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Pennsylvania dog law under siege

May3

Disturbing news out of Pennsylvania: Four years after passing a groundbreaking law cracking down on its worst puppy mills, the Keystone State is suddenly dragging its feet enforcing the new law.

Department of Agriculture officials admitted they’ve inspected fewer than half of the state’s largest puppy mills, and they appear to be backing away from citing kennels that violate the new regulations requiring dogs to be given adequate food, water and exercise. The 2008 law also prohibits stacking cages and forcing dogs to stand on wire-mesh floors.

Clearly, the get-tough campaign against puppy mills just isn’t a priority current Gov. Tom Corbett the way it was when Gov. Ed Rendell was in office.

Under the new law, the number of large-volume kennels plummeted from 350 to just 52. The state was on a roll. Yet thousands of dogs remained confined to cages, living lives no dog would want to live.

Now, the head of Dog Law Enforcement, Lynn Diehl, has acknowledged that only 17 of the 52 largest kennels currently comply with the dog law. She says the agency is trying to work with kennel owners. But kennel operators are well aware of the new requirements; they’ve had plenty of time to get up to speed. As dog law board member Tom Hickey told the Allentown Morning Call, “Either they comply with the law or they shut down.”

On top of this, authorities say their dog-law enforcement budget is running short. But according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the state has fallen behind collecting dog license and kennel application revenue. This is the same department that once had a $14 million surplus.

The Corbett administration waited more than 15 months to even convene a meeting of the state Dog Law Advisory Board, which keeps an eye on dog-law enforcement.

All of this is upsetting to me. I set ”Saving Gracie” in Pennsylvania to highlight the progress one state was able to make. The new dog law made a huge difference and inspired more than a dozen other states to follow suit.

Unfortunately, what we’re now seeing goes to show how quickly the best of intentions can be undermined. When it comes to puppy mills there’s no rest for the weary, ever, I suppose.

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‘Working there messed me up’

January23

In the 22 months since Saving Gracie was published, I’ve heard from dozens of animal lovers eager to share their story about rescuing a puppy mill dog. A recent letter from 20-year-old Ohio resident Breann Davis is as powerful as they come. Breann wrote about her own experience working in a puppy mill. She was so shell-shocked by what she witnessed — and by what she was unable to change — that last October she finally left, vowing to do what she can on the outside to change the lives of these dogs. With her permission, I’m reprinting Breann’s letter so you can read the disturbing details for yourself. Thanks, Breann.

She writes:

Hello,

My name is Breann and I recently purchased your book, “Saving Gracie.” Stopping puppy mills is something I want to dedicate my life to. I recently quit my job, I worked at a puppy mill for fourteen months. During my time there I saw the most horrifying things and to this day I still have nightmares about it.

I started my job there right out of high school. My mother had told me about a “dog kennel” that was hiring and I jumped on the opportunity because I love dogs. Dogs have always been my life and my love for them is uncomparible to anything else. To my horror, it was not a dog kennel at all but a full blown mill. Three buildings filled with dogs in wire cages. The noise was deafening. The smell was even worse. But I accepted the job because I wanted to work with animals and I figured that I might be able to make their lives a little better. When I first started there were around 100 dogs. You see, she didn’t breed very much so out of the 100, only about 20 were adults. She was mostly a broker. She bought puppies for low prices from local amish and resold them for outrageous prices. 90% of the dogs there were sickly. Every week she would go out and bring more dogs in. Half of the pups would die after about a week. It was truly awful.

The dogs mental health were worse than their physical. If they weren’t completely terrified of people then they were so crazed for attention that they would try digging or biting threw the cage to get to you. After a few months of me being there she doubled her kennel size. She kept most of her dogs in 24″ by 24″ wire cages. She had Yorkies, Maltese, Poodles, Caveliers, Bichons, Poms, Havanese, Pugs, and various mix breeds. In slightly bigger wire cages she kept Bulldogs, Bermese Mountain dogs, Labs and various others. If these larger breed puppies didn’t sell fast enough, their legs would grow wrong from standing on the wire and not being able to exercise. Working there messed me up, being in the middle of animal cruelty was stressful.

She always lied when selling the pups, telling the new owners that the pups were bred and raised by her. She hired a vet who had lost his license due to malpractice to “vet check” these puppies. Most of the dogs she sold went for at least $600, most of them being mixed breeds. She oftentimes sold mixed dogs as purebreds. I spent most of my mornings frantically trying to revive dying puppies, medicating ill dogs and giving each animal a little bit of love, even if it was just a pat on the head. The rest of my day consisted of cleaning and feeding.

I ended up saving two dogs from that hell hole. My first was a yorkie-poo I named Sheldon. Soon after I started working there Sheldon came in from an amish breeder. Three days later I took him low for the “low” price of $250. She was selling him for $600 originally. My tiny half pound puppy was riddled with ear mites and worms. He was also underweight. But boy was he a little lover boy and I was happy for him to have a home.

My second dog, Namine, I got in January of this year, 2011. She was seven months old and extremely terrified of everything. My boss had told me she was trading her to an Amish breeder in exchange for some puppies. I couldn’t bare to watch that tiny, horrified yorkie-pom girl spend the rest of her life producing litter after litter. I immediately offered to buy her and that day I took her home for $150.

I still have both of these dogs and they are spoiled rotten. Namine is still very skittish and trusts very few people, but she spends most of her time slumbering in my lap or enjoying the big yard we have. You can tell that both dogs are grateful to be out of that place, they are such wonderful animals who have brightened my life.

