February 23rd, 2010 taken from http://animalconnectionshow.com/wordpress/the-undercover-investigation-expands/An update on my post last week….. The West Hollywood City Council passed an ordinance on February 16, 2010 banning the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores unless from rescues and shelters. I was overwhelmed by the number of people wanting to know, how can they do the same thing in their own town?
I contacted Carole Davis with the Companion Animal Protection Society (CAPS) to get the information. They did the work to get this passed. The Animal Legal Defense Fund and Humane Society of United States helped as well. CAPS now helps other cities with the drafting of legislation against puppy mill sales in other communities. Here are excerpts from The American Dog Magazine, with links to each article and videos.
If your state has the puppy lemon law then move forward by going to your pet stores and asking for information about the breeder they buy from. If not, ask your legislators to get the Lemon Law. This law allows you to get the information about the breeder from the pet store. Once you have that information, go to CAPS website and fill out a puppy complaint. Please read all of the information below if you have interest, or know someone who does. It was very time consuming and costly for CAPS to do this, but it has been worth it.
1. Pets, Lies & Legislation
Puppy mills are a hot political issue. Public outrage is growing over the legal multi-billion dollar puppy-producing business that forces millions of breeding dogs to endure inhumane treatment in factory-like conditions until death. They’re kept 24/7 in wire cages caked with their own feces, with no veterinary care or socialization. Average dog lovers want puppy mills to become illegal.
Consequently, a war about dogs is escalating in America - a battle as complex as any fought in the history of social movements and waged with a proportionate scale of strategists, lobbyists, and commanders vying for control, power, and money.
To puppy mill investigators, the idea that commercial breeders are treating their dogs well or socializing them is laughable. A miller’s idea of playtime is to throw a bunch of females in heat with a male in one cage. As for being responsibly placed, mass volume breeders use brokers to ship barely weaned (and often sick) pups indiscriminately to pet retailers around the country. The dogs are crated in trucks for thousands of miles at an age when they need food and water every two hours. They are also sent in crates to buyers across the country on long flights with layovers. Transporting eight-week old dogs that way isn’t safe, and according to Lewis Turner, owner of the Petcare Company in California, four out of ten dogs that were trucked in to him by brokers Lambriar and Hunte were sick, “with green liquid coming from their eyes or nose.” Hardly “responsible placement” by any standard.
To Read More about This Subject Click Here.
2. Spay and Neuter Laws ……..Humans Debate While Dogs Die
It’s Tuesday, 9 AM at a Los Angeles shelter and a worried little terrier has just been “red-listed.” Unless someone adopts her, she’ll be killed. Another dog will take her place and that dog, too, if he isn’t adopted, will be killed. Could spay and neuter laws make a difference in this dog’s life?
In California, in 2008, municipal shelters reporting to the California Department of Public Health took in 833,304 dogs and cats. Of those, 429,987, or 51%, were killed. That would be a sad enough number for the whole country but it’s just for the state of California. In the U.S., the number of pets killed in shelters is astounding. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) reports that every year, between six and eight million dogs and cats enter U.S. shelters and three to four million of those animals are killed because there aren’t enough homes for them. In 2009, uncontrolled breeding compounded by record job losses and home foreclosures are causing the number of animals flooding our shelters to rise sharply. When the figures are finally reported, they’ll be tragic.
Until we get a handle on this crisis, we need to refrain from buying animals and adopt from shelters instead. We ought to promote adoption to our friends. And we must fix the dogs we have. To Read More About This Click Here.
3. Undercover Investigations Prove Pet Shop Puppies Were Coming From Puppy Mills
Though there has been lots of press coverage on the subject, there are still people who don’t know that pet stores are supplied by large brokers and inhumane breeding operations. There is no other way for pet shops to have a constant supply of puppies of different breeds. It was time to take a stand and convince puppy buyers to stop shopping and start adopting. Los Angeles, the second largest market for pets after New York, was the perfect place to tell the public about the ugly truth behind the pretty store fronts.
In California, they have a Puppy Lemon Law, which requires pet store owners to post the name and address of the breeder of the dogs on their display enclosures. Putting that law to use, people were recruited who were willing to do some reconnaissance trips to pet stores. They wired themselves up with undercover cameras and disguised themselves.They fanned out across the city, hitting all the pet stores to find out exactly where the puppies were coming from.
They called on some professional investigators from LCA (Last Chance for Animals) to go and film the addresses they provided. When the photos and video came in, the proof was irrefutable. Bingo. Just like they expected, the puppies at Posh Puppy were coming from a puppy mill.
