- checking login information
Loading...Puppy Torturers Out of Business in L.A.?
Puppy mills produce four million puppies in total misery each year. They sell these “products” to consumers through cheerful-looking pet stores that mask the dogs’ true origins.
Los Angeles is considering an ordinance that would put the brakes on the puppy mill industry by barring pet stores from selling any dogs, cats, or rabbits who are not rescues, according to The Huffington Post. Currently, over “95 percent of the dogs in pet stores are from puppy mills.” Closing off pet stores as a selling point would leave the mass breeders with no intermediary to sanitize their operations and market their puppies as healthy, happy and well cared for.
The approximately 15,000 U.S. puppy mills are large operations that confine female dogs to small cages and force them to bear litter after litter until they have lost so much calcium that their teeth fall out and their bones become brittle and sometimes break. The mothers and puppies live in their own waste, may lack potable water and edible food (see the food full of cockroaches above), and receive little or no veterinary care. Illness and injury are rampant.
Possibly the worst indictment of puppy mills comes from the federal Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which examined the government agency charged with enforcing the law that regulates dog breeders: the Animal Welfare Act. The OIG’s May 2010 report severely criticizes the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) Animal Care (AC) unit, which inspects these operations for compliance with the law, for letting violations slide and failing to protect the animals who have no other voice. (WARNING: some of the pictures in the OIG’s report are very disturbing.)
Among the OIG’s findings:
- “AC Inspectors Did Not Cite or Document Violations Properly To Support Enforcement Actions”
- “AC’s Enforcement Process Was Ineffective Against Problematic Dealers”
- “APHIS’ New Penalty Worksheet Calculated Minimal Penalties”
- “APHIS Misused Guidelines to Lower Penalties for AWA Violators”
APHIS itself concurred with these findings. Everyone involved in protecting dogs exploited by large-scale breeders agreed that they were not doing their jobs.
L.A.’s proposed ordinance would not only deal a blow that might close or downsize some puppy mills; it would also save the lives of homeless animals who would otherwise be euthanized. “American puppy mills produce an estimated 4 million puppies every year. This number is almost equal to the number of dogs that are euthanized in shelters every year when they are not adopted,” according to the Animal Rescue Corps. If measures like the one Los Angeles is considering were passed nationwide, it could mean both the end of puppy mills and the end of euthanization of homeless dogs.
The measure would apply to kitten mills too. Abuses at large-scale cat breeders are as bad as they are at puppy mills. According to Specialty Purebred Cat Rescue, “Most of the breeder cats’ coats have been destroyed and their bodies are infected with ringworm and other fungal diseases. Also common are painful dental issues, infected or ruptured eyes, and claws grown into the paw pads.”
An editorial the Los Angeles Times calls the proposed measure “drastic” and notes that while the paper is “usually reluctant to support government-imposed constraints on what businesses can buy or sell,” “in this case we think the ordinance is justified.”
The paper’s reluctant recommendation to ban sales from puppy and kitten mills results from the egregiousness of the conditions and violations at these businesses. Some of the OIG’s most upsetting findings about puppy mills:
- A dog who was bitten by another dog did not receive veterinary care for at least seven days, “which resulted in the flesh around the wound rotting away to the bone.”
- A dog whose entire body was covered in ticks. “The dog appeared extremely tired and stressed and did not move, even when we approached it.” 11 months later the case was still “under investigation.”
- Starving dogs “had resorted to cannibalism”; AC “did not immediately confiscate the surviving dogs and, as a result, 22 additional dogs died before the breeder’s license was revoked.”
The City Council will vote on the ordinance, which will then go to the Mayor.
In the meantime, Lambriar, a major broker that bought puppies from large-scale breeders and sold them to pet stores, has shut down. Perhaps the tide is turning against puppy and kitten mills.
Read more: animal cruelty, animals, dog breeders, dogs, Los Angeles, pet stores, puppies, puppy mills
Photo credit:U.S.D.A.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
Recent Comments from Causes
Black on black, white on black, black on white....who cares? Yes, the media is biased. A life is important…
Anybody notice Paragraph 6 ? "The facility is currently home to an estimated 3,500 to 4,000 primates,…
meet our writers
257 comments
+ add your ownThank you for sharing.
PLEASE ADOPT,THANK YOU FOR SHARING
ALL PUPPY MILLS ARE DISGUSTING AND MUST BE SHUT DOWN. People who buy from pet stores and online are just as much part of the problem as those who run puppy mills.
ADOPT
In the WOODLANDS Mall, in The WoodlandsTX, there is a pet store (PetFair) that continues to sell puppies. THis is an upscale mall within a ritzy community and I cannot believe they sell animals! Please let them know that the days of selling dogs and cats in stores in way over! APSCA has already put them on notice about their practices.
All puppy mills in the US, Canada and world-wide should be shut down. I live in Quebec where the provincial government doesn't care about puppy mill. Thanks to animal activists who petition the government to take action. I hope that our new premier will eventually take action.
The mills should not just be investigated, they should be closed and all dogs confiscated. These people need to have stronger laws thrown ar rhen rather than just a slap on the wrist. Make it like a drug charge, you lose all your property, go to jail for 20 years no time off for good behavior this time or any future jail sentences ,and when you come out your name is on an animal abuse list and you are not allowed to own any kind of animal at all. If you are found on a second offense you get 40 years and lose all your property again. We need to make a criminal offense, not animal abuse only, or crimes against animals. It is crimes against animals, and people who buy them so it is also a crime to sell something under false pretenses. The pet store that is found buying from these puppymills lose their license, close their business and are also put on a list so they are no longer able to get a license to open another pet store or store selling any kind of animals at all. High fine also for these pet store owners and jail time of 10 years, no time off for good behavior either. Next time found peddling dogs for any reason (out of their home,etc) they ger 20 years and a fine, etc. for future offenses of the same.
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, MANEL. THIS POOR BABIES ARE BORN INTO THIS WORLD THAT IS A WORLD OF HELL. THE PEOPLE WHO RUN THE PUPPY MILLS AND THE PET STORES WHO BUY THEM KNOWING MOST ARE SICK, NEED TO BE IMPRISIONED FOR YEARS, NOT MONTHS.
All the Puppy Mills should be closed without exceptions. The people who breed the dogs littler after litter is greedy about making a quick buck and nothing else. The innocent dogs are left out to fend for themselves as if they are production machines. They are not loved or given love. They are simply money making commodities. US is finally standing up for these defenceless animals and I would love to see the stronger rules are being brought forward and the stiffer sentences were given to the animal abusers and the law breakers alike. We need to take care of the dogs and puppies who are already being born and alive...and waiting to find a home to go to.
Haleene, I am not a proponent of pet stores selling dogs or cats, however, the photo is highly misleading. How do we know where that bowl was, or how long it was left in "view" before bugs got into it, nor does it even compute that if it was given to hungry puppies, there would even be any food left in the bowl to get contaminated BY insects. I've yet to see a bowl of dogfood that looks as good as that food (appears to be a decent kibble, maybe not gourmet or the highest quality, but DECENT) not get licked clean by the animal it was given to. IF that kibble was put out on a hot day in the sun, it could be easily noticed and infested by insects within minutes. We don't know where that photo was taken, period.
login to add your comment
use your care2 login
add your comment