Stop Puppy Mills Across the Country

Puppy mills focus on making money, not the health and welfare of the animals they breed.

Puppy mills are nothing more than breeding grounds for disease and despair. Puppy mills can house anywhere from 50 to more than 1,000 dogs who live in cramped, dark, filthy conditions with little or no human contact. To keep costs to a minimum, the dogs receive no veterinary care and often little food and water. The puppies suffer from a variety of diseases due to unsanitary conditions and lack of proper nutrition.

Too often commercial breeders focus on the bottom line and not on the health and welfare of the animals they are breeding. The animals may live in wire cages where their paws become attached to the wire. These cages are often stacked one on top of another, allowing urine and feces from the upper cages to drop down onto the animals in the lower cages. The longer the animals live in these cages, the more likely they will develop psychological behaviors known as stereotypies, such as obsessive licking and chewing to the point of tearing their skin. Many animals live their entire lives in these cages, never seeing the sun or touching the ground. Needless to say, they get no exercise. The animals are bred over and over again until they are no longer capable of reproducing and then they are often euthanized—sometimes with a bullet through the head—or sent off to research laboratories.

The Puppy Uniform Protection and Safety Act needs refining to protect dogs in commercial breeding operations. HR 847 and S 395 need your support. Contact your representatives and senators and urge them to support this vital piece of legislation.

Puppy Mill Protection

Paws Up!
To the state of Ohio and Governor John Kasich for enacting legislation to protect dogs in large-scale commercial breeding facilities.

According to a news story, “Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed into law a measure cracking down on high-volume dog breeders or so-called puppy mills.

“Among other measures, the law now requires high-volume dog breeders that sell 60 or more dogs, or breeders that produce at least nine litters in a single calendar year, to become licensed and undergo yearly inspections.”

 

Puppy mills focus on making money, not the health and welfare of the animals they breed.

Puppy mills can house anywhere from 50 to more than 1,000 dogs who live in cramped, dark, filthy conditions with little or no human contact. To keep costs to a minimum, the dogs receive no veterinary care and often little food and water. The puppies suffer from a variety of diseases due to unsanitary conditions and lack of proper nutrition.

Licensing and inspecting these mills is a first step toward protecting the animals who find themselves unlucky enough to wind up in a mill. Creating standards of care is also important. But most important is that the general public educate itself about puppy mills. In addition, make sure any dog you, your family, and friends obtain comes from a reputable breeder or better yet from a shelter or rescue.

Take Action: Ohio residents, send a note of thanks to your legislators and the governor for their actions to protect dogs in your state. Residents of other states, contact your legislators to find out what they are doing to protect animals in commercial breeding facilities. Let them know you want those animals protected.

The Honorable John Kasich
Governor
Riffe Center, 30th Floor
77 South High Street
Columbus, OH 43215-6117
Tele. No.: 614-466-3555

Additional paws up to the Minnesota State Senate for considering a bill, S 36, which would require licensing for commercial dog and cat breeders who posses ten or more adult animals and produce more than five litters of puppies or kittens a year. The bill is in the Jobs, Agriculture and Rural Development Committee. Contact the chair of the committee to express your desire to see this legislation come to the floor for a vote this legislative session.

The Honorable Dan Sparks, Chair
Jobs, Agriculture and Rural Development Committee
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Room 328
St. Paul, MN 55155-1606
Tele. No.: 651-296-5307

When you think about it…shopping malls are great places for animal adoption centers.

One of NHES’s rescued dogs enjoying a toy at an outside adoption event.

Over the years, many shopping malls have housed pet stores, selling dogs usually bred in puppy mills. However, a new trend is occurring where malls are now offering space to animal adoption organizations to bring rescued animals to the public.

Potential animal adopters are sometimes hesitant to visit animal control facilities or animal shelters for they fear they will see nothing but heartbreak. They sometimes think that only the sick, old, and enfeebled are in those shelters. To give the general public a better picture of the animals available in such facilities, shelter directors have been encouraged to take the animals out into the public arena. Shopping malls that once housed puppy stores are now offering space to those facilities so the public can be better educated in the kinds of wonderful animals who exist in their community’s shelters.

Many pet supply stores already offer space to rescue and shelter groups to hold adoption events, usually on the weekends. These stores realize the need to partner with groups rescuing the homeless, abandoned, and abused animals in their communities. The addition of space to house animals in other locations in shopping malls simply means more animals will be seen by the adopting public and more animals will find their forever homes.

As the general public becomes more aware of the horrors of puppy mills, they will demand more outlets for them to adopt rescue animals. When you think about it…shopping malls are great places for adopter and adoptee to meet.

LA to ban selling cats and dogs

With so many companion animals needing homes already, it makes no sense to breed more to sell in pet stores for profit.

