 "I’m a changed woman," says Oprah. The famed talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, says she will never buy another dog, that she will only adopt dogs from shelters. This after Oprah produced a show about puppymills. The show aired on April 4.
With Bill Smith of Main Line Animal Rescue and Wayne Pacelle of Humane Society of the United States as guests, Oprah showed her audience film from an undercover investigation by Lisa Ling and Smith of several puppymills.
The film depicted puppy mill dogs living or existing in filthy deplorable conditions, almost all in crowded cages too small for them to move around much, if at all. The cages often had chicken wire for flooring. The dogs were covered in waste, matted and starving with open wounds and other injuries. The female dogs were in particularly poor condition, having been bred continuously since they were puppies.  The dogs were desperate to get out of their cages.
 Many dogs could not even walk when they were removed from the cages. In many cases, they were unsocialized and afraid of people.Â
At least one miller had shoved a pipe down the dogs’ throats to debark them.Â
Puppy mills are motivated by profit. The dogs that produce offspring are inventory. The puppies are a product.
Smith and Pacelle said 99% of dogs sold by pet stores or online are from puppy mills. Most people have no idea the dogs they buy come from places like this. They don’t realize they are supporting puppy mills and horrific cruelty to animals when they buy a dog. Â
Oprah also made the point 25-30% of dogs from puppy mills, purebreds, end up in shelters, many times euthanized. Oprah showed film from Ft. Worth’s public animal shelter where more than 90% of dogs are euthanized. The audience saw shelter workers euthanizing dogs by lethal injection. Oprah’s audience was spared a view of animals killed in gas chambers or by heartstick.
Oprah got the idea for a show on puppy mills from a billboard just off the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago that said "Oprah: Do a show on puppy mills; the dogs need you." The billboard was courtesy of Main Line Rescue, known for its billboard campaigns against puppy mills.
Oprah is a long time dog lover. She just lost her longtime companion, Sophie, a cocker spaniel. Now Oprah will join rescuers in saving dogs that end up in public shelters. An awesome and incredible friend for the animals!  Kudos to Main Line Animal Rescue, http://www.mlar.org/ and the Humane Society of the United States for their work in exposing to the public the cruelty of the pet trade.Â
For more information about the pet trade, particularly in puppy mills, click here or go to http://www.oprah.com/ and also watch the video at the end of this article.
How You Can Follow Oprah’s Lead and Help End Pet MillsÂ
 1. Don’t ever buy pet from pet stores, online or newspapers or other ads! Instead, adopt a dog from your local shelter or rescue.
2. Encourage family and friends to adopt instead of buying pets.
3. Learn about puppy mills and other pet mills.
4. Educate others about puppy mills and other pet mills and encourage them to avoid supporting commercial dog and other pet breeders by adopting instead of buying pets.
5. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper or contact local radio stations about puppy mills and other pet mills and call on people to adopt instead of buying dogs and other pets.Â
6. Join a local group that advocates against puppy mills or other pet mills.Â
7. Organize or join a protest at pet stores that sell pets. 99% of dogs sold in pet stores come from puppy mills.
8. Encourage local pet stores that sell pets to stop selling and instead offer animals from the local shelter for adoption. Encourage the pet stores to sell pet supplies to the public, not pets.
9. Many puppy mill dogs are sold at specially held dog auctions. Organize or join a protest at these auctions.
10. Support legislation to end puppy mills and other pet mills including laws requiring registration of mills, background checks and criteria for mill operators, limits on breeding and the numbers of animals kept and sold, humane sheltering and care of the animals, record keeping, unannounced inspections, registration and spay/neuter of animals sold as pets, bans on pet auctions and roadside sales, fire safety, proper disposal of waste and dead animals, and fees and fines that will help fund adequate enforcement. Contact your Congressional, state or local representatives to learn existing laws and how they could be made stronger and more effective or how they can be better enforced. Write or call your legislator and urge them to support an end to puppy mills and other pet mills. Â
11. Start or sign a petition in protest of puppy mills or other pet mills. Â
12. Look for puppy mills or other pet mills that may be just starting and are applying for local permits, or those that are renewing their permits. Work with local officials to oppose permits for puppy or other mills or set stringent requirements for the permit. Or attend hearings on the permit application and write or call local officials to let them know they should oppose the permit or conditions issuance of the permit on compliance with strict requirements.
