It's disgusting, but honestly Cindy, this one looked like a Sotheby's auction compared to those auctions they used to have in my town. I wish I had been smart and brave enough to wear a hidden camera bc otherwise you just would have to be there to get the full affect.
It was an old dingy metal building, the second you walked in the stench of dog urine and feces hit your nose.....and the noise was awful, puppies and dogs barking, crying, moaning, and the voice of the auctioneer on a speaker system, rattling off selling points, like....."this one is money in the bank"....."easy money, this one is pregnant"......"this boy is ready to go to work for you"......"a bichon frise and a yorkie - get you some nice little yorkiechons - those are big sellers!".
In the back room they kept the dogs, it was poorly lit, filthy, and the cages were stacked on top of each other halfway to the ceiling. Each cage was filled with an array of dogs, mostly toy breeds. It was obvious some dogs were not in good health at all, and every one of them looked miserable, and scared out of their minds. Their eyes looking back at me were so pitiful, I will never forget - NEVER!
This was an Amish run auction and around here the Amish kids are indoctrinated into this life at an early age. There were literally 5-6 y/o kids, they would have hold those dogs on the bidding table. I saw them drop the dogs, hold them by their legs, of course puppies were being held too tightly by them. These kids heads would barely be above the table!
And the buying crowd.....OMG.....out of approx the 50-60 that would attend you would be hard pressed to find a full set of teeth between them all (with the exception of the rescuers). I often commented rescuers couldn't hide themselves there.....they were the only ones that showed up in clean clothing.
I would sit there and listen to snippets of disgusting breeder conversations and get sicker by the minute. Breeders talking to each other about how puppy sales were down this year, and they didn't know what they were going to do. Another mentioned she was there to buy dogs for resell to medical research, because brokers didn't pay enough anymore. One talked about how she had so many dogs now, she was going to have to downsize, between the dogs and puppies she had over 100.
One of the auctions a Japanese Chin gave birth in the back room. One of the pups died and was thrown underneath the table they were using for microchipping and where you picked up the dogs you bought.......poor baby, just laying there dead, I went home and cried buckets!!
And, of course being an Amish run auction, there has to be food, right? here we are in the filthiest conditions ever....and people would walk by you with their bowls of chicken/noodles, frito chili pie, and donuts.
MMMmmm, MMmmm! I was so sickened by it all, I literally could not eat the entire day and sometimes not even the next day.
After learning more, I don't agree with buying the auction dogs. I know for every one bought, the greeders would replace it with two or more. Even though they weren't getting much money out of their dogs at these auctions, it was more than brokers paid and at least - it was selling some dogs in a tough economy. Like I said, I don't agree with buying these dogs anymore....but I'm so glad I did get the few out of their life of hell that I did....at least for them the nightmare has ended.
Fortunately this local auction house shut down. I would like to think it's because the owner finally got a conscience, but know it was because they weren't making enough $$. Sadly, the breeders that used to frequent this auction just moved on to another auction house up the highway in Missouri.
I so wished I had worn the hidden camera....this post wouldn't have been so long - sorry!