Saturday a huge animal event was set to take place at the Yates County Fair grounds to call attention to the sad plight of puppy mill dogs and puppies. The day was filled with educational speakers, music, vendors, demonstrations and an animal communicator. It was sponsored by puppymillrescue.com and the Beverly Animal Shelter in Waterloo.
More than 30 rescue organizations and shelters, both local and national, were scheduled to attend the event. Some had dogs and puppies available for adoption. The night before a candlelight vigil was held at the Geneva Chamber of Commerce building.
Throughout the country many thousands of dogs are suffering in puppy mills (also called commercial kennels that “house” many hundreds of dogs at a time). Yates County alone is said to have more than 50 puppy mills and Cayuga and Tompkins counties have many more. They are not seen from the roads.
A potential customer never sees the parent dogs or the horrible living conditions of the dogs and puppies. Usually, a few puppies are cleaned up and brought out to show by those “farms” that occasionally take calls from individuals. Most puppies, however, are bought and resold by pet stores.
At the puppy mill “farm” the dogs are kept in small cages for their entire lives and are bred every time they come into season - from the age of 6 months the maximum of twice a year every year. Eventually when they are no longer able to breed, they are killed.
They freeze in the winter and swelter in the summer and never have any human company, and in most cases, they never even mingle with another dog.
They barely survive and their puppies are often in questionable health and not socialized at all. Some parent dogs have no teeth, no lower jaws, broken jaws or broken bones. Some have heartworms, intestinal worms, fleas and medical problems that would require surgery. They are in this condition because treating them properly would cut down on profits.
They spend their entire lives standing or sitting on nothing but wire with their feet bloody and painful.
Their feces collects under them and the uric acid burns their eyes and noses and attracts flies. They often have little or no protection from the weather.
Of course the puppies are cleaned up and made presentable before being sold. They are nothing but a commodity for the puppy mill operators and the pet stores that buy them.
The puppymillrescue.com Web site has first hand accounts by witnesses of the above conditions and worse. The site indicates that a kennel in Yates County was just granted a permit to increase the size of his operation from 60 to 260 dogs. Also on the site is a poem titled “The Bark Heard Round the World by Karin Six,” from which the event's title was taken.
The following national organizations also have information and exposes of puppy mills on their sites:
• www.ASPCA.org
• www.PETA.org
• www.lastchanceforanimals.org
• www.HSUS.org
• www.bestfriends.org.
This column by Vorreuter, the founder and director of Animal Advocates of the Finger Lakes, was written prior to Saturday's event. Contact her at judy@cayugaanimaladvocates.org
Throughout the country many thousands of dogs are suffering in puppy mills (also called commercial kennels that “house” many hundreds of dogs at a time). Yates County alone is said to have more than 50 puppy mills and Cayuga and Tompkins counties have many more. They are not seen from the roads.
A potential customer never sees the parent dogs or the horrible living conditions of the dogs and puppies. Usually, a few puppies are cleaned up and brought out to show by those “farms” that occasionally take calls from individuals. Most puppies, however, are bought and resold by pet stores.
At the puppy mill “farm” the dogs are kept in small cages for their entire lives and are bred every time they come into season - from the age of 6 months the maximum of twice a year every year. Eventually when they are no longer able to breed, they are killed.
They freeze in the winter and swelter in the summer and never have any human company, and in most cases, they never even mingle with another dog.
They barely survive and their puppies are often in questionable health and not socialized at all. Some parent dogs have no teeth, no lower jaws, broken jaws or broken bones. Some have heartworms, intestinal worms, fleas and medical problems that would require surgery. They are in this condition because treating them properly would cut down on profits.
They spend their entire lives standing or sitting on nothing but wire with their feet bloody and painful.
Their feces collects under them and the uric acid burns their eyes and noses and attracts flies. They often have little or no protection from the weather.
Of course the puppies are cleaned up and made presentable before being sold. They are nothing but a commodity for the puppy mill operators and the pet stores that buy them.
The puppymillrescue.com Web site has first hand accounts by witnesses of the above conditions and worse. The site indicates that a kennel in Yates County was just granted a permit to increase the size of his operation from 60 to 260 dogs. Also on the site is a poem titled “The Bark Heard Round the World by Karin Six,” from which the event's title was taken.
The following national organizations also have information and exposes of puppy mills on their sites:
• www.ASPCA.org
• www.PETA.org
• www.lastchanceforanimals.org
• www.HSUS.org
• www.bestfriends.org.
This column by Vorreuter, the founder and director of Animal Advocates of the Finger Lakes, was written prior to Saturday's event. Contact her at judy@cayugaanimaladvocates.org
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