I ended up quitting soon after an awful upper respiritory infection broke out, killing over half of the kennel. Never have I ever witnessed that much death at one time.

I hope one day my ex boss will be shut down, but sadly animal laws aren’t very strict so she will continue to get away with it. I may only be twenty, but I hope one day I can be part of the solution to getting rid of these cruel operations.

Thank you for your time and your book.

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Puppy mill busts numbered 81 in 2011

January1

Authorities rescued dogs from a puppy mill in the United States an average of every four and a half days in 2011, for a total of 81. That’s a record number since I’ve been keeping track.

You can interpret all the activity in one of two ways: A) the public is finally waking up to the epidemic of substandard kennels in this country, or B) that puppy mills continue to operate unabated. Maybe a little of both.

Here’s what took place the last three months of the year:

OCTOBER

– In Oroville, Calif., officials cited a breeder for neglect after finding 19 pit bulls and 19 puppies at his house near Forbestown. The dogs were unvaccinated and tied up, and the kennel was unlicensed.

– The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed more than a dozen criminal and civil charges against a North Carolina woman for selling diseased puppies and dogs to buyers who thought they were adopting rescued dogs. Jessica Isenhour’s “Saving Fur Kids” was hiding behind the animal rescue effott to operate a for-profit puppy mill, said Rick Yocum, head of the NJSPCA.

– An animal rescue group in York, Pa., appealed to dog lovers to save 15 to 20 Havanese, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel mixes and Shih-Tzus after their owner announced plans to close the puppy mill they lived in and euthanize the animals.

– Rescuers moved more than 100 dogs from a mobile home in Rowan County, N.C., some in such bad shape that it was difficult to tell what breed they were.

– In Merriam, Kansas, 14 Maltese puppies, Yorkies, Schauzers and Pomeranians were rescued from a breeder who closed shop. The dogs were socialized, but had severely rotted teeth, had suffered from a poor diet and lacked routine medical care.

– In Washington state, officials seized 100 dogs from two houses, including some owned by a woman who has judged American Kennel Club shows. Chihuahuas, Pomeranians and other dogs were found in bad health and in extremely dirty crates at one of the houses. At least a dozen of the dogs had to be euthanized.

NOVEMBER

– In Hot Springs, Ark., the ASPCA rescued close to 175 dachshunds, West Highland terriers, Boston terriers and Chihuahuas suffering from skin conditions, fleas and severe neglect. The owner, Pat Thomas, was charged with three counts of felony animal cruelty.

– In Cloquet, Minn., 34 Yorkies, miniature pinschers and dachshunds were removed from the inside of a house and from a tool shed the size of a bathroom, where the dogs were kept in filthy cages stacked on top of one another.

– Sixty-four dogs rescued from puppy mills in Antlers, Okla., were trucked to the North Shore Animal League in Port Washington, N.Y., to begin new lives.

– In Greenburgh, N.Y., 16 to 20 Italian mastiffs died when the shed they were being kept in caught fire. Authorities had forced the breeder to shut down in 2006 and were unaware that he had started selling dogs again.

DECEMBER

– In Henry County, Ky., officials investing an anonymous tip found nearly 120 Brittany spaniels, black labs, chocolate labs and other dogs living in three sheds piled with feces, absent food or water. Authorities also found nine horses 30 cats, rabbits, gerbils, a hybrid wolf and an owl; rescuers had to wear hazmat suits to remove the animals.

– More than 140 dogs were rescued from a puppy mill in rural Denton County, Texas. Feces was built up so high that it was rotting the animals’ skin. The dogs had infected nail beds, missing hair and their paws were scalded by urine.

– In Mabank, Texas, the local SPCA found two dead dogs and 47 others in a state of neglect at a property near downtown.

– Police seized 21 malnourished and injured dogs who had apparently been used for dog-fighting at a breeder’s house in Winter Haven, Fla. The dogs had scars, scratches, scabs and bite marks.

– Authorities found more than a dozen purebred dogs malnourished and living in filth at the home of a nationally recognized German Shepherd breeder in Stratford, Connecticut. Dogs were stacked in crates throughout the house with no bedding or water. A story about the bust noted that on the wall above the cages hung certificates and awards the breeder, Dawn Marie Pieger, had received for dog handling.

– A Greenwood, S.C., woman was charged with neglect after her children told authorities their mother made them clean the pens of hundreds of dogs when they came home from school, and whipped them for not working fast enough. Sheriff’s deputies described the smell in the house as almost unbearable.

– In Oklahoma City, Okla., more than 70 dogs suffering from hernias, eye infections, bad teeth and malnutrition were taken from a puppy mill.

– Authorities rescued 28 dogs from horrific conditions at a kennel outside Apache Junction, Az. The dogs were crammed six or more to a crate, were soaked with urine and had only contaminated water, no food.

– Near downtown De Leon, Texas, the SPCA took 14 Chihuahuas living amidst feces, cowebs, roaches, trash and other forms of filth.

Also in December, following an NBC Miami investigation, a Cooper City, Fla., company was charged with secretly selling puppy mill dogs instead of dogs from top quality dealers, as it claimed. The lawsuit against Purebred Breeders was filed on behalf of 11 customers and in cooperation with the Humane Society of the United States after customers reported the puppies they had purchased online became sick upon arrival and sometimes died. The business is said to sell more than 16,00 dogs a year supplied from 2,000 breeders, especially at Christmas, when prices could jump to $4,000 a dog.

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