How to stop a puppy mill
Actions anyone can take
[LIST=1][*]
Get your facts straight. Know at least approximately how many breeds are raised at the facility, whether or not it is clean, if the dogs run together or are housed separately, whether the dogs have regular preventative and necessary veterinary care, and whether the operators sell to pet stores, brokers, laboratories, or the general public.[*]
If possible, get a friend to accompany you to the suspect business for your safety and to corroborate your observations[*]
Make notes about the conditions when you return home and be prepared to send those notes to the appropriate officials. Be prepared for bureaucracy to grind slowly and to restate your observations several times. Observations, not heartache, not hysteria, not an emotional outburst.[*]
Contact your local humane society and health departments and describe the conditions you have seen as specifically and unemotionally as possible. The humane society can act in cases of abuse and neglect (which in Ohio means lack of food and shelter) and the health department can deal with threats to public health from fecal contamination, dead dog bodies, etc.[*]
Contact: Dr. Valencia D. Colleton
US Department of Agriculture,
2568-A Riva Road, Suite 302
Annapolis, MD 21401- 7400
(410) 962-7463
to find out whether or not the breeder has a Class A or Class B license (a necessity if the facility sells to pet stores, brokers, or laboratories and makes more than $500 annually from such sales). The USDA will be interested if the breeder has a license and is not following the guidelines for housing, sanitation, and veterinary care or if the breeder is not licensed and grosses more than $500 per year selling puppies wholesale. If these conditions are not met, USDA can by law do nothing. No matter how much your sensibilities are offended by the plight of overcrowded, undernourished neglected puppies, they can do nothing.[*]
Contact: American Kennel Club Inspections and Investigations Department
51 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10010
(212) 696-8208
If the breeds are AKC recognized and the breeder advertises AKC registered puppies. AKC will be interested if dogs are constantly running together, especially if dogs of different breeds are housed together and the business also sells mixed breed puppies, for this may indicate that record keeping regulations are being violated.
AKC is a purebred registry and can deal only with record keeping and identification transgressions; they can suspend violators from further registration of purebred dogs, but they cannot prevent them from breeding and selling puppies.
[More on the AKC][*]If the dogs are UKC registered,
contact: United Kennel Club
100 East Kilgore Road
Kalamazoo, MI 49001-5598
(616) 343-9020 Popular UKC breeds that are not also AKC recognized are American Pit Bull Terrier, and Jack Russell Terrier.[/LIST]Raising and selling dogs is a business for profit for many people. There should be no stigma attached to earning money by selling dogs; problems arise when the dogs are poorly bred, housed in poor conditions, denied proper medical care, are sick when sold, or are advertised falsely.
Just what is a puppy mill? Norma Bennett Woolf