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LancasterOnline.com:News:County kennels focus of 'Nightline' piece
Intelligencer Journal
Published: Mar 27, 2009
01:12 EST
By SUSAN E. LINDT, Staff Writer
Word has it Lancaster County is about to get a lot of national exposure — but not the good kind.
ABC's "Nightline" plans to air footage shot inside some of Lancaster County's commercial breeding kennels on a segment about the industry.
Bill Smith, founder of Chester County's Main Line Animal Rescue, confirmed in an e-mail Wednesday that ABC News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi and a crew filmed commercial breeding kennels in Lancaster and Berks counties over recent weeks for a segment expected to air tonight at 11:35 during "Nightline." Smith said the segment has been bumped from recent "Nightline" episodes for more timely news, and it could be bumped again and then be aired next week.
It was just a year ago when Smith's persistence landed Lancaster County's commercial breeding industry on an even bigger teary-eyed platform — Oprah Winfrey's daily television talk show, which is watched weekly by an estimated 49 million Americans and by viewers in 117 countries from Saudi Arabia to Zimbabwe.
After that show aired, People magazine published a feature article focusing on the industry.
But the "Nightline" segment has something even Oprah and People didn't — an on-camera interview with an Amish breeder operating one of the largest categories of kennels allowed by state law.
"(Alfonsi) interviewed, on camera, an Amish breeder while touring his facility — a first for network television," Smith wrote in his e-mail. "With approximately 500 dogs housed on his property, this commercial breeder speaks openly about an industry cloaked in secrecy and suspicion — the cruel factory farming of man's best friend."
The "Nightline" segment won't have the tear-jerking personal tributes Winfrey included to her own dogs that had county residents reaching for Kleenex last year. But Smith's mother, Helen Smith, who volunteers at MLAR, said it will educate an entirely different population about the county's commercial dog-breeding industry.
Helen Smith said she hasn't seen the segment but that her son used his connections to gain the film crew to several area kennels. The last time Bill Smith did that, every Winfrey fan with a Fido seemed sicced on Lancaster's thriving breeding industry.
"We're curious to see what 'Nightline' comes up with," she said. "We gave them everything they asked for and then some."
If "Nightline" isn't your speed, Animal Planet will air "Puppy Mills: Exposed," a special edition of "Animal Cops: Philadelphia" at 10 p.m. April 27. That show features footage from the well-publicized July 17 raid on Limestone Kennel in Chester County.
Helen Smith said more publicity is likely in the works.
"Ever since the 'Oprah!' show and the article in People magazine, all kinds of groups contact us for interviews," she said.
E-mail:
slindt@lnpnews.com