Puppy Mills

Two years ago, I founded a rescue for puppy mill dogs.  I took a few trips to the Midwest, and attended auctions where commercial breeders (puppy millers) buy and sell dogs and puppies to be breeding dogs.  How did I end up getting involved in that?  Three years ago I wanted a dog.  I researched breeds and decided I wanted a Havanese.  I searched petfinder for months to try to rescue a Havanese, but didn't have any luck.  All of the rescues I found were in the Midwest.  So one day I checked the LA times just to see what I would find.  Sure enough, I found an add for Havanese puppies.  I knew they weren't rescues, but I really really wanted a Havanese.  So I went to visit this woman to see the pups.  I pull up to a shopping center to what looked like a doggy day care.  There was a little fence at the open front door to keep the puppies inside, and the entire store was just an open floor with a couple of benches.  The woman greeted me, and had me wait on a bench while she went next door to get the puppy.  It was really weird, but I was blinded by love.  I had been looking at cute little puppies for months, and as soon as she brought this guy out, I knew he was the one - I even hated little white dogs and I LOVED this little man (If only I knew what a little sh*t he'd turn out to be....no, I love him.  I do.).  I asked her all about puppy mills and she ASSURED me he wasn't from one.  She then went on to agree with me about how horrible puppy mills are.  She said she knew the breeder personally, and the only reason she has to call her place a pet shop is because of some legal jargon I didn't understand.  She was the best bullshitter I've ever met.  Well, the dog was a TON of money, and Michael and I had none, so I knew it was out of the question.  I came home, crushed and crying and told Michael all about the puppy.  Long story short, I come home from work the next day, and Michael comes home about 10 minutes after me with Oscar, the cute, expensive, white puppy from the "non-pet store."  It was magical.  I had a my first dog.  The paper work that came along with him was suspicious, and we came to find out that he IS from a puppy mill.  And a year later, when I was much more knowledgeable, I found out he's from the biggest puppy mill broker in the country...go figure.  So I did some research on puppy mills, and decided I needed to help out in some way.  When I offered to help a Havanese puppy mill rescue in the Midwest, they said there was really nothing for me to do.  So I started my own.  I like to make my life as difficult as possible.

So, over email, I met this girl who also rescued from auctions, and I arranged to meet her at one in Oklahoma.  It was one of the most traumatizing experiences of my life.  Michael and I drove from California to Oklahoma straight through without stopping.  We're exhausted when we got there.  We started Friday morning and got there Saturday morning.  We pull up to the building where it's held, and the first thing you hear is hysterical barking.  Then next thing you experience is the smell.  I can't describe it, and I'll never forget it.  ok I'll try to describe it....It's the smell of urine and feces-infested dog fur and throw up and wet dog and fear all rolled in to one overwhelming package.  We go to sign in, and everyone is super duper friendly and happy.  It's a really fun day for them.  They're a little suspicious as to what such a young couple with full mouths of teeth (sorry that was mean) is doing purchasing dogs at an auction. But I tell them I'm just getting started and I hear this auction is the best - and they believe me - all they see is dollar signs.  We get our number, meet up with  my friend, Brooke, who is equally as relaxed as everyone else - she's been to a lot of these, and I can hardly speak I'm beside myself with sadness and fear that we'll be found out.  Oh by the way, you don't want to give away that you're a rescue or they'll kick you out and lord knows what else.

We're allowed to go to the back room where the dogs are being kept to take a look at which ones we're interested in.  The cages are filthy.  It's freezing cold.  The puppies can't even sit - they're so crammed in, and the chain tags around their necks are so tight.  Some of the really young puppies are happy to see me, and some (mostly the older ones) seem so terrified and confused.  It's difficult not to cry.  I get to the Havanese cages, and put my hand in to pretend I'm looking at their numbers like I saw a couple of men doing when really I'm sneaking some belly rubs.  I couldn't resist.

The auction begins, and the first 8 or so dogs are brought out from the back room onto the table in front of the auctioneer by a bunch of kids - ages 8ish-16ish.  These kids could care less about the "annoying" squirmy dogs they're trying to keep still.  It's a weird atmosphere.  70% of the couple hundred people in the audience are regulars and all know each other.  Some older women have a little dog on their lap - their pets.  Some go up to the table and pick the terrified pups up and turn them over to check their goods.  There are a few Amish men standing in a corner with a clip board and a stack of papers.  All they care about is if these dogs will make a lot of babies.  Here's a little bit of a catalog from an auction last week:

S D Kennels Dispersal Sale
Decemeber 12th 2009
Shih Tzu
NO# Sex NAME REGISTRATION # D.O.B. SELLER # MICROCHIP #
189 FE Snowflake Dixon G06-AZ-AC-36419T 9/6/03 #6 Potts 075*852*853
Comments: APRI, ACA Reg. Color: Gold, White - New to the sellers kennel. She is a sweet dog but the seller has not bred her yet.

Males
192 MA Etta's Acres Tucker MO-ABA-0638916-001 9/10/04 #1 Swearingen
Comments: ACA Reg. Color: Gold & White, Black Markings - He is a proven aggressive breeder.

194 MA H&P Alexander The Great 1130167-3 9/2/07 #6 Potts
Comments: CKC Reg. Color: Gold, White - Missing a tail. He has not been used yet and was raised from a pup.


Shih Tzu

182 FE Maggie Dou Wan TR40334405 5/21/05 #6 Potts 074*783*815
Comments: AKC, APRI Reg. Color: Black, White - LLW 11/14/08 - 5 pups, excellent mother, will adopt, nervous around strangers.

