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Columbia MO
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Sure Missouri is a battleground but its not the whole War.

Educate the people in Calif so they will stop shelling out a couple thousand bucks for a BC because they want a BC cause its the "IN" dog

do the same to the people of NY, really any densely populated area.

biting my toungue!!!
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Originally posted by muggs:

I'm trying to figure out what they would have against rescue organizations. Could it be because they are nonprofit? Is it as pathetic as a small amount of money that is motivating them?

Just to make everyone understand, its been mentioned many times but I'll say it again. The Missouri Dept of Agricultures job is to protect ag business within the state. Puppy mills are a very high powered group of business people, just check out http://www.thehuntecorporation.com/ . The Hunte Corp and the MDA are practically joined at the hip, they even link to each other on their websites. So this is about WAY more than "a small amount of money"...way more.

 

Now I don't have any numbers to back this up, but my thinking is that since breed rescue has become popular and more well known, they have begun to educate the public on where exactly those cute little puppies in the mall pet stores actually come from. I don't know if anyone has paid attention but its getting harder and harder to find those pet stores although they do still exist and have tried to make a comeback. So my understanding is that rescue has made a pretty big dent in the puppy mill industry.

 

This would be why they hate us.

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I had no idea what a large/powerful industry it is- just shows you there are many to educate on the subject. I've learned so much since coming to this board, and was one who didn't have a good idea about where/how to go about getting a dog. I do now.

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I have never seen a pet store sell puppies here in va. You can adopt cats at the petsmart, but that is about it. The place to go to get a pet around here is the SPCA.

 

There are so many things that are wrong about this situation. Fundamentally, even after seeing the abuse that the dogs have already recieved, how can they sleep at night knowing that they are quite possibly putting the dogs right back where they started from. All for money.

I had no idea there were places like this left.

Makes my heart sick when I think about how useless the people must feel that were invlolved in actually trying to help. Just to have the state step in and say--ok, everything is under control, now take a hike while we trash the situation.

 

Who here on the board has media connections?

Eileen, I have a border collie magazine that you did an article in. It may be a stretch, but do you think that there could be anyone with the leverage to get the story out? Or that they might know someone?

 

Ironhorse,

Do you have a "Call 12" kind of deal in Mo.-where you have the opportunity to call up your local tv station and tell them what is going on?

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Unfortunately, there are plenty of pet stores in VA that sell puppies. Not as many as there used to be -- the message is getting out -- but they are definitely there.

 

When I was in college and didn't know any better, I had a summer job at a pet store that sold puppies and kittens. At that time I was an animal-obsessed teen who wasn't allowed to have pets of my own and it was the closest I could get. We didn't sell many puppies, they were very expensive (I remember because there was a Pom pup I desperately wanted to buy but I didn't have the $800 for him), but considered an essential part of the inventory because they drew people in to the store who would then buy other things. On the rare occasions we did sell a puppy, we were encouraged to tack on as many added purchases as possible.

 

To this day I am not sure where those puppies came from. The manager was adamant that they were not from mills and honestly horrified at the idea of puppy mills. The puppies that came through the store were generally much better quality than those sold at our competitors (i.e., they were not sick and looked like the breeds they were supposed to be). At the same time it is quite obvious that they did not come from caring breeders and when we needed more the manager would get on the horn and order them like any commodity ("I need two Cocker Spaniels and one Maltese," etc.).

 

There was never any occasion where we tried to talk someone out of a purchase even if we were doubtful about their ability or preparedness for having a dog. I remember one lovely little blue merle Sheltie puppy we sold -- this very uptight, buttoned-down lady with lots of money and a very expensive car came in and bossed us around getting supplies. She was very concerned that the puppy would be housebroken readily and not chew things and basically, not do things that puppies do, so we were able to sell her tons and tons of stuff with promises that they would do exactly the trick. I got the distinct impression that if the dog so much as sneezed on something the lady would totally freak out. That was my first intimation that maybe what we were doing was wrong. I'll never forget what the manager said as the lady left the store with the puppy: "That dog is in for a life of hell."

 

There are so many reasons why the "puppies as commodity" model doesn't work, but they all have to do with the welfare of the dogs. As long as the money keeps coming in, that little wrinkle is all too easy to ignore.

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>

 

It seems like a local story to me, but I think it would be worth trying to interest one of the area papers or TV stations in it. Someone with a little first-hand knowledge would have to make the approach. It sounds to me like a story with a lot of potential from the press/media point of view.

