By Richard Riehl
At the Carlsbad City Council’s April 12 meeting, Dale Bartlett, policy manager for the Humane Society of the United States puppy mill campaign, will ask the council to ban stores that source their pets from puppy mills. Oceanside, Encinitas and San Marcos have already instituted such bans.
So far, only council members Keith Blackburn and Lorraine Wood have agreed to meet with local animal rights activists about a ban. Mayor Hall and council members Mark Packard and Michael Schumacher have refused to meet with them.
Give Olivia a Voice from Rainbow Heaven
The issue has become personal for me, as expressed in the following column I wrote for the North County Times ten years ago.
You Can Help Stop Puppy Mills
6/23/06 North County Times
Olivia moved in with us last month. She’s had a hard life and it shows. Loss of vision in one eye and the aches and pains of old age make it hard for her to get around. My wife and I took her in partly out of pity and a sense of responsibility. As Robert Frost said in verse, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”
To our surprise and delight, within hours after Olivia joined the family we discovered she was more of a gift than an act of kindness. She captured our hearts, even after our discovery she hadn’t been house-trained.
No, Olivia isn’t a widowed aunt being passed around the family in her twilight years. She’s our newly adopted, 10-year-old toy poodle.
While searching online for dog rescue agencies we came across Olivia’s picture posted on Critter Crossings of Fallbrook. She had the sad and frightened eyes of a puppy mill survivor.
During her first day with us Olivia sat quietly in corners and trembled, flinching at our every approach, rarely venturing forth from her new kennel. She’d been debarked by her captors.
After a few days she began to come out of her shell. But she refused to take a leash and was still too frightened to move more than a few steps at a time. We bought her a doggie stroller with the fitting brand name, “Outward Hound,” so we could take her with us on our daily walks. She’s now become somewhat of a celebrity on the Batiquitos Lagoon trail, bringing smiles of encouragement as she rides royally along.
After a lifetime of mistreatment, Olivia has a long way to go to learn to trust humans. From what we’ve learned about puppy mills, she was one of the lucky ones. Referred to as “brood bitches,” others like her are imprisoned for years in small cages for one purpose only, to be bred repeatedly before being killed after their reproductive profitability wanes.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, there are thousands of puppy mills currently operating in the U.S., many of them after repeated violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. But with fewer than 100 U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors overseeing breeders, zoos, circuses and laboratories nationwide, it is unlikely law enforcement alone can stop the abuse.
The best way to end the suffering of dogs like Olivia is to make puppy mills unprofitable. They supply many of the dogs sold in retail pet stores, over the Internet, through newspaper ads, on street corners and at swap meets. You can help by refusing to buy your family pet from any of those places. Adopt your pet from a local animal shelter, where both you and your dog will be scrutinized to assure a healthy match.
Stories of mistreated puppies smuggled across the border don’t get as much press as the fierce debate over immigration reform. But the despicable treatment of these helpless little illegal immigrants deserves equal attention.
Olivia was 18 years old when she crossed the Rainbow Bridge two years ago to wait for us. We feel her silent presence every time we return home from our daily walks. You can give her back her voice by letting Mayor Hall and the city council know that allowing shopping malls to sell puppies amounts to sanctioning animal abuse.
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On April 12, The Carlsbad City Council has the opportunity to reduce the need for puppies sourced from puppy mills by passing a ban on retail pet stores that sell cats, dogs or rabbits unless they are from rescues or from shelters.
Dogs living in these mills fall under the jurisdiction of the United States Dept. of Agriculture and are considered nothing more than livestock.
The USDA, considers the length of your body, plus 6 inches, to be an appropriate of living space for our companion animals who are currently living in these mills.
Unfortunately, the only people who benefit from the sales of mass-produced puppies are the retailers. They buy them cheap and sell them at a high price. Usually to people who can’t afford them, often to our troops who end up financing the puppy at a 25-30% interest rate.
To add to this burden, 48% of all puppies sold in pet stores are ill and will require expensive vet care.
