pet connection

On the other side of Christmas, there’s the Missouri puppy-miller who crows on the Internet about moving all her stock to buyers all over the country:

I sold over 30 puppies. Boxers, Puggys, Bostons and even a few Bulldogs.

Look, there’s no stopping people like her or the puppy-miller (also in Missouri) who got busted for keeping 147 dogs in deplorable condition:

The Humane Society, the Douglas
County Sheriff’s Department and the Douglas County Animal Welfare
League rescued 147 dogs, including Saint Bernards, Great Pyrenees,
mastiffs, cocker spaniels, shelties, Pomeranians, basset hounds and a
pug. They also found an undetermined number of dead animals, as well as
living dogs that are deaf, blind, or suffering serious health
conditions.

Puppy-millers don’t care, and with the farm lobby and pet industry money behind them, nothing will make them care. The only thing that will stop them is a lack of sales.

I know it’s Christmas. I know I should be more charitable. But I cannot be. Every one of you who bought from a pet store or direct from an out of state breeder made it possible for this incredibly inhumane industry to continue.

Shame on you.

Animal-lovers across the country have been busy trying to push puppy-millers off Craig’s List. I applaud their efforts to make doing business more difficult for these scum. I’m a Craig’s List lurker: I read for a while until it makes me sick to my stomach, all the selfishness and greed, and then I stop for a few months to recover. But the fight animal-lovers have been having with one Missouri puppy-miller has been pretty interesting, of late.

See, she calls herself a Christian, and posts that God gave humankind dominion over the animals, so she is free to treat them as she pleases. Here’s a typical post, from the Los Angeles Craig’s List (I apologize for the language; I assure you it’s hers, not mine):

What I really think is horrible is all those queers walking around Santa Fe, NM, San Francisco, CA, and Boston, MA. Homosexuality along with abortion is despicable, and ludicrous! These people are nightmares walking the face of the earth. I am afraid my children will become infected with the ideas of this plague called homosexuality. I am afraid our country is going to hell because so many people are killing their unborn children, and condoning the marriage of their daughter to their new daughter in law. Homosexuality and abortion are a plague, a virus, an unfathomable disease that must be stopped, and cured! This has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with putting an end to the ideas of sick and twisted, deranged, diabolical, delusional minds!!! You people are backwards, and your minds are clogged unable to see past the filth of your desensitized views! Animal rights is a total contradiction, and in sharp contrast to creation, and the order of life! You Sir have diluted yourself and your religion to fit the Sodom and Gomorrah you call home!

Yes, more "love thy neighbor" from the Bible Belt.

Please don’t support people like this in their greed and their cruelty. When you buy a puppy from someone like this, you guarantee more dogs will suffer in their puppy mills.

Puppy-millers and back-yard breeders often claim that anyone who’s against their operation is part of some PETA-backed plot to eliminate all pets. While it’s probably true that there are anti-breeder forces who paint with so broad a brush, I am not among them. I support shelters, rescue groups and reputable breeders. I want people who have healthy, temperamentally sound pets from sources that do not trade in misery.

Oh, and Craig: Would you please fix the confusion in your rules so your wonderful Web site isn’t a haven for puppy-mills and brokers?

Good use of public records by animal-lovers to expose animal importers in Southern California. The puppies are born in the former Soviet Union, shipped to Los Angeles and sold to buyers throughout the United States. Problem is, many of the puppies die after sale. And that doesn’t count those who die before they’re sold.

Don’t buy from a pet store, puppy-mill or broker. You support heartless cruelty when you do.

Follow-up on the Boston Herald’s excellent reporting on puppy-mill outlet stores. Predictably, there’s talk of new laws and regulations. That will fade; it always has. Puppy mills were first exposed in Life magazine in 1969.

The only thing that can stop a puppy mill is dropping sales.

Don’t buy so much as a collar from a store that sells puppies, and don’t support this incredibly cruel trade in living animals. Buy your pet from a reputable breeder, or find a loving pet at a shelter or rescue group.

The Boston Herald reports on their investigation of pet-store puppies:

Profit-hungry puppy peddlers are taking advantage of lax state oversight to warehouse animals in inhumane conditions and foist sick dogs on unsuspecting families.

A Herald review of thousands of documents and interviews with former pet store workers and anguished customers exposed shocking cases of pooches caged in filth, treated superficially by store veterinarians and sold so ill they perished in their new owners’ arms.

As I’ve said before: Laws won’t stop this. The lobbying in favor of such cruelty is too strong. Puppy mills will stop only when people stop buying from pet stores.