Puppy Promises

Puppy promises Roanoke Time Monday November 19, 2007
As people line up to take in dogs rescued from a Hillsville puppy mill, experts warn potential owners to make sure they can keep their new pets.
By Annie Johnson

To read the story yourself: http://www.roanoke.com:80/news/roanoke/wb/140317

This is a report about how prospective owners should prepare themselves for adoption of a Shelter Animal. Annie does a pretty good job of using actual fact and information until... She just could not stand the temptation to report a few sensational non related comments.

She brings up the HSUS robbery of Junior Horton's Puppies If you will recall Junior had about a 1000 dogs removed from his property, although there were no charges and the investigation was not conducted by the USDA and the lack of any charges seems to be strange to us, Heck he still has over two hundred dogs, but the innuendo still remains there must be something wrong. Annie Shame on you!

Annie goes off on a one line statement in Bland County a fire killed nearly 200 dogs.. Old News and it has nothing to do with the fact people need to prepare themselves for making a long term commitment when buying a puppy.

Now in the next paragraph she drags up the name "Puppy Mill", the temptation to call names was just overwhelming. The way she described the term, it seems that anyone who holds a USDA license is a "Puppy Mill".

A more accurate description, should be "Puppy Mills" are breeding operations who operate without a State or Federal USDA License and kennels who fail to meet the standards as specified by the Animal Welfare Act.

Just because a business is a breeding operation of any size does it not automatically make it a "Puppy Mill" as she so inferred.

Annie makes an attempt to make the shelter people who "Kill" the dogs and cats daily as their job, in deplorable conditions, to be somehow more wholesome by saying they object to the conditions in which the animals are bred and cared for. Now if she were to report the animals that live in a facility that is illegal un licenced by either the State of Federal Government, she may have an accurate point to make. A legal facility in compliance, provides better Veterinary care for their animals than most individual owners, they live in facilities that are cleaner than most peoples homes and receive the best care possible which includes exercise areas and human contact as well.

Annie quoted Stephanie Shain of the HSUS, She said "you are more than likely to get a dog that has problems, health, social skills etc." Now she fails to mention the dogs that are going to have these problems are the ones you more than likely will get at a shelter or rescue. and she fails to mention that less than 20.0% of the entire shelter population are purebred dogs. The reader is getting sucked into the slander of these people, and fails to realize Breeders do not raise mutts. But it is a good smear attempt of Annie to trash all breeders.

Annie again now quotes this Finkler fellow.. Saying the dogs have intestinal Parasites from Puppy Mills. Now that maybe true and it may be a broad generalization, Finkler knows the public is not well schooled in animal health and stress related issues with dogs.

I think I will take a couple of lines to educate the public about this issue. First all "animals of the ground" in nature ingest parasite spores, and so do we as humans, these parasite spores are everywhere in nature and for an animal who eats his food from the ground or licks and tastes everything he comes in contact with is going to ingest these spores. Mother Nature protects the animals from having what is called "out breaks" from these parasites by providing them with an immune system that will defeat the spores and allow them to pass through the intestine.

In the lifetime of any dog it is almost a 100.0% likelihood of a parasite health issue. This is normally noted by the owner when his sees the dog is having a bout with loose stools.

The obvious question is, if they have them (Parasites) in the intestines already and there is no way to avoid them, what causes the problem. Stress in an animal is the root cause for a parasite outbreak. Stress can or may cause the dogs immune system to be compromised and once the system has weakened it no longer has the ability to protect the animal from the parasite making a home in the intestine and began to grow in the host animal. Now, in most cases the animal recovers on his own and eventually defeats the population growth, but in puppies and old dogs they often need a little help with a treatment of a product called "Albon" or "Flagil"
depending on the type of parasite causing the problem.

Now back to the statement from Mr Finkler, of course we expect to see outbreaks with these animals who are unfortunate enough to end up in a shelter, They are afraid and are thrust into an environment where the smell of dead and or dying dogs are present, the facilities are normally filthy and the dogs are being handled by people who may be afraid of them, Dogs can sense fear in people, they also can sense the fear of the other dogs in the shelter as well. This is an extremely stressful experience and the dogs will demonstrate signs of stress through parasite outbreaks.

So his statement while true, "they do in fact" see a lot of parasite issues with kennel dogs, to imply the cause is from being a kennel dog is unfounded. More than likely the cause for the outbreaks is from the experience itself and not from where they came.

Finkler also offers an endorsement of the AKC, which is totally wrong when it comes to identifying a good breeder. First the AKC will not allow a breeder who holds a USDA license to list their puppies on their website, So you end up with un licensed kennels or backyard breeder in many cases. Not good..

Finkler also makes a statement based on nothing more than an attempt to discredit the good names of breeders in other states.

He points our that Missouri and Kentucky are bad places. I will be honest with you I don't know about the state laws in Kentucky concerning kennels, however the Federal Animal Welfare Act does apply in all states, if there are commercial kennels they are required to be licensed and inspected to insure they meet the standards for breeding operations. If they are not licensed then you "may" in fact have a puppy mill.

Missouri on the other hand is the most regulated and inspected state in the country, Mr Finkler, is demonstrating his ignorance by trying to infer Missouri is a problem.
The real story here is Missouri went through a time where the breeders in Missouri who do a good job themselves, demanded a State inspection and License program, to clean up the conditions that were observed in a few poorly operated facilities.

Representative of the industry worked hard and long to make sure the laws were written well and meaningful for the protection of animals, and the Missouri standards exceed the federal guidelines. As a result, Missouri went through a very difficult time where one by one the bad people had been exposed and being an open society the news media had a field day in reporting, and justly so. These people moved to other states, some went to jail and most importantly the bad facilities have been closed.

Missouri has on-going educational programs for breeders and the focus is on moving the performance ever upwards through education and regulation. Supported by a strong enforcement arm and inspection process.

So if you are going to buy a puppy and want to make sure you are dealing with a licensed and inspected facility, You probably should buy it from a Missouri Kennel.

We do agree with the point made that if you find a facility that is operating without a license you should report it. However you do not have the right to trespass on someones property. You should also keep in mind that if you file a report and the report is proven false you can be sued by the Kennel owner as well as face criminal charges for falsifying a report and lying to a federal officer.

A point that I feel compelled to make here is that any facility who houses animals is subject to the "Animal Welfare Act" both state and federal. If you visit a shelter and find the conditions to be deplorable, you should report them as well. Killing a dog because it is inconvenient to house and care for is after all against the law.


All in all, Annie you slipped up here and failed to respect the trust the public requires and expects from our media. You started off well intended but fell into the trap of trying to sensationalize your story. Shame on you and your Editor