What they found out through their in-store investigations is that pet stores are openly defrauding the public – not just Posh Puppy in Beverly Hills, but all the pet stores they visited. They discovered that pet store owners, managers and employees routinely lie to people. To Read More About This Subject Click Here.
4. A March for Free Speech for Those Who Have No Speech – PUPPY MILL DOGS
On December 19, 2009, the Saturday before Christmas, eighty animal welfare activists marched in a silent vigil for dogs suffering in puppy mills. The grass roots group was also marching for the five million companion animals who are killed every year in the shelter system because there are not enough homes for them. Local activists had been planning the event for months following an investigation by the Companion Animal Protection Society (CAPS), which claims that Barkworks, a pet store chain in California, sells animals from puppy mills. The CAPS investigation included evidence from the United States Department of Agriculture inspection reports that the Midwest commercial breeders supplying the stores had multiple violations.
The puppy mill awareness drive that took place on the busiest puppy-buying day of the year, was intended to raise the awareness of consumers and to steer them to the overcrowded Los Angeles shelters to adopt or rescue a pet for Christmas. Read More Here.
5. Victory for Dogs as Pet Stores Go Humane
Sadly, millions of dogs are suffering in shelters and puppy mills. This year, a record number of dogs are being dumped and euthanized at shelters because of the current economic crisis. Commercial breeders and pet stores are also feeling the pinch. “People just aren’’t buying puppies right now,” says pet store manager Justin Vanert.
Growing numbers of commercial dog breeders in the Midwest are selling their homes for a pittance – advertising them as “turnkey investments,” which often include kennels with hundreds of breeding dogs “free with the property.” As bleak as it all sounds, this recession just might have a silver lining for the dogs who are wasting away in puppy mills and shelters. Perhaps this economic downturn might be a dog’s chance to get out alive.
The dog trade is showing signs of weakness. Successful business is all about supply and demand and right now the demand side is shrinking as buyers of puppy mill dogs snap their wallets shut. But the reasons aren’t just the economy – it’s a combination of decreased spending, public awareness of inhumane breeding practices, legislation that limits and criminalizes dog factory cruelty and effective campaigns led by animal rights activists.
This spring, a group of Los Angeles activists celebrated yet another victory. After five weeks of protests, the owner of Elaine’s Pet Depot signed an agreement to hand over all of her puppy mill dogs to Good Dog Animal Rescue for adoption. The agreement with the lynchpin store of a national chain of pet stores included a statement that reflected the store’s commitment to working with rescue organizations. The store agreed to hold adoptions and end its sale of puppy mill dogs. Reliable sources from within the franchise claimed that the entire Pet Depot chain was considering conversion to a humane business model within a few months. If the large chain stops buying from brokers and mass volume breeders, the strategy to cripple the puppy mill industry by hitting them where it hurts, in the wallet, is working.
The “go humane or go out of business” campaign has been able to gain momentum by combining its ability to exploit the current economic downtown and its skilled use of visual evidence from undercover investigations. The stores that were protested saw as much as 70 percent of their weekend business deterred by activists brandishing signs depicting graphic photos of dogs suffering in mills. An increasing number of stores in the heart of Los Angeles have been closed down or converted – more than a dozen so far in a little over a year. Learn How You Can Do This, Click Here.
6. Now the Internet is overflowing with puppy mill sales
As the animal protection movement wages its battle against the maltreatment of dogs in puppy mills, it faces a powerful new enemy - the Internet Pet Store. The Internet, as helpful as it has been for rescuing animals with sites like AdoptAPet.com, has become a perfect stealth shield for abusers of animals looking to make a buck. A Google search for information on dog breeds will lead any gullible browser to tens of thousands of online breeders. For the buyer in a hurry, there are Web portals to make shopping easy, like NextDayPets.com, which unite hundreds of dog dealers on one site. With a click, you can pay to have a pup mailed to you in a crate. Though it’s a convenient way to buy a dog, you might be inadvertently contributing to animal abuse.
Deborah Howard, president of the Companion Animal Protection puppy dealers. “One should never, ever buy a dog on the Internet because you’re not seeing the conditions under which the puppy is being raised,” she said. “There are no good ones because reputable reeders don’t sell puppies this way.” “The HSUS receives hundreds of complaints about sick and dying puppies sold over the Internet,” says Kathleen Summers, Deputy Director of the puppy mill campaign of The Humane Society of the United States. “In fact, several of the puppy mills that the HSUS has helped close down recently were Internet sellers, including a mill in Tennessee with almost 700 dogs and a millin West Virginia with almost 900 dogs. Both of these facilities posed online as small family breeders.”
