Victim of alleged abuse at Lancaster County puppy mills.(Photo courtesy of Mary Hunt Davis) Sophie was dying.
Bleeding from her hindquarters, her fur clotted with feces and urine, Sophie was one of the 20 puppies that Bill Smith, founder of Main Line Animal Rescue, removed from the windowless barn that imprisoned nearly 300 other dogs one evening in March 2008.
Stuck within the Westie puppy’s uterus, veterinarians found a bladder stone the size of a doorknob – something any vet would have noticed had the dog been examined. On her neck were two nickel sized burn marks from an electric bark collar activated every time she cried out in pain.
According to Smith, animals have no legal protection from abuse. The Federal Animal Welfare Act is bare bones, he said, and requires breeders to provide nothing more for their dogs than a single meal per day, water and shelter.
In December 2008, Smith, with the assistance of Gov. Edward Rendell, created two bodies of legislation intended to better protect the health and wellbeing of Pennsylvania’s commercially bred dogs: House Bill 2525, dealing with cage provisions and euthanasia, and House Bill 39, dealing with cruelty.
Only HB 2525 (Act 119) received senate approval, but not until many of its key elements were omitted.
“Breeders are still allowed to keep their dogs in cages, with only 6 inches of head room, and rabbit hutches, indefinitely,” Smith said. “The only change affected by Act 119 is that it is now illegal to shoot your dogs… if you own more than 60.”
According to Act 119, a breeder with fewer than 60 dogs may “dispatch” with them as he or she sees fit. The disfiguration of Smith’s animal welfare bill, can be attributed to the strong opposition of two unlikely organizations, said Nicole Wilson, executive director of Delaware County’s SPCA.
According to its Web site, the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association supported many aspects of Act 119, including doubling cage sizes, elimination of stacked cages, annual veterinary exams, better standards for venilation and euthanasia being performed only by veterinarians. However, the organization expressed concern abut the removal of wire bottom cages, claiming that solid flooring might promote unsanitary conditions in commercial facilities. Although the PVMA states that it endorses regular outdoor exercise for dogs, it opposes unregulated access to the outside because the temperatures in Pennsylvania can be too extreme for some breeds.
However, “some of the veterinarians within the PVMA work for puppy mills,” said Bob Baker, an investigator for the ASPCA and a member of Governor Rendell’s Ad Hoc Committee on Commercial Dog Breeders, and suggested their opposition, in part, was financially motivated, a claim that was disputed by the PVMA: “The PVMA has been accused of somehow profiting from the commerical breeding industry, and having less than honest motives. This is not the case,” reads a statement on their Web site.
Victim of alleged abuse at Lancaster County puppy mills.(Photo courtesy of Mary Hunt Davis) According to Baker, wire strand cage bases are not only painful to stand on but also trap and break the legs of small animals. Baker sayed that “runs,” elongated cages with both wire flooring and solid flooring, are just as sanitary and safer than their counterpart.
“A dog will instinctively relieve itself over the wired area as no dog will soil the solid base on which he sleeps,” Baker said.
Dr. Dominic Dallago of Bryn Mawr Veterinary Hospital also disagreed with PVMA’s position regarding unregulated access to the outdoors, claiming that regardless of the weather in Pennsylvania, the permanent entrapment of hundreds of dogs within a small, unlit barn is far more dangerous. In perpetual darkness without fresh air, a dog’s immune system is weakened, Dallago said. Furthermore, a dog can develop respiratory problems and go blind when constantly exposed to the high ammonia levels of a “mill” barn in which hundreds of dogs urinate, he said.
According to their Web site, it is the mission of the American Kennel Club (AKC) to support the sport of purebred breeding and to protect the health and wellbeing of all dogs. A registry for purebred dogs, the AKC supplies certificates to breeders, which are considered by many consumers to be a confirmation of pedigree authenticity.
“It is because of the AKC’s opposition that I was forced to agree to a 60-dog euthanasia limit,” Smith said. “They did not want their responsible breeders to be forced to comply with any legislation for the betterment of dog’s lives.”
The AKC’s largest source of income is derived from the registration fees of dogs, Baker said. “Without the support of commercial breeders, the Pennsylvania dog shows, which they organize, would cease to exist.”
Lisa Peterson, a spokesperson for the AKC insists that the health of registered dogs is of “immeasurable importance.” “It’s pretty clear that we care about dogs as we are the only purebred registry that inspects breeding facilities,” Peterson said.
But the AKC employs only 14 inspectors for the entire nation, Peterson said.
“Act 119 was altogether disappointing but come September 2009, HB 39, on animal cruelty, should gain senate approval and bring drastic improvements,” Wilson said.
According to Smith, under federal and state law it is legal for a breeder to confine a dog, no matter what it’s size, to a rabbit hutch for the entirety of its life, to “dock” or chop off a dog’s tail without anesthesia or professional assistance, to perform a cesarean delivery without anesthesia or veterinary experience and to destroy the vocal chords, or debark their dogs, with a crude metal pole. These are the issues that HB 39 will address.
“Unfortunately no matter how many laws Pennsylvania passes, little will change if the laws are not enforced,” Wilson said.
Lancaster County has the highest puppy mill concentration of any county in the United States yet has been assigned only one dog warden to enforce “dog law,” according to the Humane Society of the United States.
“If it weren’t for rescue volunteers and SPCAs, the puppy mill situation would be a lost cause,” Wilson said.
“In the end, nothing will help these animals but public awareness,” Smith said. “If we can make the public see how awful these mills are, they will be instrumental in affecting real change.”