13. Report all cruel, inhumane treatment you observe at a commercial dog or other pet breeding operation (aka puppy mills and other pet mills) and potential violations of regulations governing commercial dog or other pet breeders.
14. Find out if your state has a pet lemon law and, if not, work to pass one. Urge anyone who has bought a pet to report immediately any illnesses, diseases or defects the animal may have. Â For more information, visit this site http://www.caps-web.org/3_12attorneygeneral.php
15. Take an ad out in the local paper or circulate online messages educating the public about the cruelty of puppy mills or other pet mills and urge everyone to adopt instead of buying pets. Contact local radio stations and ask them to do public service announcements on this issue. Â Â
16. Volunteer at your local public shelter. 25-30% of puppy mill dogs end up in shelters. They often need special care and attention because they typically have received poor or non-existent care and no socialization.
How about turning these puppy millers into the IRS Do they claim the income?
Are they registerd with their state? Are they paying state tax?
Every abuse you see, call and call until you get action. INspection and agent to go out and see the abuse. Never give up!!!!!!!
This is a National wide problem, we need to unite and take action.
A tired rescuer!!!!
Oprah and all others on the show repeatedly said that responsible breeders were a reasonable choice rather than adoption being the only choice. There is a huge difference between a mill and a responsible breeder. Same as there is a big difference between a collector and a rescuer. Can you imagine if a show came out and said all private rescuers are ‘collectors’ and should be avoided? Not a pretty idea is it?
Having the poor dogs go from mill to broker (and why didn’t Oprah discuss brokers?) to pet store to a home that discards them into a shelter does not make the dogs into better pets and not every home is suitable for handling a dog that may need more than the average amount of work to fit it to their home.
I looked for two years for a specific type of dog to adopt with no luck. Not many people are willing to wait so long. And no I was not willing to adopt an unsuitable dog. And yes I then bought a puppy who will live here for life. For many people adoption is a reasonable way to go but not for everyone. Many shelter animals do make great pets when placed in the right home – but not all of them – and placement in the right home isn’t always done.
I do rescue, have for years more than most of the new groups existed but I don’t think that rescue dogs are the best choices for everyone nor that all breeders are mills or evil profiteers.
If you love your pet thank its breeder as without them you would not have the pet you love. If you rescued your pet thank the shelter too as without them you’d not have found the pet you love.
Thank you for a *SANE* and rational discussion. The problem with most shows like the one Oprah did is that it brings the fanatics out of the woodwork demanding regulation of all those with whom they disagree.
Vilifying breeders is an animal rights fanatics tactic, and it is WRONG. Most breeders care deeply about their animals and where they go. There are animal welfare regulations virtually everywhere to deal with abuse/neglect/cruelty, and to suggest that *all breeders* need to be regulated, watched like criminals, and snitched on when they may not do *exactly* as an individual thinks that should is absurd, *insane*, arrogant, and on the way to Nazi-type gestapo actions if the fanatics get in positions to enforce their warped views on others.
It’s time to STOP attacking those involved in animal enterprises, whether a small breeder or large, educate the public and *help them* make wise decisions and take care of the animals they have, and enforce animal welfare laws where necessary, instead of creating onerous new ones. We do NOT need new or more far-reaching laws. We need to educate and enforce the laws on the books, as well as *respect* that everyone doesn’t agree with everyone else’s viewpoints!
I do rescue.
I see good and bad in all areas of life. Lets use the laws we have to get the negligent 2% stopped. There are places for all animals in this world, mix breed and pedigree. If someone wants a pedigree dog for condo size limits for instance, trained working ADA or Search Dog, pick an adult from a local shelter if available or buy from a reputable hobby breeder.
