SNIFFING OUT PUPPY MILLS

Marchers still in dogged pursuit; laud new Pa. law, demand enforcement.

Sunday News

Sep 20, 2009 00:19 EST

Intercourse

By SUZANNE CASSIDY, Staff Writer

A young Amish man, trailed by four little Amish children, meandered right into the heart of the national Puppy Mill Awareness Day event at Intercourse Community Park Saturday.

There, activists were decrying inhumane puppy mills, some of which are operated by Amish farmers.

An organizer estimated that more than 1,500 people had turned out to the event — perhaps twice as many as last year — and many joined a "March Against the Mills" through the bustling tourist village of Intercourse.

Some 50 animal rescue organizations were there, including Rescue Ink, a band of tattooed toughs from New York whose crusade on behalf of abused pets will be chronicled in a National Geographic Channel series, slated to premiere Sept. 25.

Muscle-bound and clad in black, the Rescue Ink men stood out in the crowd. So, too, did the young Amish father and his kids.

"We were just curious," said the Amish man, when asked why he and his family were there.

He declined to give his name, but offered that his family's dog "has an acre to run around on at home," and when, occasionally, his family has puppies to sell, those puppies are given "loving care."

"People connect the Amish to puppy mills, but the majority of them are not involved," the Amish man said.

Chris DeRose, a Hollywood actor and founder of Last Chance for Animals, an animal rights group in California, offered the Amish family T-shirts from his organization's stand, but the Amish man declined.

"They're not all bad, the Amish," DeRose said later. "It's only a handful that are making the rest of them look bad."

DeRose said he thinks that people are becoming more aware of the horrors of puppy mills, and one measure of this growing awareness was the turnout Saturday.

"There's no question, we've got a lot of work to do," DeRose said, adding, "But this is the beginning, the beginning of the end."

In Pennsylvania, which has been dubbed the "puppy mill capital of the East," new state regulations governing large kennels will take effect Oct. 9. Operators of these kennels will be required to clean their facilities daily, and provide veterinary care and regular exercise to their animals. Cages with wire flooring, and stacking of cages, will be prohibited.

Bill Smith, of Main Line Animal Rescue in Chester Springs, was hailed as a hero Saturday. His organization sponsored an anti-puppy mills billboard in Chicago, near the television headquarters of Oprah Winfrey. Oprah's staff took notice, and produced a much-watched show condemning puppy mills and promoting the adoption of shelter dogs.

Smith said he is encouraged that Pennsylvania passed legislation imposing stricter standards on large kennels. But he said he planned to hold Gov. Ed Rendell accountable, to make sure those new standards are enforced by the state's inspectors.

And Smith said that hundreds of breeders will be exempt from the rules because they can claim to sell fewer than 60 dogs a year. "Those dogs will still be standing on wire. ... Those poor dogs — Oct. 9 is going to come and go, and they will still be in the same boat."

Victoria Stilwell, host of the Animal Planet show, "It's Me or the Dog," joined Smith among the speakers Saturday.

In what seemed to be a reference to Plain-sect puppy mill operators, Stilwell said that people who mistreat animals shouldn't call themselves "God-fearing." She said she has nothing against religion, "or what people believe, but I do have something against animal abusers."

Dogs bred in puppy mills often experience great fear during the crucial weeks after their birth. Their plight should be the concern of everyone, whether dog owners or not, because a child walking in a park, or down a street, just might encounter a dog damaged by a puppy mill, Stilwell said.

In an interview, Carol Araneo-Mayer, an organizer of the Puppy Mill Awareness Day event, agreed, noting that dogs raised in rabbit hutches and chicken cages are "no more socialized than a chicken. We're destroying man's best friend."

Dannee Frick and Camille Scrip, of Atlanta, Ga., adopted a French bulldog named Graycen, a puppy mill survivor. Frick said that Graycen is the "spokesdog" for national Puppy Mill Awareness Day.

In her first months of life, Graycen was kept in a wire cage, and was unable to drink water from a bowl. She was intended to be a breeding dog, which meant she would have had to breed repeatedly until she was worn out, Frick said. Before she went to auction, she was sprayed with pesticides. To this day, she remains terrified of being transported by car, Frick said.

"We've had her a little over a year," Frick said. "She's doing much, much better."

Karen Mitman, of Maine, joined the March Against Mills with her Shih Tzu puppies. Two have bowed shoulders, the result of their confinement in wire cages. One has only four teeth left; another is blind in one eye.

Mitman said she made the trip from Maine because she is intent on making people aware about the abuses that take place in puppy mills. "I think people still don't believe this is going on," she said.

Helen Ebersole, president and co-founder of United Against Puppy Mills, which is based in Lancaster, said she thinks, however, that "the awareness and education level has increased significantly, not only in Lancaster," but nationally.

She said she thinks people are more aware now that many of the dogs in pet stores come from puppy mills, and are asking more questions when they're getting dogs.

Still, Ebersole contended that there's a "don't ask, don't tell" culture when it comes to puppy mills in Lancaster County.

Neighbors of puppy mill operators often are reluctant to report their concerns to the authorities, she said, noting, "They don't want to offend anybody. They don't want to make waves."

In the cause of fighting unscrupulous dog breeders, Ebersole said, "It's often one step forward, two steps back."

She said her group will work to ensure the state enforces the new dog kennel regulations. Her group also monitors the zoning requests made by kennel operators in local municipalities.

"There's still a lot to do," Ebersole said. "We just have to stay with it, be dogged about it."

Stephanie Shain, senior director of the puppy mill campaign of the Humane Society of the United States, said that the biggest change in Pennsylvania has been the stepped-up efforts of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement in going after puppy mill operators.

For so long, Shain said, puppy mills "thrived in the shadows. Now, more and more groups are pulling back that curtain and showing the public what is happening these days. It's something that people just won't stand for anymore."

 

---

Suzanne Cassidy is a staff writer for the Sunday News. Her e-mail address is scassidy@lnpnews.com.