Puppy mill abuses grind on
Arrests do little to stop bad breeders Buyers urged to learn about pups
It’s a vicious circle, repeated over and over: another puppy mill is busted and the public reacts with outrage to heartwrenching tales of neglect. The owners head to court and are criminally convicted — many for the third or fourth time — by judges who roundly condemn their callousness. But animal advocates know all too well that soon after the legal dust settles, that puppy mill will likely be right back in the business of abuse.
It’s an oft- repeated cycle of neglect and anguish with only one solution, experts say. Until would- be pet owners start thinking before they buy, puppy factories will continue churning out their hapless merchandise. But how can consumers make a responsible choice? Pets are an industry and different factions are critical of competitors. Each says their product is the only one to buy. The chief investigator for Ontario’s humane society, Mike Draper, puts it another way: uneducated consumers help keep
the puppy mill industry thriving. “The public needs to make sure they obtain their new family member from an ethical breeder,” he says.
“ They should never buy from a place where dogs are warehoused or bred in mass quantities.” For Draper, the only good choices are buying a dog from reputable breeders, breed- specific rescue organizations or animal shelters. He specifically rules out pet stores, going so far as to say no ethical breeder will buy from a pet store.
“ I disagree,” says the head of a trade association for the pet industry. Louis McCann, executive director of the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, says good pet stores buy puppies only from reputable sources.
“ Everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else, but if more ethical breeders worked with the responsible stores, that would be in everyone’s best interest,” McCann says. Puppy mills — or breeding farms where dogs are mass- produced in often shocking squalor — were back in the headlines last month when 81- year-old Ralph Misener was sentenced to six months in jail for abusing 43 dogs at his large- scale breeding operation in Vaughan in 2003. His wife Rose, 65, was sentenced to 12 months of house arrest. Humane society officials estimate there are as many as 600 puppy mills in Ontario alone, though exact numbers are hard to come by because many are in remote rural areas.
Critics say these factory dog farms churn out thousands of mass- produced puppies of questionable lineage in inhumane conditions for the express purpose of big profits.
This is not to say all large- scale dog-breeding operations are puppy mills. Nor are puppybreeding farms of any size illegal. What is illegal is the abuse of animals in any breeding operation.
Registered dog breeders are at the other end of the spectrum — far removed from sub- standard puppy mills. Count among their numbers breeders like Marie Babin of Ajax who has six bouncing purebred Labrador puppies for sale — at $800 each.
Babin says their mother Marlo is an obedience and field champion who has been carefully tested for genetic, physical and mental soundness. The sire is a well-known American show champion.
“ I wouldn’t breed a litter unless I felt the parents were good enough for breeding,” she says. “ The temperament and physical structure has to be perfect.” Puppy mill dogs are typically bred and raised in conditions that give rise to odd personality quirks and ailments, including hip dysplasia, bad backs, internal parasites or parvo- virus ( a deadly, flu- like illness), that can make the animals unsuitable as house pets. “ Puppy mill mania” is another possible characteristic resulting in highly excitable, socially maladjusted animals that can be aggressive, difficult to train or overly shy. Andrew Patton, the communications officer for Canada’s purebred dog registry, the Canadian Kennel Club, says Canadian breeders will not sell to pet stores. Such a store, he says, is “ a place where you make snap decisions, not a place where a wellresearched decision is made on a new member of the family.”
Again, McCann disagrees.
“Anti-pet industry organizations improperly classify every individual or kennel selling puppies to pet stores as puppy mills,” he says, adding that the large- scale commercial breeders that supply pet stores should not be confused with puppy mills.
“ The minute you hear ‘ commercial breeder’ you think puppy mill — and that is not always
the case. Puppy mills
do exist, but they are
not unique to the pet
industry.”
One pet store that
does not sell dogs or
cats commercially is the PetSmart chain. Spokesperson Jennifer Pflugfelder says the company has had that policy “ since Day 1.”
“ We do not want to perpetuate a problem with overpopulation that already exists,” Pflugfelder says from the PetSmart head office in Arizona.
Purebred dogs bought directly from breeders can cost anywhere from $400 to $ 3,000 depending on the animal’s quality and the breed’s rarity. McCann says pet store puppies range from $400 to $ 5,000 for dogs that are typically not registered purebreds.
Draper, of the humane society, says some animal shelters list dogs available for adoption — complete with picture and description — on the Web.
“You’d be surprised at how many purebreds we get,” Draper says. “ If you can’t get it at a breeder or a breed rescue, come to us. There are always a lot of animals to choose from.”
Draper and McCann can agree on at least one thing: puppy mills frequently sell their dogs directly to the public through newspaper or Internet ads. Draper’s advice: keep an eye out for ads listing multiple breeds because these vendors are often peddling pups born on puppy farms.
There can be confusion even if a would- be owner looks to buy a dog bred by a kennel club. Patton says most of the purebred dogs sold in Ontario pet stores are registered with the American Kennel Club, but some are marked “ CKC- registered.”
Although the initials are the same, these are not registered with his Canadian Kennel Club, Patton says. A new American breed registry calling itself the Continental Kennel Club — or CKC — has been selling to Canadian pet stores.