We need free local spay and neuter programs. We need governments that focus on adoptions. Many shelters do not have weekend adoption hours. Lets work on some of these problems too.
You must not have looked very hard if you couldn’t find a shelter dog to adopt as a pet. Please don’t spread disinformation and myths that shelter animals don’t make good pets. It’s actually dogs coming from puppy mills, for profit breeders, that often make poor pets. That’s why states have pet lemon laws. These dogs aren’t socialized and many times have illnesses, defects, and the like. Jean in Colorado
You’re obviously a breeder. Let me guess. A large scale breeder.
I don’t breed, never have, never will. However, I have purebred dogs and don’t feel guilty about that all. I have specific requirements for the dogs I own, size, temperament, intelligence, trainability, etc. I compete in AKC events. Although there are shelter dogs that might even have ALL these traits, I would not know that until I got it home and had it for months whether it met my needs, and if it was not a purebred, we could not compete at all. When I buy a puppy of my breed (Dobermans), I know I am getting these traits.
I absolutely agree with 2008 Anonymous. The entire AR movement is not for the good of pets or people. It is to eliminate our rights to own them. An outright ban is not even needed for them to attain this. Just make it too costly and too much of a hassle to own a pet, and they will reach their goals. HSUS will use any excuse they can to rake in millions more. Yet they do not operate ANY shelters! Think about that – all the money they have and not doing anything other than lobbying and protesting against animal ownership and use. They could provide thousands of free spay/neuters. They could bring shelters that are underfunded up to state-of-the-art facilities. There is so much they could do with all that money, but don’t. And PeTA runs a shelter that is nothing but a pet slaughter-house.
There are abuse and negligence laws everywhere. If they were enforced, there would be no deplorable ‘puppy mills’. Commercial breeding CAN be and IS done correctly in many kennels. There is no reason why a breeder can’t make a profit, while maintaining clean and adequate (by regulation) kennels, socializing puppies, not over-breeding dogs, and following solid animal welfare practices. Why do we think it is a mortal sin for a breeder to actually make a profit? That’s just ridiculous! Is there any other business in this country where you would expect them not to make a profit?
The key is to inspect and close down the deplorable puppy mills, and educate commercial breeders in all facets of animal welfare and dog breeding. It can be done! And support your LOCAL humane societies, rescues and shelters instead of pouring your money into the already-overflowing coffers of HSUS and their ilk.
American Sporting Dog Alliance Seeks
Investigation Of Kennels In Oprah Report
Asks U.S. And PA Attorney Generals To Find Out Why, Prosecute
by JOHN YATES
American Sporting Dog Alliance
_http://www.americanhttp://www.amerihttp://_
(http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org/)
An April 4 report on the Oprah Winfrey Show was a scathing
indictment of abuses in Pennsylvania puppy ####, but it failed to
ask or answer the most basic and important question.
How can this horrible situation happen in light of tough existing
state and federal kennel and animal cruelty laws?
The American Sporting Dog Alliance is asking U.S. Attorney General
Michael Mukasey and Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett to
find out the answer to that question, and to prosecute anyone who is
responsible for not requiring the kennels portrayed on Winfrey’s
show to follow the law.
Every kennel in Pennsylvania must follow stringent state kennels
regulations, and also comply with more than 60 pages of federal
kennel regulations if puppies are sold to pet stores or dealers. In
addition, every dog in Pennsylvania is protected by a comprehensive
animal cruelty law, and everyone who buys a puppy from any source is
protected by a “lemon law.”
The report on the Winfrey show by special reporter Lisa Ling showed
video footage of several puppy #### in Pennsylvania. All of those
kennels were operating in clear violation of existing laws. None of
the terrible and heart-breaking things shown in the report would be
happening if current laws were being enforced.
The video footage makes it crystal clear that the kennels were
operating in open and flagrant defiance of existing laws.