Paws Up!

To the Los Angeles City Council for approving a motion to ban the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores.

According to a news story, “The L.A. City Council voted…in favor of banning stores from selling dogs, cats and rabbits that are not rescues in an effort to curb the city’s animal euthanasia rates.”

By focusing pet store sales on rescued animals rather than on those bred most often in puppy mills, the city hopes to encourage the adoption of animals from local shelters and thereby reduce the pet overpopulation in Los Angeles.

Take Action: Los Angeles residents, contact your city council members and let them know you support their effort. Residents of other jurisdictions, if there are pet stores in your area selling puppies and kittens from mills, suggest to your elected officials they take the same action Los Angeles has.

Los Angeles City Council
City Hall
200 North Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Tele. No.: 213-485-2121

Source:
Southern California Public Radio 89.3 KPCC
CBS Los Angeles

 

Update on Hawaii Puppy Mill Case

Puppy mills focus on the bottom line, not the health and welfare of the animals they breed.

Update!

According to a news story, “Judge David Lo … sentenced Bradley International to reimburse the Hawaiian Humane Society nearly $371,000 for the care of the animals and he fined the company the maximum $306,000. However he did not issue jail time. And he did not ban any of the company’s officers from owning an animal related business.”

No one is likely to see a dime as the corporation was the one charged, and it has been dissolved; the individual officers of the corporation were not charged.

Read our initial post on this issue.

PUPS Needs Support

Pug puppy

The Puppy Uniform Protection and Safety Act, HR 835, known as the PUPS Act, is designed to protect puppies in large scale breeding operations. The legislation has been sent to the House Agricultural Committee’s Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry. Contact your representative to urge him or her to support this bill. You can also write the leadership of the subcommittee urging them to report favorably on the legislation to the full committee and then to the full House for a vote this legislative session. The creation and enactment of laws pertaining to animal protection are of the utmost.

Large scale breeding operations focus on the bottom line and not on the health and welfare of the animals they are breeding. Therefore, many of the following conditions prevail in these commercial operations:

• The animals may live in wire cages where their paws become attached to the wire.
• They often have little protection from all types of weather.
• These cages are often stacked one on top of another, allowing urine and feces from the upper cages to drop down onto the animals in the lower cages.
• The longer the animals live in these cages, the more likely they will develop psychological behaviors known as stereotypies, such as obsessive licking and chewing to the point of tearing their skin.
• Many animals live their entire lives in these cages, never seeing the sun or touching the ground. Needless to say, they get no exercise.
• The animals are bred over and over again until they are no longer capable of reproducing and then they are often euthanized—sometimes with a bullet through the head—or sent off to research laboratories.

The Honorable Thomas J. Rooney
Chairman
Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
1529 Longworth Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Dennis A. Cardoza
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
2437 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515

Puppies Need Protection in Hawaii

Recent events regarding puppy mill issues in Honolulu require action by residents of the state. In June 2010, a “no contest” plea by Bradley International, owners of the Waimanalo, Hawaii, puppy mill, has made way for sentencing set for February 15. Each count carries punishment of up to $2,000 and a year in jail. Hawaii residents, contact the prosecuting attorney to thank him for his work and suggest he ask for the stiffest sentence allowed. Also, contact the judge and recommend he sentence the defendant to the stiffest sentence allowed. According to a news report, “The Hawaiian Humane Society said…the cost to care for the confiscated animals had already exceeded $240,000.”

Another action Hawaiian residents can take to protect puppies in puppy mills is to contact your state legislators and urge them to support HB 1621. Large scale breeding operations, often known as puppy mills, focus on the bottom line and not on the health and welfare of the animals they are breeding. Therefore, many of the following conditions prevail in these commercial operations:

• The animals may live in wire cages where their paws become attached to the wire.
• They often have little protection from all types of weather.
• These cages are often stacked one on top of another, allowing urine and feces from the upper cages to drop down onto the animals in the lower cages.
• The longer the animals live in these cages, the more likely they will develop psychological behaviors known as stereotypies, such as obsessive licking and chewing to the point of tearing their skin.
• Many animals live their entire lives in these cages, never seeing the sun or touching the ground. Needless to say, they get no exercise.
• The animals are bred over and over again until they are no longer capable of reproducing and then they are often euthanized—sometimes with a bullet through the head—or sent off to research laboratories.

Legislation such as HB 1621 is needed to protect these animals from such harm.