A lot of them arrive sick with Parvo, worms, Giardia, coccidia, kennel cough or pneumonia. It’s even more dangerous than buying in a pet shop because legal recourses are more challenging. You have to file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office in the state of the breeder and if you want to sue the seller, you have to go to small claims court in their state, not yours. These Internet sellers know this.
Many of the sites linked to substandard breeding operations will say anything to deceive buyers into believing the business is ethical or humane. They often describe themselves as “Christian” and “familyrun.” A common lie is that their dogs are “raised in the home.”
I received this link to a newscast in New Mexico and wanted to pass it on. I did not get the info up in time to say Sage was also on Animal Planet last night. I am hoping to get a link to the segement, since I do not have a tv. Hopefully it will be shown again.
This furry hero and her human hero deserve to be recognized for giving so much of their own time and wallet.
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/military/heroic-dog-recovers-from-cancer
by Diane Whetsel
Sage, the next chapter,,,,,,,,
In Early Sept. 2009, an AKC representative, Ron Rella called to tell me that Sage had been selected as the recipient of the ACE award for Search and Rescue for 2009. This is probably the biggest award a SAR dog can receive for service. He asked me to confirm my contact information and told me that Sage’s travel agent would be contacting me to arrange for Sage and two humans of HER choice to be flown to Long Beach CA for the awards ceremony. It would happen at the Eukanuba National Championships on Dec. 6, 2009. We were very excited and honored to have Sage choose us as her travel companions for the event.
Only a week later I was informed that Sage had a tumor deep down between her lung lobes and next to her heart. The news was devastating to all that knew Sage. Even my vet sounded like he was crying as he told me the news over the phone. Sage has been in a post 9-11 K-9 health study conducted by the U of Penn. and primarily funded by the AKC. Every year since 9-11 Sage has had blood work and chest X rays sent to the University of Pennsylvania for study. Until now, she has had no problems and when sending the 2009 X rays out to them I expected all to be the same. They weren’t and now we had to make a new plan. After speaking to my primary vet, Dr. Walker and the study Coordinator at U of Penn, Dr. Otto, it was determined that she would be referred to Dr. Kelly, a veterinary medical oncologist in Santa Fe, MN. We made the appointment and traveled the 4 hours to Santa Fe for the examination. There Sage was X ray-ed, poked and prodded. An ultra scanned guided biopsy was attempted but couldn’t be completed. We were then referred to the cancer center at Colorado State University. All vets involved at the time agreed that CO State is the gold standard in vet cancer care and that Sage deserved the best that veterinary medicine could offer. The referral was given and the appointment was made. It was only three weeks before her big moment in Long Beach and we found ourselves sitting in the cancer center waiting room in Ft. Collins CO.
Monday, the examination by her medical oncologist, Tuesday the CT and PET scans… The good news was that the tumor next to her heart was the least dangerous and most easily treated of the possible suspected cancers, a thymoma. The bad news was that there was another suspicious mass inside her right lung. That set off a new problem that involved how to approach the surgery and what type of surgery would be the best for her.
The hospital at CSU is an incredible facility and Sage had several surgical oncologists and medical oncologists offering their best suggestions as to how to approach this but not one of them could agree. The question on how to proceed was then posed to me! They gave me all of the information about her condition that they felt I could process and then they told me the options… The two approaches were, do we go in with an arthroscopy or a full surgical thoracodamy? Do we take just a biopsy of the mass in her lung or take out the entire upper lobe? What if, what if,,,,, the decision was an overwhelming dilemma for us? Even the specialists, the doctors in the most acclaimed center canter in the world couldn’t agree and now they were leaving it to me to make the decision!
Kathy and I left the hospital and we spent the evening discussing what to do. After tossing the questions and possible resolutions back and forth with the pros and cons to each other throughout the evening, we both agreed that they would complete a surgical thoracodamy and remove both the thymoma and the upper lobe of her right lung. As I told the lead surgeon of our decision, there seemed too be a pleased look on her face leaving me with the feeling that we had made the right decision or at least the one with which she was most comfortable. The surgery went well and she came through it without a hitch.
Before leaving for the long 12 hour drive home, we had one last check up at the cancer center. She was given a clean bill of health and permission to travel. But before we could leave, there were pictures to be taken. Sage had become quite the canine celebrity at the cancer center and all of the surgical and medical team came together for pictures. Now the biggest challenge was to keep this typically active BC calm and quiet for a month. The X pen proved to be the answer. We set it up in the middle of the living room so that she could be close to us and all of the action. After the first week she actually settled into her new more sedentary lifestyle. I constantly explained to her that this was not forever and that soon she would be back to chasing her coveted Frisbee again.