Why aren’t those laws being enforced? Is someone protecting these
kennels from the law? Are these kennels licensed and inspected? If
so, have dog wardens and animal cruelty police officers been ordered
to ignore these kennels? Why haven’t rescue groups that obtain
surplus dogs from these kennels on a regular basis reported them to
authorities? Has there been a cover-up?
We are quite surprised that Winfrey and Ling didn’t ask or answer
those basic questions.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance (ASDA) can’t answer those
questions, either. We don’t have a crystal ball, but we do know the
laws. We have spent hundreds of hours studying existing kennel and
cruelty laws, and have worked with our committee of attorneys to be
able to interpret them correctly. Beyond a shadow of a doubt,
existing laws could have shut down every commercial kennel shown on
the Winfrey show, protected the dogs and resulted in prosecution of
their owners.
ASDA also believes that everyone in America who loves dogs and is
concerned about their welfare has a right to demand answers to those
basic questions.
Thus, we are asking the U.S. and Pennsylvania attorney generals to
intervene.
We believe that an independent investigation is required because the
agencies that should have enforced the laws cannot investigate
themselves objectively, and because the Pennsylvania Bureau of Dog
Law Enforcement answers directly to Gov. Rendell, who has close
personal, political and financial ties to the Main Line Rescue Group
in Chester County, PA.
Main Line Treasurer William Smith was the primary source on the
Winfrey/Ling report and escorted Ling on a guided tour through every
step of making the report. Main Line Vice President Marsha Perelman
has social ties to Rendell and contributed a reported $7,500 to his
election campaign. Thus, any investigation by the Rendell
Administration would be clouded by the potential for conflicts of
interest.
The Winfrey/Ling report was enough to break anyone’s heart. This
reporter has seen some terrible things in 20 years of hard news and
investigative reporting, but I couldn’t hold back tears several
times during the Oprah Show.
Non-stop video images showed dogs in cramped and crowded quarters,
turning exercise wheels like caged gerbils, wallowing in mud,
suffering from untreated illnesses and injuries, being unable to
walk on solid ground after a lifetime on wire floors, showing fear
of people, and victimized by having pipes rammed down their throats
to destroy their vocal chords to stop barking.
All of these situations are in clear violation of existing laws, yet
Ling apparently never asked Main Line’s Bill Smith to explain the
contradiction between kennel conditions and the law as he led her
from kennel to kennel to film the report.
This reporter was deeply impressed by the depth and intensity of
caring about these animals shown by both Winfrey and Ling, and
commends them for bringing animal welfare issues before a national
audience of millions of people. This reporter also has great respect
for Winfrey’s sincerity and love of animals.
However, it also seems that the intensity of their emotions may have
gotten in the way of asking tough and objective questions to get to
the bottom of this issue. It also was apparent that they were being
manipulated and used by animal rights groups to advance a hidden
agenda that is not what it appears to be on the surface.
A review of existing laws shows why tough questions should have been
asked of the sources for this report. Strangely, the Oprah team
never went to the key source for accurate information: The Bureau of
Dog Law Enforcement.
“Neither the Department of Agriculture nor Dog Law Officials were
contacted at any point to participate in the show or provide
information or comments about what is being featured,” Bureau Deputy
Director Jessie Smith wrote to ASDA on Sunday. “We do not know at
this point all of the kennels featured and whether or not they are
state licensed.”
In Pennsylvania, the law says animal cruelty means someone
who “wantonly or cruelly ill(-)treats, overloads, beats, otherwise
abuses any animal, or neglects any animal as to which he has a duty
of care, whether belonging to himself or otherwise, or abandons any
animal, or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, drink,
shelter or veterinary care, or access to clean and sanitary shelter
which will protect the animal against inclement weather and preserve
the animal’s body heat and keep it dry.”
Almost all of the abuses shown in the Winfrey/Ling report would fall
under this definition, and the alleged practice of tearing out dog’s
vocal chords is covered by another section on mutilation and
disfiguring. Legal precedent clearly has been set for all of these
problems, and literally dozens of cases are successfully prosecuted
each year under this law in Pennsylvania. The law also provides
for forfeiture of any animals that are in danger, and fines and
possible imprisonment for someone who is found guilty of violating
this law.