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Originally posted by Columbia MO:

Hi all,

 

I'm not affiliated with any BC rescue, but am one of the people that had stepped forward to foster a Border Collie from the group of 40 or so that were surrendered by Awesome Border Collies last week.

 

It turns out the the Missouri Dept. of Agriculture, in an effort to support puppy "agriculture," will not be offering any of these dogs to a rescue. Instead, the dogs/puppies are being offered unspayed and unneutered on a first come, first serve basis for $30 each. Commercial breeders are welcome to adopt, but anybody affiliated with a rescue is not. They started selling the dogs today, and were careful to NOT alert any of the rescue people that have been following this case. I have been told that most of the adopters have been local farmers (whether sheep farmers or puppy mill farmers is still an open question).

 

The dogs are being held at a Springfield MO area puppy mill auction place (http://www.onlinepetauction.com). They have already sold 11 of the dogs today, and there are two more buyers coming later today. I'm located 3 hours away and can't get there before they close, but am taking the day off work tomorrow and going to adopt at least one of these dogs myself. I'm hoping that every Missouri BC lover on this list who possibly can will join me in adopting one of these dogs.

 

The holding facility is located off Hwy 76 and the physical address is Route 1, Box 9D, Rocky Comfort, MO 64861. They are open normal business hours.

 

Note that MO Dept. of Ag. will ONLY sell dogs to people that are NOT affiliated with rescues and will NOT consider selling a dog to somebody that is acting as a foster home for a rescue. You must be willing to KEEP the puppy or dog that you adopt.

 

If you have any questions, you can call John Cupps, MO Dept. of Ag. at (417) 489-1214, or the puppy mill auction place at (417) 652-7540. Be courteous--both of these people were very nice when I talked to them on the phone. You can also reach me personally at k9shrink@prodigy.net.

 

Columbia, MO

A question of curiousity.

How was it that you came by all of this information when as far as I am aware the only ppl that were notified had to of been ppl on a "preferred client list" as there was no public notification of sale that I am aware of.

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  • 3 weeks later...

As I indicated before, this is not over yet. You have been taken down a path of vengence against me and I will prove it.

 

My dogs and puppies were kept in a turkey barn, filled with filth, fed and watered out of buckets. Their pens were graveled, no dog houses; in fact one of my dogs was seen running down the highway. Also, some of the dogs didn't even have food of water.

 

I'm not saying anymore for now because I have a lot pending on ALL of these circumstances against State and Individuals.

 

For now, Silence is Golden. Shere.

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:confused: Its just about now that you expect to hear the......BWWHAAHAAAHAA!!!!

 

Shere, I am sorry to hear about the pups circumstances. The state should have allowed the dogs to go to the rescue instead of selling them off to more puppy mills, no better than the place they came from.

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Huh? Why is all this being dragged up again? Shere, what are you talking about? Do you mean *after* you relinquished your dogs this is how they were kept? How about not bringing all this up till you have something substantial to say? No need to bring up these old threads to try and keep us interested. Instead, when you have some real facts to share, start a new thread. I'm sure interested folks will read it. Right now I can't help but think I'm reading nothing more than rantings of someone seeking attention....

 

J.

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Originally posted by SHANDALEI:

My dogs and puppies were kept in a turkey barn, filled with filth, fed and watered out of buckets. Their pens were graveled, no dog houses. Also, some of the dogs didn't even have food of water.

Shandalei,

 

The conditions you describe don't sound nearly as bad as the conditions you yourself kept these dogs and puppies in! (Complete with at least one dead dog on the premises). At least they had food and water, whereas I'm pretty sure they didn't even have this when they lived with you.

 

As I mentioned in another thread, the puppies/dogs that you bred and owned for 14+ weeks, and that Southwest had for about 6 days were diagnosed as having: coccidia, whipworms, hookworms, roundworms, pressure sores, foot scars (often caused by standing on wire cage floors), umbilical hernias, ringworm fungal infections, anemia, malnutrition, ticks, and massive flea infestations.

 

When they first arrived, some of the puppies could only pee/poop while lying down--they weren't able to balance while standing up. These were not tiny puppies, but were already four months old!

 

Several different vets guessed the age of the puppies at 9 weeks old, when they were actually 15-18 weeks old--that's how malnourished and small they were.

 

Many of the puppies/dogs are very outgoing and confident, but others have a high degree of genetic shyness and will require massive amounts of socialization to accept strangers.