The trip to Long Beach came quickly. Sage was still on limited light duty but getting around much better and enjoying being more active. Sage seemed excited to be flying again. She loves to travel and it helps that she has cabin privileges when we fly. As a search and rescue dog she is classified as a service dog and the airlines don’t require her to fly cargo like pet dogs.
On Dec 5 we arrived in Long Beach and they had a wonderful dinner planned for the ACE winners at the Hyatt Hotel where they had also provided us with rooms. Not too shabby, huh? At the dinner they handed each of us a check for 1,000.00 and “Full Access” passes to the show and all events associated with the show. They also gave us meal tickets that proved to be more like four star banquets including a choice of red or white wine and all for FREE! The AKC was literally wineing and dining us! After the show, in the evening would be the group judging to be held in a separate building. The building was like a movie set production with all of the people from Animal Planet Productions setting up this fantastic back drop for the group judging and the awards ceremony.
We completed the rehearsal and then they conducted an interview and photo shoot. Sage took it all in as if she knew that was all about her. Sage has always loved to be the center of attention and this was all right up her alley. That evening was the also the ACE awards ceremony. Friends from all over had come to watch Sage that night. Unlike us humans who have to look just right for things like this, Sage could have cared less that she would be sporting a surgical hair cut or that it was going to be on national TV! All Sage seemed to care about was if there would be anyone there to play with that night. There was. There, with a Standard Poodle named Poodle was a nine year old girl Mandy. Mandy’s Poodle had won the Exemplary Companion award. Mandy, being a young girl, was delighted to play with Sage and Sage was just as pleased that Mandy was there to break up the monotony of boring adults constantly asking her to settle. Can’t beat a kid to provide nonstop play for a BC.
The presentation complete and the fan fair over with we returned to the “real world” out of the spotlight.
At this writing, Sage is doing very well and her prognosis looks good. She will be having a CT scan in about 6 months just to make sure that they got all of the cancer and we will go from there. It should be noted that neither one of the two cancers that were found in Sage are common to dogs and they were probably the result of sniffing toxins during her service to our country. Because Sage has served in so many potentially sites such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and in dump sites in Fallujah Iraq, there is no way to know just when or where the cancers came from.
As a result of Sage’s illness, and the excessive cost of cancer treatment, we are currently in the beginning stages of a foundation that will provide financial veterinary aid to dogs that serve us.
The foundation’s name will be the “Sage Foundation”. This foundation, created in her name will serve our canine heroes long after our Sage is gone.
B. Diane Whetsel and K-9 Sage
Reflection of Love Unbridled
I had the pleasure of working with a mother daughter team from Sheridan Wy this morning. I want to share and hopefully spread the word about a different kind of cat shelter, one where the cats are considered individuals and not victims. The energy is nothing but supportive of individual personalities, likes and dislikes. What follows is a short piece I asked them to write to share with everyone. Check out the web site and the newsletter link you will find there. It is worth the read.
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About us:
We are a private cat rescue group consisting of two all-volunteer rescue entities in Sheridan, WY. Our rescue is a cage-free home sanctuary. We are completely no-kill and only help our cats move on when they request it of us.
Cats come to us from various sources. Many have come from the animal shelter when they were sick or the shelter was overburdened with animals. Others come to us from friends who find lost cats and kittens on their ranches or abandoned on the side of the road. Some have shown up on our doorstep alone, having been led there by some guide knowing we could help.
We are not a public animal shelter. Our cats only move on to new homes when they are ready. In some cases, they are never ready and remain with us their whole lives. Others choose to stay to help comfort and heal new cats coming into the house. For those that would like to move on to another family, we take care in selecting a family that meets the needs of the individual cat, and final approval of the family is always up to the cat involved.
Our cats are attuned in Reiki monthly and several consider themselves to be the “healers” of the house. We are certainly grateful to them for helping others (and us!) feel better when sick or sad. We strive to make sure our cats are happy and feel respected and loved. We ask their opinions on things daily and try to provide jobs to do for those who want them.
Although we are applying for federal non-profit status (we are recognized as a non-profit by the State of Wyoming), we are still in our infancy as an “organization.” As such, any donations, no matter how small, are greatly appreciated. Our goal is to move into a larger home outside of town to give the cats more space and provide us the opportunity to help more cats.
Our website is http://sheridancatrescue.org We would be happy to answer any questions you have.