Main Line’s website has a page devoted to what people can do to stop
animal cruelty. After describing cruelty in much the same way as it
was shown on the Oprah Show, the Main Line website says: “Don’t sit
by, day after day, and watch your neighbor’s pet suffer, call the
proper authorities and report the abuse. Again, the police WILL act
on anonymous tips.”
We must wonder why Bill Smith doesn’t follow his own advice. On the
Oprah show, he told of building long-term relationships with these
puppy ####, so that they would allow him to rescue any dogs that
are no longer wanted by the kennel owner. While those relationships
allow Smith to rescue some dogs, shutting them down under animal
cruelty laws would allow all of the dogs to be rescued, and
eliminate the problem once and for all. There are six registered
animal cruelty police officers for Chester County, and all of them
are only a phone call away.
Smith also brought one of his own dogs onstage. The dog, named
Shrimp, was happy and healthy, but a photo showed him near death
when Smith took him from a ####. Did Smith report Shrimp’s
#### for cruelty to animals? The dog clearly had been treated
in an inhumane manner.
Is Smith protecting these kennels? If so, why? Are revenues from
adoption fees for these rescued dogs, plus invaluable publicity for
fund-raising to cover a reported $2.3 million construction project
and political lobbying for the animal rights agenda, factors in
Smith’s silence on this issue? We don’t know the answer to any of
these questions, but we are urging Attorney Generals Mukasey and
Corbett to find out.
Animal cruelty laws are only one part of the picture. State kennel
laws apply to every kennel that keeps 26 or more dogs over the
course of a year, and all of the kennels in the Winfrey/Ling report
clearly would require state licensure and, at a minimum, at least
two inspections a year.
If these kennels are licensed, we must ask why the regulations are
not being enforced. If they are not licensed, we must ask why Smith
and other people at Main Line haven’t turned them in to the Bureau
of Dog Law Enforcement. An unlicensed kennel is breaking the law. It
can be shut down immediately and a fine of up to $500 for each day
of noncompliance can be ordered. Any dog that is deemed to be in
danger can be seized and protected under the law.
State kennel regulations set strong standards for health care, food
and water, cleanliness, and pen sizes, and numerous violations were
observed at the kennels filmed by Ling and her associates.
The report clearly showed numerous situations where several dogs
were crammed into tiny cages with wire bottoms. Wire bottoms are
legal, but they must be coated with vinyl, the holes in the wire
must not allow dogs’ feet to pass through them, and resting boards
must be provided. From the films taken by Ling, none of these
requirements appeared to be met.
Kennel size requirements also weren’t met. The minimum legal
enclosure size is based on a complicated formula, but in general
requires four square feet for each small dog, eight square feet for
each medium-sized dog, and 12 square feet for each large dog. None
of the cages shown in the Oprah report would even come close to
meeting this legal requirement.
The law also mandates special size requirements for females with
puppies: “Each bitch with nursing puppies shall be provided with an
additional amount of floor space, based on her breed and behavioral
characteristics, and in accordance with generally accepted husbandry
practices as determined by the attending veterinarian. If the
additional amount of floor space for each nursing puppy is less than
5% of the minimum requirement for the bitch, the housing shall be
approved by the attending veterinarian.approved by the attending ve
showed several clear violations of this provision.
Why are these violations being allowed to continue? Are dog wardens
failing to enforce the law? Or, are they being told to back off from
certain kennels?
Again, we don’t know the answers, but are asking for an
investigation to find out. We do know that a dog warden has been
assigned to Chester County, and is being backed up by a special team
of wardens and attorneys created specifically to investigate and
prosecute puppy #### in that part of the state. We also know that
Gov. Rendell has mandated a crackdown on non-compliant kennels, and
the number of citations for unsatisfactory conditions issued
increased by 10-percent statewide last year alone. In other parts of
the state, dog wardens are being specifically instructed to issue
citations for every violation.
