The Louisville Metro Council in KY has approved a no kill resolution for Metro Animal Services and recommended the shelter make no kill its goal. Congratulations No Kill Louisville!
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38 dogs were seized from a breeder’s home in Morgan Co, GA and taken to a no kill shelter. The shelter’s manager described the situation at the home:
“It was relatively clean, actually” Tara Mitchell said of the puppy mill. “The dogs looked to be in pretty good condition.”
I couldn’t find any mention of charges in connection with the case or whether it might have been a voluntary surrender on the breeder’s part.
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Some AC directors are left to abuse and kill pets year after year. But the one in McIntosh Co, GA was fired for insubordination after yelling at a county commissioner.
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In IL, the Humane Euthanasia in Animal Shelters Act was amended last year to mandate only one shelter pet be killed in the gas chamber at a time. The Jefferson Co Animal Shelter has been gassing multiple pets at a time in violation of the law. The state fined the shelter $130,000 but that amount was reduced to $10,000 after negotiations. I hope this fine is not being paid out of donor money or monies that would otherwise be used to save shelter pets. I hope they have insurance for this.
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A Missouri show dog handler who left 7 dogs to die in a hot van while she slept inside her air-conditioned home was convicted of animal abuse and sentenced to work at the local shelter for 2 weeks. She was a no-show at the shelter. As a result, her probation may be revoked.
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A NC couple separated and moved from their home leaving one dog in the vacant house and another chained to a tree in the yard. Two months later, authorities were alerted to the situation. Amazingly both dogs were clinging to life. The one in the house had to be euthanized due to his condition but the other dog is still hanging on. The couple has been arrested. The man denies that the dogs are his and the woman says “I didn’t do it”. Each faces two counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty.
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Massive fish kill in area of LA impacted by BP oil spill to be investigated
Re the Morgan County GA excerpt:
If the place was “relatively clean” and the dogs were “in pretty good condition,” what would be the basis for referring to the breeder’s facility as a “puppy mill”? I thought those were substandard places where the dogs are kept in “deplorable conditions” and have various life-threatening conditions like worms, fleas, and long toenails.
Yesterday I read something – either a blog or a comment following one – that actually referred to “the good puppy mills.” Maybe the place in Georgia was one of those?
The Paws Atlanta web site linked in the article says “hoarding, illegal breeder and foreclosure situation.” I challenge the hoarding accusation. But Georgia, IIRC, requires a license and inspection if you breed even one litter a year. Maybe the breeder gave up the dogs due to the foreclosure.
Just checked a number of Government pages for Georgia and there is no current state law regarding breeder licensing.
There were fees listed on some private websites that appeared to be for commercial breeding, with license rates based upon the amount of money brought in by each “commercial enterprise”, not based on litter numbers.
If there is a one litter and you need licensing law, perhaps it’s a local ordinance? Several private sites mention that in some localities a kennel license is required to get a breeder license. The published state animal statutes do not address any of this however.
This threading kind of sucks.
It is more than one litter (two or more litters per year), you must be licensed as a pet dealer:
http://tiny.cc/tqlaj
Did not work the first time maybe due to the link? Fix if there’s a duplicate.
http://agr.georgia.gov/portal/site/AGR/menuitem.e7c8b12cf855c247cfaed580da1020a0/?vgnextoid=66cd733860a06210VgnVCM100000bf01020aRCRD
More than one litter per year, you need a license. Cost varies according to number of dogs.
Interesting, and poorly written too, as it states if your animal has more than one litter in 12 months, not if animals you own have more than one litter in twelve months. Although I assume the intent and interpretation are dependent on the number of litters the breeder owns per 12 months?
Something tells me this is probably widely ignored and impossible to enforce.
Of course if I could pay 100.00 a year for up to 20 dogs I’d save money versus the basic licensing I pay for 5 in California!
There are clean puppy mills that provide decent basic health care. What makes them puppy mills is that they exist only to produce puppies for sale at a profit, and the dogs are simply production units. They may be adequately fed, get vaccinations and treatment for injuries, but they live in cages or kennels, have minimal interaction with human beings, the females are bred every heat and their puppies taken from them as early as possible, and when litter size starts to drop, they’re done. They may be killed, or dumped, or surrendered to a shelter, or sold, but their value to the miller is at an end, and one way or another, they will stop eating the miller’s food and taking up space in the miller’s kennels.
So no, the fact that the place was clean and the dogs not in terrible shape, does not automatically mean that it was not a puppy mill.
Well, that’s *one* definition of a puppymill.
My own is somewhat broader, and encompasses well-bleached factories where dogs live like lab hamsters as long as they turn a profit. But no matter.
It’s possible that the person quoted was comparing these dogs to previous hoarder/puppymill refugees that were much worse.
“Thank god they were not as bad as we feared!” is not the same as “All was hunky-dory.”
Wow, Mary Wild (the handler) is a real piece of work. So much for how ‘sorry’ she claimed she was.