Contact about the Bradley International animal cruelty case:

Keith Kaneshiro, Prosecuting Attorney
City & County of Honolulu
1060 Richards Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
Tele. No.: 808-768-7400

The Honorable Glenn Kim
Circuit Court
Ka`ahumanu Hale
777 Punchbowl Street
Honolulu, HI 96813

Contact about HB 1621, Dog Breeder Regulation Act:

The Honorable Brickwood Galuteria
Majority Leader
Hawaii State Capitol, Room 221
415 South Beretania St.
Honolulu, HI 96813
Tele. No.: 808-586-6740

The Honorable Sam Slom,
Minority Leader
Hawaii State Capitol, Room 214
415 South Beretania St.
Honolulu, HI 96813
Tele. No.: 808-586-8420

Puppy Mills Bad for Business

Paws Up!

To shopping center developer Macerich for banning the sale of live animals in more than 70 of its malls across the United States.

Shopping center developer Macerich announced a new policy—it will no longer renew leases of existing pet stores that sell animals. Instead, the developer will open humane stores offering adoptions of rescued pets.

Photo by NHES

Most, if not all, animals sold in pet stores come from puppy, kitten, bird, and other species-specific mills where breeding animals are kept in deplorable conditions their entire lives—which are often drastically shortened due to substandard care—and where the offspring are taken from their family units and shipped miles across country to languish in pet stores.

By not renewing leases of existing pet stores that sell animals and instead opening humane stores offering adoptions of rescued animals, Macerich has set a standard for other mall owners to follow.

Take Action: Contact Macerich and thank the company chairman and CEO for this forward-thinking and life-saving action. In addition, if you know of malls in your community that have pet stores where live animals are sold, talk to the owners and find out what they have to say about the decision of Macerich. Maybe you can start a movement in your community to convince pet stores selling live animals to stop doing so and instead create space for animals from shelters and rescue groups to be placed for adoption. Selling animals from mills is bad for business. Assisting a community by focusing on rescued animals is good for business.

Arthur M. Coppola
Chairman and CEO
Macerich
11411 N. Tatum Boulevard
Phoenix, AZ 85028-2399
Tele. No.: 602-953-6550

Sources: Global Animal
News 4, Tucson KVOA

 

Retailer Adopts Life-Saving Plan

Paws Up!
To Jack’s Pets for no longer selling puppies.

According to a news story, “Jack’s Pets, which owns and operates 27 stores throughout Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, announced…they [sic] have stopped selling puppies and will instead start working with shelters and rescue organizations to offer in-store pet adoptions.”

Photo by George Hawkins/flickr

As more and more pet store owners recognize the puppies they are selling may come from puppy mills, they are shifting their business model to include working with shelters and rescue organizations to promote the adoption of homeless, abandoned, and abused dogs instead.

In addition, legislation is often the key to reducing the number of puppy mills in a state. For instance, Texas recently passed a comprehensive puppy mill bill. States where puppy mills have the greatest concentration include Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, although all states have puppy mills operating within their boundaries.

Ohio is prime for passage of a puppy mill bill if residents of the state contact their legislators and urge them to co-sponsor/support SB 130, which would establish standards of care and implement inspections of licensed breeders. The bill is in the Senate Agriculture Committee.

By pet store owners deciding against selling puppies, one avenue will be closed to breeders, thereby, cutting into their business in ways we hope will end the puppy mill trade. By legislators enacting stiff laws to protect dogs in commercial breeding operations, more and more puppy mills will be out of business and more and more dogs will be spared the horrors of life in a puppy mill.

Take action: Thank Jack’s Pets for its forward thinking regarding the sale of puppies. For residents of Ohio and other states where there is little regulation over puppy mills, please contact your legislators and urge them to introduce/support legislation that would establish standards of care in dog breeding facilities and require licensing and routine inspection of all such facilities.

Scott Brenner, President
Jack’s Pets
802 N Orchard Lane
Beavercreek, Ohio 45434
Tele. No.: 937-320-4300
Fax: 937-320-4310
Email: jack@jackspets.com

Source:
www.daytondailynews.com

USDA Takes Public Comments on Puppy Mills

Photo in public domain

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is accepting comments until October 31, 2011, regarding Docket No. APHIS-2009-0053, which relates to the importation of puppies from foreign puppy mills for resale in this country.

Puppy mills in our own country are a considerable problem and need better oversight management, as indicated in a recent USDA Inspector General’s report . Adding imported puppies to an already overburdened animal welfare system further compounds problems for public agencies and private shelters that most likely will wind up with many unwanted puppies. It also promotes the creation of puppy mills in other countries, including China and Mexico and countries of Eastern Europe.

Please write a letter to the APHIS administrator voicing your opinion on this very important companion animal issue or go to the APHIS website www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2009-0053 to leave your comments.

Dr. Gregory Parham
Administrator, APHIS
Docket No. APHIS-2009-0053
Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS
Station 3A-03.8
4700 River Road, Unit 118
Riverdale, MD 20737-1238
Tele. No.: 301-734-7833
E-mail: ace@aphis.usda.gov