We commend the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement for doing an overall
fine job to protect dogs in Pennsylvania kennels, and also commend
the Bureau and Gov. Rendell for stepping up enforcement of the laws.
This reporter has personally known six Pennsylvania dog wardens and
two regional supervisors. None of these dedicated and honest
professionals would have ignored the situations shown in the Oprah
report.
Then why are the kennels shown in the Oprah report falling through
the cracks? We are asking Attorney General Corbett to find out.
State kennel regulations are only a part of the regulatory picture.
All commercial kennels that sell wholesale to pet stores or dealers
also must have a federal kennel license and comply with 60 pages of
U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations. These kennels are
inspected at least once a year by a team of USDA officials that
includes a veterinarian.
The federal regulations cover many of the same protections as their
counterparts in Pennsylvania. They set stringent requirements for
food, water, sanitation, cleanliness, construction and kennel sizes.
The kennels depicted on the Oprah Show also completely fail to meet
the test of these federal regulations.
In the report, Smith emphasized that many of the dogs never get out
of their kennels, and some can’t even walk on solid ground after a
lifetime on wire. The film footage verified his claim.
However, there is no explanation about why this situation is allowed
to continue, as it clearly violates federal regulations.
The federal rules require that all dogs over 12 weeks of age must be
given the chance for exercise, and a plan for doing this must be
approved by the kennel’s veterinarian. There are several ways that
the requirements for exercise can be met, including by larger cage
sizes.
For a single dog, a cage twice as large as the minimum requirement
would suffice. For a cage that houses several dogs, the total space
would have to be the combined total of the space required for each
of those dogs individually. None of the cages shown on the
Winfrey/Ling report would meet those requirements. None would even
come close.
In the report, Smith said the worst kennel he has seen uses wheel-
shaped treadmills to exercise dogs. Graphic film footage was shown
to prove his point.
However, Smith failed to mention that such devices are a specific
violation of existing federal regulations, which say: “Forced
exercise methods or devices such as swimming, treadmills, or
carousel-type devices are unacceptable…ca
The federal regulations also encourage – and for many dogs require –
human interaction and contact with the dogs.
At one point in the broadcast, Ling asked Smith if a lot of dogs die
from the cold in the winter. Smith said that they do.
Smith did not say that both state and federal regulations, as well
as the animal cruelty law, offer very specific and stringent
requirements to protect dogs from extremes of weather. Dogs that are
housed in indoor facilities must be in a climate-controlled
environment, and outdoor kenneling is banned for dogs that are not
used to the weather, or which are elderly, infirm or of vulnerable
breeds.
Smith also alleged that #### owners routinely shoot dogs that
are no longer useful. This is a violation of the federal
regulations, which require euthanasia to be done only by a
veterinarian.
There is not even a shadow of a doubt that all of the kennels shown
on the Winfrey/Ling report could have been – and should have been –
shut down under existing animal cruelty laws, and both state and
federal kennel regulations.
But they were not shut down. Was justice obstructed? Or was it
simply an accident? We want Attorney Generals Mukasey and Corbett to
find out why.
If these laws are not being enforced, or if they are being enforced
selectively, new laws are not the answer. The answer is to commit
the money, resources and supervision necessary to enforce the
current laws. New laws will not fix a system that is broken. They
simply will add to its list of failures.
Within the next few days, The American Sporting Dog Alliance will
release our proposal for making the current system do its job
better. This proposal will include amendments to regulations that
will triple minimum cage sizes, clarify that the sizes must be
increased if more than one dogs is put in a cage, ban the use of
wire flooring of any kind, restructure the enforcement of
Pennsylvania kennels laws to require dog wardens to be law
enforcement professionals, and to use a $15 million Bureau of Dog
Law Enforcement budget surplus to make sure the job gets done right.