Taxpayers also pay a price when these dogs, and their offspring, end up in our shelters. Since 2009, there has been 422% increase in the number of animals that have entered into the SD Humane Society. In order to reduce the euthanasia rate, our shelters are forced to spend more money on housing and caring for these pets.
Yes, puppies purchased from local pet stores do end up in our shelters. Last week a pure-bred Bernese Mountain dog turned into to the shelter and an English Bull dog that was brought to the shelter by it’s owners who requested it be euthanized because they could no longer afford the ongoing vet bills.
Although we may not have an actual puppy mill here in Carlsbad, the offspring of mother dogs, who spending their entire lives, living inside tiny cages and are subjected to horrific breeding practices, are currently being sold in the City of Carlsbad to unsuspecting consumers.
I have an entire notebook full USDA inspection reports from breeders that local pet store are currently using.
In addition to housing hundreds of dogs at a time, these breeders have violations that include anything from dental disease so severe the roots of the teeth are exposed, to housing 76 dogs so closely together, only one has enough room to sit at a time. A fix-it ticket. UGH
This is not just a humane issue, it is also a consumer fraud issue. Pet store owners is not being honest when they tell their customers their puppies are not from puppy mills. THERE IS NO LEGAL DEFINITION of what a puppy mill is.
Scooter, was sourced from a puppy mill in Iowa. Yet, Carlsbad Pets unequivocally denied this puppy was from a puppy mill.
However, according to the USDA, more than 300 dogs were housed on the property of this breeder, at the time of his last USDA inspection.
This is the 2nd puppy, purchased from Carlsbad Pets within the last 3 months (that we know of), that had to be euthanized. We know of 3 other puppies that needed extensive vet care in order to survive. All 5 were purchased from Carlsbad Pets just since Christmas.
This country has a pet obsession. As far as I’m concerned we have enough pets in this country. Every grocery store and restaurant I go to has 2-3-4 people with pets, it’s ridiculous.
As long as there is a profit in it, there will be puppy mills. Like prostitution, gambling and drugs, it goes on and on because there is profit to be made. Euthanize more pets quicker, why should I, a non-pet owner pay taxes to keep abandoned pets alive longer than 48 hours.
Also the language around pets, “rescue dog” is getting annoying, everybody has a rescue dog, and they are more than happy to tell you about it.
The country needs to release its emotional ie to pets so we can have less of them.
Obviously a counter opinion.
Robo99,
I feel so sorry for you. You are missing out. “It’s just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn’t it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal.”
― John Grogan
Sorry for the inconvenience, we are trying to change the world.
We get it, you don’t like pets. No problem! We get it, you don’t like your tax dollars supporting public shelters. Again, no problem!
From a PURELY fiscal viewpoint, you should then SUPPORT a ban on retail pet stores, because they are pumping more pets into the equation. We DO already have a pet overpopulation problem, which creates a drain on taxpayers. So stopping MORE animals coming into Carlsbad that are bred and born out of state to saturate the already high pet numbers in Carlsbad would align with your ideas of less pets, correct?
Want to see less money going into the shelters? Want to see less dogs carried around in purses into local stores? Then a ban on retail pet shops will directly affect the quantity of additional pets in Carlsbad.
Yes I do support a ban on pet stores as well as pet supply houses like petsmart, they perpetuate the obsession lonely people have so they get pets for companionship. What a shame they can’t love another human being.
Pets should be disposed of 24 hours after arrival at the pound. Period. End of story. They should not be rescued, this is another way a “charity” exploits public emotion for pure cold hard greedy cash. Puppy mill owners should be sent to Supermax in Colorado. per supply stores should be razed. Per supply internet sites should be shut down. Every pet living should be neutered now, immediately.
Cities that have already enacted bans have seen taxpayer money going into local pet shelters DECREASE, so again, if you want have less of your taxes go back to taking care of shelter animals… HAVE LESS ANIMALS SATURATING THE MARKET.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, banned “companion animal” retail sales in 2006, and the results are stunning.
