Massive Puppy Mill Rescue
French Bulldogs living in an *acceptable* USDA sized puppy mill cage
“Cage size: must be 6 inches larger than the size of the dog, on all sides”.
That’s what USDA demands for the dogs being bred in USDA inspected and approved facilities. 6 inches, half a foot on each side, and above their heads, every day, every night, for their entire lives. That’s what the best of them are expected to provide, so imagine, for just one minute, what it is like for the French Bulldogs living in the worst.
There has always been controversy surrounding the purchase of dogs from Puppy Mill auctions. Rescues with good intentions but no auction experience can drive up prices, letting Mills get prices sometimes thousands of dollars more than they would have normally. With that money,breeders can then turn around and buy all new breeding stock, beginning the cycle all over again. Better to starve them of demand, we’ve been told. Let their old stock go unsold, and then at the end of the day, they’ll be more likely to turn the dogs over to rescue. A good theory, but with some dogs going without bids at all, there have been rumors for years of puppy mills who don’t bother to take unsold stock back home. I’ll let you imagine how that’s accomplished.
An experienced rescue volunteer can change up those odds. She or he can get in there, properly dressed, and put in some low ball bids near the end of the bidding. They won’t get the young stock, the healthy young bitches or the ones in ‘rare’ colors, but they can get the old timers, the crippled dogs and the ones who perhaps wouldn’t even be given a car ride back to their pen at the end of the day, if no one else bid on them.
A donation of as little as fifty dollars can buy a dog their freedom, if a rescue who knows what they’re doing are the ones doing the bidding. Fifty dollars can get a dog out of that cage that extends just six inches around them, where they’ve lived their entire lives, waiting for someone to see them as more than just a money making machine.
This Friday, if we can raise enough money, one rescue is going to attempt a massive French Bulldog puppy mill rescue, from conditions that are nothing less than hellish. I hope that I’ll be able to introduce you to some of the dogs next week. There is one that I can’t stop thinking about, without having even met her. She’s pregnant, and she’s also nine years old. We don’t know how many litters she’s had before this, but we do know that she’s had all of them while living inside that hell – that six inch hell.
I’d like to say that I can’t even imagine that, but I can, and because I can, I don’t know if I can sleep knowing that she might get left behind, bought up by another puppy mill, put back in another cage, whelping – one more litter after this one? Two more? Until she gives out, or her uterus does, or she dies in the delivery, or inside of that six inch cage.
I don’t know what the price is for a life like that, but if just $50 can buy it, then the karma you can get with $50 has just increased infinitely.
From Mary Scheffke and Chicago French Bulldog Rescue:
What we face as a rescue is the fear that we will not be able to get all the dogs out due to people bidding too high and against us. I can tell you how I had nightmares for over a year about the dogs I left behind at the auction last time I went. It is usually hard to save them all but I would love to be able to save them ALL at this auction! So- I am reaching out to all my dear friends to help us help these dogs. They have lived LONG ENOUGH in deplorable conditions! If this farmer is facing serious cruelty charges to these animals- you can bet they have been treated horribly! Without your help- we will NOT be able to get them all out and back into warm houses and blessed with warm hearts to take care of them. We know of other rescues who have gotten Bulldogs from this same place – the dogs had broken legs from being kicked and worse!
Donate if you can, even if it’s just $5, because think about that for a minute – just ten people, giving $5 each, can get a French Bulldog a new life.
What a small price to pay.
Chicago French Bulldog Rescue’s Chip In page is here –
http://helphankwalkagain.chipin.com/lets-get-them-out
Their Paypal link is on their website –
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=188011
Their widget below donates directly to their Paypal fund. Let’s bring them home, people – just one French Bulldog at a time.
Breeders Behaving Badly
Mindy Holmes, of Maplecreek Corgis
I sometimes feel like I’m spending a lot of my time defending my fellow breeders, in large part because almost all of the breeders I know personally really are ethical people who love their dogs and their breeds. I also defend conformation showing, which I know seems trivial and superficial to anyone outside of the fancy. It’s a sport I have mixed feelings about, but at its best I enjoy it as a fun way to meet with friends, have a look at their dogs, and maybe take home some ribbons.
At its worst, however, showing becomes a world filled with shady, amoral behavior, none of which seems to have anything to do with the well being of the dogs, and most of which has to do with greed, ego and money. When at its worst, it becomes hard to defend either showing, or the breeders involved in it.
This would be one of those ‘worst’ situations.
A recent criminal case based in Venice reveals a darker side of the $330 million American dog show industry where greed and ultra competitiveness can lead to allegations of cheating, corruption and vindictive acts.
Venice dog breeder Melinda “Mindy” Holmes, 48, was arrested this month on a felony extortion charge in the falsification of a champion show dog’s veterinary records and demanding money to keep those records hidden.
The allegations have rocked the Greater Venice Florida Dog Club, of which Holmes was a member in good standing for several years.
“I’m just in shock,” said Rita Figg, a founding member of the Venice dog club when she learned of Holmes’ arrest on Feb. 12. “I’ve never heard of anything like this happening before.”
According to sheriff’s reports, Holmes in 2009 first threatened to release damaging documents about a Pembroke Welsh corgi, named Ty, bred by AKC judges Rutledge and Nash Parker of North Carolina unless they paid Holmes $18,000.
The Parkers claim Holmes fraudulently changed Ty’s veterinary records to show the dog had been cosmetically altered through surgery, which would prevent him from competing and could permanently damage the Parkers’ judging and breeding careers.
The Corgi involved in this case, Champion Happiharbor Saddle Lane Ty, is not just any show dog, either – he’s the number four ranked Pembroke Welsh Corgi in the country. Ty was exhibited at Westminster this year, but while Ty didn’t place in the ribbons this year, he has numerous prestigious wins in his past, including Best in Specialty Show.
The article doesn’t specify what surgery it was alleged that Ty had had performed on him, but it’s possible that none of his wins would have been awarded if it was proven that Ty had received cosmetic surgery.
The Pembroke Welsh Corgi breed standard states –
A dog must be very seriously penalized for the following faults, regardless of whatever desirable qualities the dog may present: oversized or undersized; button, rose or drop ears; overshot or undershot bite; fluffies, whitelies, mismarks or bluies.
I assume that Holmes was threatening that Ty had one of these ‘serious’ faults corrected. Holmes, who breeds Corgis under the “MapleCreek” prefix, was the breeder of Ty’s dam. She and the Parkers had apparently done breedings together in the past.
More from the Herald Tribune:
The Parkers, according to arrest documents, paid Holmes $3,000 to keep the falsified records private, but refused to give her $15,000 more she demanded.
Then, a month before this year’s Westminster show, Holmes reportedly e-mailed Ty’s vet records to the dog’s handler to discourage her from showing the dog. Breeders often own the dogs, but handlers are the ones who present the dog in competitions.
….
Reached for comment in North Carolina, the Parkers would not discuss specifics of the incident beyond what was in the police report. But Rutledge Parker said he and his wife fear further retaliation by Holmes.
“I’ve never dreamed of something like this happening. I don’t know how to react to it,” he said. “This was all about money, and that’s clear from the police report.”
Read the rest of the article here.
Bunny’s Pups at Three Weeks
New photos of the Bunny pups, who are finally starting to act like ‘real’ puppies – complete with barking, growling, mouth wars, and running to the side of the pen to see us when we come into the room.
I love this stage of puppyhood – all the fun, none of the mess. That’s next week, when weaning starts!
Photos after the cut.