 

I guarantee none of this "bad stuff" was caused by the 6 days they spent at Southwest.

 

While at Southwest, the dogs/puppies were in a converted turkey barn in chain-link runs, each with its own Dogloo and a deep gravel floor. The runs all looked like they were cleaned daily and the place was 20 degrees cooler than the outside temps. There was clean water and food available in the runs. I don't want to excuse Southwest for their horrible "profession" (which I think should be illegal), but I have to admit that their boarding arrangements were certainly adequate.

 

So if you're concerned about the conditions of these dogs, Shere, you only have yourself to blame for overbreeding and for not giving the dogs any medical care or socialization. I know your behavior may seem normal down there in Southwest Missouri, but in the rest of the world, breeding a litter of puppies each week and selling them over the Internet equals "puppy mill."

 

Columbia, MO

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Hi Sue,

 

Southwest Auctions is a notorious puppy mill auction place in SW Missouri, right on the border of OK/MO/AR for easy access to all the rural puppy mills. They specialize in selling "used up" breeding dogs from one puppy mill to another. They may also wholesale to the pet store trade, but I don't know this for sure. Their website is: http://www.onlinepetauction.com.

 

You can read a good article about rescuers going to Southwest to buy Whippets here: http://www.anniesangels.org/1st-hand-account.html Note that the facility where they were keeping the BCs was much nicer than the one described in the article. It was a converted turkey barn down the road from Southwest's main facility. I was prepared for a "house of horrors," but in fact the dogs were in clean, gravel-floored runs that looked like a normal boarding kennel.

 

By the way, for several miles leading up to Southwest, many of the "farm" properties appear to be puppy mills, though of course you can't see any dogs from the road. But they're the stereotyped weed-strewn properties containing multiple run-down trailers, weed-overgrown cages, or tumble-down barns that are often used to house "breeding dogs." This seems consistent with the animosity of the locals that is mentioned in the Whippet article.

 

Columbia, MO

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Thank you for the info, Columbia MO. I just don't understand how people can make a living off the misery of living beings, animal or human. Thank you for all that you do as a rescuer, and as someone who is educating the rest of us.

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I checked out the Southwest site and also the two auctions listed. I noted that the breeds for sale at the auctions tended towards smaller, popular house dogs ("lap dogs") and some larger breeds that I believe are popular but uncommonly available (like Italian Greyhound and Bernese Mtn. Dog).

 

Seems the "production" animals in these cases are aimed at the pet market and "popular dog you've seen on TV or in a magazine ad and I have the first/only one on the block" market.

 

How can people live with themselves and sleep at night when they are profitting off the misery of these animals? We raise beef cattle and treat our animals much better than puppy-mill dogs are treated.

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Ah, Sue, but you are a small farmer and an exception. Many of the big factory farms are as disgusting as your average puppy mill. Humans have amazing abilities to dissociate themselves from the suffering of other living creatures. And taking care of them in a humane manner cuts into profits....

 

J.

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Julie - In my time on the farm, we have had dairy goats (and their many kids that we home butchered - my kids grew up on goat milk and goat meat), a few bottle lambs raised for meat, chickens for eggs, and our beef cattle. We've always tried to keep our animals reasonably and handle them humanely. I guess I just don't understand those who don't do so.

 

I used to raise veal calves on my excess goat milk. I always prided myself on my veal calves - they always brought top dollar at auction. I raised them in bedded pens (old standing horse stalls that we put gates on) and they were big pets.

 

Initially, I used sawdust bedding to avoid having them eat the bedding and make the meat less "desirable". After having a problem with a sawdust-borne bacteria, I switched to hay bedding. Of course, they would nibble a bit of bedding which was not what veal "perfectionists" would prefer but the ability of the calves to move around and romp in their stalls, sleep comfy, etc., was important to me.

 

And the horses - well, let's just say they won't have to worry about ever going to auction. Like my old dairy goats, they are here until they pass on. We don't make any money farming but we sleep well at night.

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I had no iadea Mo. was so known for puppy mills. I lived in Il but close to St. louis and still frequent there. We went on vacation by immenence Mo. Saw a lot of billboards about puppy mills and said it must be a serious problem there just had no idea how bad it was.

Whil we where canoeing we saw quit a few bc on the river with owners. I told hubby that they seemed to have the right idea about them though. The owners said they definantly need a job to do and to keep them working.

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