requiring online sellers to get federally licensed, which would submit them to annual inspections and standard-of-care rules.
At the time, the department expected thousands of breeders to step forward and comply with the law; to date, less than have. All claim to be local, loving and humane. Far too often, they are none of the above. With dog sales, as with any commodity of late, the Internet has been the great disrupter. The HSUS estimates that roughly half of the 2 million pups bred in mills are sold in stores these days; the rest are trafficked online.
Howard sends investigators out to infiltrate mills, exposes the stores that do business with those breeders, and coordinates with advocates across the country to ban the retail sale of puppies in big cities. Puppy brokers are wholesalers who buy from breeders, keep a running stock of dozens of breeds, then sell and ship the pups for a hefty markup.
The biggest of those brokers, the now-defunct Hunte Corporation , professionalized the trade in the Nineties. They bought up other brokers, made large investments in equipment, trucks and drivers, and moved thousands of dogs a month from their facility in Goodman, Missouri. Per CAPS reporting, the dogs who proved too sick to sell went back on a truck to Missouri; Hunte buried the dead ones out behind its plant.
In , state inspectors in Missouri cited Hunte for dumping more than 1, pounds of dead puppies per year — the maximum allowed under Missouri law — in its back yard. Not that Missouri is an outlier in the disposal of sick and dead dogs. In Pennsylvania, two breeders shot 80 Shih Tzus and cocker spaniels rather than provide veterinary care. In Kansas, a breeder had to put down 1, dogs after failing to inoculate them for distemper. The USDA has exactly one law to govern the care and housing of commercial dogs.
Dogs, per the AWA, can be kept their entire lives in crates inches bigger than their bodies. They can be denied social contact with other dogs, bred as many times as they enter heat, then killed and dumped in a ditch whenever their uterus shrivels. We have millions of dogs on our streets, put down two million of them every year — and impose no limits on the number of dogs millers can breed.
In England, by contrast, you need a license to breed even a single dog — and only 5, were euthanized in An internal audit in the USDA indicated as much. Not the miller in Iowa who threatened to stab an inspector with a syringe and confessed that he shot a dog in the head while his girlfriend held it down.
Not a fellow Iowan who threw a bag of dead puppies at an inspector. And none of them have been made to answer in court for their proven mistreatment of dogs.
Pollo, as the staff called him he high-stepped like a chicken , had somehow pulled through after multiple surgeries at the Cabarrus Animal Clinic. The vet removed his right eye, which was all but useless after a long-untreated rupture; pulled his few remaining teeth; and sealed a gaping fissure in what was left of his upper jaw. Even after all that, though, Pollo bounced right up, relieved to suddenly be in less pain. He sobbed and shook while she was gone. Heather Seifel, the clinic administrator, brought him home till she could match him with an adopter.
Eden is a devotional rescuer of dogs whose methods make other advocates queasy. There used to be dozens of places to get unwanted dogs for a price. Are sold each year after originating from a puppy mill.
Puppies deserve better. Donate Today. We're fighting to stop puppy mills. The HSUS. Big win! Chuck Cook. Puppy mill research. Michelle Riley. Seven ways you can stop puppy mills. More on Stopping Puppy Mills. Banning Trophy Hunting.
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