According to NBC, “since the ban started, animal adoptions have increased 23 percent and euthanasia at city shelters has decreased by 35 percent.”
Of course, critics of the ban insist that people looking for a purebred will just order from the Internet and by default, a puppy mill. They lament “personal choice,” and say laws should be targeting the source of the problem instead of hard-working Americans just trying to make a living in this poor economy.
But, going back to the numbers, what does this mean for Carlsbad if the converse will be true? What if by allowing Carlsbad Pets to sell out of state bred dogs, and to encourage their buyers to breed, we decrease adoptions by 23% and increase euthanasia by 35% in our Carlsbad shelter? What does that do to the price of our animal control contract? More dogs in the equation = more money.
Albuquerque’s proven success shows that a ban will both save money and save the lives of perfectly good animals looking for a loving family, and that is just one city, but is a reflection of what we are seeing all over the country when cities enact bans.
Robo99,
I could make the same argument for having to pay taxes to support public schools, as I have never had children and never wanted to have children. Yet I understand the need to educate is for the greater good and I’ve even come to accept that people with children often have advantages that I don’t have as a single non-kid person. People have pets because they love animals and realize that all living creatures play a role on this planet. Our ancestors domesticated dogs and cats for many reasons, one of which is companionship. Many people feel great joy in having a pet, weather they be a young person or an elderly person who does not want to live alone. Moreover, it’s been proven scientifically that having a pet is good for the owner’s health and is very therapeutic. That said, it is imperative that we act as a responsible society and try to address the overpopulation of dogs, cats, and even other small animals that are kept as pets. It should be noted that nearly 70% of purebred dogs wind up in shelters, therefore breeding and puppy mills do not make sense for SO many reasons. Homeless animals live a very difficult life; especially if they have to fend for themselves on the street. As stewards of the planet, humans need to step up to the plate and do what they can to find a solution to this problem.
Thank you, Mr.Riehl for bringing this important issue to public awareness.
Sadly, many consumers think that more paperwork and pretty wrapping ensure a superior product. Puppies are not products to be thought of in terms like “purebred” or “registered”. They are living beings depending on people for their wellbeing and even survival. If you are unsure if a store is selling puppy mill puppies, perhaps the first thought should be analyzing the verbiage with which they try and sell you a puppy. Any store that uses commodity terms for what should be a member of your family should be avoided. To be sure, a perfect “purebred” dog is not coming from a glass cage in a store in a strip mall, just as much as “registered” does not mean anyone values the life of the animal above what profit can be made from it.
To market these dogs to the uninformed, impulsive buyers, the ante of cuteness must be upped. No longer are puppy stores selling just individual breeds, but an entire new world of cross breeds and “designer” dogs has immerged. Many pet stores market designer dogs such as a “puggle”(pug and beagle mix), “cockapoo” (cocker spaniel and poodle mix) “morkie” (maltese and yorkie mix). These are not purebreds, and bred from the already mixed lineage of puppy mill parents. Purchasing a thousand dollar, mixed breed dog from a store is just purchasing a puppy mill mutt.
When a life is a commodity, suffering is inevitable. I truly hope the city council listens to the public and the MANY MANY other cities who have made bans on these stores who prey on the uninformed, who often end up financing a living being.
This is heartbreaking-cruel-what is wrong with our world? The way we treat animals is indicative of who we are as a society.
Animals should not be held captive in horrible conditions to only be sent out to more cages in pet shops.. all their dogs come from Puppy Mills, from all over the country. These mills are dirty, cold, no love, no attention, and the females breed non stop till they die of disease or over breeding.. The puppies that come from there are mostly sick, and in need of immediate medical attention which most people can not afford who purchase them from pet shops.. its all a fancy shop for “ANIMAL CRUELTY” AT ITS BEST. Stop these people and shops from contributing to the cruelty to animals- it’s wrong, its torture for the animals that have to endure this life.