183 FE Shes A Doozy TR36501402 4/1/05 #6 Potts
Comments: AKC Reg. Color: Blue, White - LLW 12/12/08 - 8 pups, excellent mother and will adopt. Throws silvers.

184 FE Hawkins Polly Of Hollister OK-ABA-0501269-006 11/14/04 #6 Potts
Comments: ACA Reg. Color: White, With Gold Tips - LLW 8/14/09 - 4 pups. Excellent mother and will adopt.   **"will adopt" means a mother will take on other puppies who's mother is too nervous, young, high strung or sick to raise her own puppies.

186 FE Cutie PY Ming Shu TR24335003 4/18/04 #6 Potts 075*808*787
Comments: AKC, APRI Reg. Color: Black, White - LLW 6/27/09 - 6 pups, a good mother. She is a afraid of strangers. Need to talk gentle to her.

Comments: APRI Reg. Color: Black & White -She is a good mom, only reason for selling she likes to climb.

Yorkshire Terrier

136 FE Sha-Shai TN99698003 2/8/00 #1 Henson 131212191A
Comments:AKC  Reg. Color:Black & Tan-She has had a broken leg, but doesn't have any problems with it now, she will jump out of cage when door is open, very sweet, dam of Chewy in the sale.



A few hours into it, I start to notice this whole other world happening.  Brooke keeps coming and going, and there are a couple other women who are frequently coming and going.  We come to find out that there is this whole rescue operation happening, and that there are about 3 other organizations there.   After the auction, we only managed to get 2 Havanese puppies (and paid way too much for them).  Btw my rescue started out as a Havanese rescue.

At the end of the auction, we go to the back room, and there are a few men who you give your receipt to, and they go get your dog.  There were a couple of Amish men getting their dogs while we were getting ours.  They must have purchased over 50 dogs, and they were just picking them up by the scruff, and shoving as many as they could into a few crates as possible.  The dogs were yelping and growling, and screaming, and barking, and you could hear a few get into fights.  It was so so stressful.

Then, Michael and I are handed these two little black and white puppies, and we both start crying.  They were so precious and they both instantly found their way to our necks and conked out.  We were taking them to our car when we see this entire truck full of dogs.  We find out it's one of the rescues, Mill Dog Rescue, and it turns out they have a couple of trucks that are packed full, and there are 2 that they absolutely have no room for.  They drive down from Colorado and go around to the actual puppy mills to rescue dogs.  They have made a deal with a lot of the commercial breeders to let the rescue know when they are going to kill a bunch of dogs and the rescue will come pick them up.  The rescue also gets the dogs at the end of the auctions who have not been sold and are going to be taken to the back to be killed.  Of course we find this out AFTER we've purchased the dogs.  After that, I never spent more than $20 on a dog. I even bought a dog for $1 once.  I have a hard time purchasing them because I feel like I'm just contributing to the industry.  It's a weird balance that a lot of puppy mill rescues have a hard time with.  It's seems easy and obvious to say to yourself, "don't buy them, you're just supporting the industry"  when you're not face to face with a 9 year old maltese with one eye and hardly any fur left being auctioned off to try to squeeze a few more pups out of her.  When you ARE faced with that horrific reality, however, that ideal gets harder to hold on to.  It's a huge struggle for me with this type of rescue.  We say goodbye to Brooke, and start the journey home with 4 very smelly dogs in the back of my little Yaris.

Since that day, I've been to Oklahoma 3 more times.  I have to be picky with the dogs I rescue.  I want to rescue the really needy ones (even though they're all needy) but they can't be too sick because I don't have the resources to nurse them back to health for a few months.  Brooke, on the other hand, works at a shelter and has plenty of boarding, and resources to nurse sick dogs back to health.  Therefore, she rescues the most needy dogs.  There was an old female shih tzu she rescued - honestly, if this dog had been sleeping when I met her, I would have thought she was not only dead, but decaying - she looked a lot like the dog at the top of the post but she was gray and more bald.  And she was at an auction to be sold to breed more puppies.

I haven't rescued in about a year now, but I'm committed to getting it back up and running this coming year.  The reason I'm writing this post is that a lot of families get puppies for the holidays.  When you buy a dog from a pet store, there is a 99.9% chance that this puppy is from a mill.  The rest are from backyard breeders.  Next time you go into a pet store, ask where the puppy is from.  If it's somewhere in the Midwest or Ohio, it's from a puppy mill.  If you ask the employees if the dogs come from puppy mills, they will always say no.  Then ask if they are just told to say that.  They will most likely say yes - if they don't, they're lying. There are THOUSANDS of dogs and cute little puppies in shelters and rescue groups that need a home.  If you're stuck on a purebred like I was, there is a rescue group for every breed on the planet.  Google it.  There are also numerous rescue sites to help you find the perfect dog.

Petfinder.com
Petharbor.com

Those are two of my favorites.  You can find a list of local shelters at Petharbor.  If you still can't find the dog of your dreams, call me and I'll find it.  It might take a little longer if you're looking for a puppy of a specific breed, but it is so so so very worth it. 

Here are a couple videos of auctions.  They give you a good idea of what I attended.  Unfortunately, I've seen worse conditions.  The second one is long,  but it's worth it to watch the whole thing.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEt1rkq0Gw4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG7bXi0xylY

And here are some of the cutey petuties in shelters that need a home!

If you live in California, the pet store I went to is called Puppy Playhouse in La Crescenta.  If you know anyone looking to purchase a dog, please direct them to this post.  Thanks guys!