While the Oprah report was about puppy ####, it gives a black eye
to all kennels in Pennsylvania, the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement,
Gov. Rendell, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance believes that black eye was
intentional, even though that was not the intention of Winfrey and
Ling. It was the intention of the animal rights groups that used
Winfrey and Ling to accomplish their camouflaged true agenda.
Another guest on the Oprah show was Wayne Pacelle, who heads the
Humane Society of the United States. HSUS is not like a local humane
society, which is set up to help animals. HSUS is a political group
that is organized to push for an animal rights agenda.
On the Oprah show, Pacelle showed his public relations skills of
trying to appear moderate and caring. Before he entered the public
spotlight, however, he showed his true colors in several interviews
with groups that share the same agenda.
Here is one example from Animal People Magazine: “We have no ethical
obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced
through selective breeding …One generation and out. We have no
problems with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations
of human selective breeding.”
Thus speaks this so-called friend of animals. Perhaps he forgot to
inform Oprah about his real beliefs.
Here is another quote from Pacelle that might surprise Oprah: “I
don’t have a hands-on fondness for animals…To this day I don’t feel
bonded to any non-human animal. I like them and I pet them and I’m
kind to them, but there’s no special bond between me and other
animals… In fact, I don’t want to see another dog or cat born.”
Dog lovers have been led to believe that new and tougher laws are
needed to protect animals. As we demonstrated above, current laws
are more than adequate to protect dogs, if they are enforced. If the
problem is enforcement, then fix the enforcement problem. Creating
new laws will simply create more enforcement problems.
Those new laws are not aimed at puppy ####. They are aimed directly
at everyone who breeds, owns or works with dogs. The laws are
deliberately written to confuse and burden all kennel owners, and
impose irrational, meaningless, time-consuming and often impossible
demands on them. The penalty provisions are meant to impose
frightening liabilities that can destroy good people’s lives for
even minor infractions.
I wish I had the opportunity to sit down with Winfrey and Ling over
a pot of coffee and go over both existing and proposed laws line by
line with them. I believe I could convince them that they are being
misled and used to accomplish an animal rights agenda that they
would find horrifying and in direct opposition to their own love for
animals.
The clear goal of animal rights groups is to completely eliminate
the ownership of animals in America. That goal has been stated
clearly by their spokespersons thousands of times on the public
record. There is no doubt about this agenda whatsoever.
The problem is that people who love animals are not being told the
truth by the animal rights groups. They are being told that the
proposed new laws will help animals.
What they aren’t being told is that the true intention of the
proposed laws is to drastically reduce the number of animals in
America, eliminate breeding of dogs by anyone for any purpose, and
then to spay or neuter all of the survivors.
As Pacelle put it, “one generation and out.”
If we were talking about human beings, it would be called genocide.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance works to protect the rights of
people who own and work with dogs of the breeds commonly used for
hunting. Our grassroots approach is based on informing hundreds of
thousands of people about the issues, and then empowering them to
take direct action as citizens. Please visit us on the web at
_http://www.americanhttp://www.amerihttp://w_
(http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org./) Your participation and
membership are vital. We maintain strict independence and are funded
only by the donations of our members.
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CROSS-POST AND FORWARD THIS REPORT
I disagree that not every one searching for a dog can find the right match @ a shelter and should seek out a breeder. There are millions..MILLIONS of dogs in shelters.If a person can not find the right match out of a million shelter dogs, or from a rescue group..then they should not bring a dog into the family.
The problem is people are scared of dogs from shelters because shelters can be scary places. Working with the dogs is important to place them with the right family.Most dogs are given only days..then KILLED.
SOLUTION..make shelters as posh and cool as pet stores..friendly inviting places that families feel comfortable in.Most shelters are on the out skirts of towns and look like doggie prisions..so the dogs look scary to people.
BREEDING UNDER ANY MEANS IS JUST PLAIN STUPID!!!!!!Adopt a shelter dog..or two!
~Tammy & Blue (a shelter doggie)~
I see no point in breeding until every dog in the world has found a loving home and there are none to adopt.
~Tammy Ozias~