When we added our Labrador retriever puppy, Stella, to our family in 2002, we purchased from a licensed, first-time breeder Mennonite family. Their paperwork came from the American Kennel Club. A litter of eight pups romped with kids in a temperature-controlled garage full of clean bedding and toys.
We met Stella’s mother in the backyard. The breeders gave us a picture of Stella’s father, a Labrador from a neighbor’s farm. All were active and healthy. We took Stella home after eight weeks. We felt confident the breeders responsibly bred the litter.
We were only minimally educated on how to spot a responsible breeder. Mostly, we were just lucky.
Those who buy puppies from non-reputable breeders are often not lucky. Their puppies tend toward health and behavioral problems from inbreeding and poor conditions common in puppy mills.
Kept in cramped, unhealthy conditions with little interaction, the dogs aren’t pets. They are profit-driven commodities. Females are bred one litter after another with no recovery time, physically depleting them. When females can no longer breed, they are discarded.
Desired Effect?
Basil Merenda, chief deputy attorney general, director of Bureau of Consumer Protection, cited rural Lancaster County as having a particularly large puppy mill and unregulated backyard breeder presence. Merenda’s office regulates the “Pet Lemon Law,” adopted in 2008, which stipulates that sellers must provide health and registration records.
Unfortunately, that law has not proved very effective in helping buyers or in battling puppy mills, said certified dog trainer Amy Powell.
It gives buyers just 10 days to document that the animal has a contagious or infectious disease and 30 days for a congenital defect. (Some hereditary conditions take more than six months to manifest themselves.)
Buyers must initiate the complaint to the attorney general’s office. They may demand a refund of the purchase price, minus sales tax, plus any veterinary expenses. Sellers, who must be USDA-licensed, can be fined $1,000 for each violation.
Many buyers, though, don’t know about the law, find the process burdensome or don’t realize they have a troubled animal until it’s too late. Also, the law addresses the symptom of puppy mills—how to return a defective puppy—but it does not attack the root cause: irresponsible breeding.
Former Gov. Ed Rendell championed and signed another protection measure—the “Dog Law” in 2008—which implements stricter provisions for kennel conditions, prevents dog abuse and mandates humane euthanizing. It also covers licensing, sale, transportation and estimates for damages.
Under Rendell, Pennsylvania budgeted for dog wardens to enforce the law, with the Department of Agriculture responsible for conducting regular facility inspections. However, where there were once ample wardens to cover a region, there are now not enough, according to Powell.
“That funding went away with Gov. Corbett,” she said. “The enforcement for ‘Dog Law’ is not there anymore. Puppy mills fly under the radar in rural areas. Rescues are over-full. We would like to see puppy mills being held accountable.”
Changes to the “Dog Law,” made in February, still do not provide for socializing the animals, she said. The law also does not specifically address inbreeding or the numbers of dogs being bred.
Meanwhile, for registered boarding kennels and breeders who comply with the “Dog Law,” the increase in regulations has had a negative effect, decreasing the number of registered facilities and driving costs higher for the remaining.
“We were gung-ho activists and rescuers at first,” said Powell. “Then lobbying became costly, ineffective and heartbreaking. Our choice was to lobby for stricter laws or rescue more dogs. We can’t save them all.”
Enter special interest groups. Humane PA is a political action committee that supports candidates who further animal protection legislation. In addition to caring for animals hands-on, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society both lobby and politically advocate for animals nationally and at the state levels. The groups also educate.
“Buyers need to be educated about how to spot responsible breeders and also dog laws,” Powell said. ”Buying from backyard breeders is keeping puppy mills in business.”
Hard Decision
The state’s efforts, unfortunately, have had other unintended consequences. For instance, when buyers return a defective dog, it is destroyed or sent to an animal rescue, which are both unwelcome outcomes.
“We often get dogs from puppy mills,” confirmed Denise Durkay, who runs The Dogs’ Den, a rescue in Grantville.
Meanwhile, it remains tough to do battle against puppy mills, as many charged with offenses simply change their business name to a family member’s name, Durkay said.
“They post ‘No Trespassing’ signs,” she said. “They get away with [continuing to operate].”
Bobbie Ditzler, certified veterinary technician at Mechanicsburg-based Rossmoyne Animal Emergency Trauma Center, often sees the results of puppy mill dog breeding.
“We see a lot of parvo[virus],” Ditzler said. “The breeders tell buyers the puppies had fecal tests, but they didn’t.”
Highly contagious, parvovirus can infect an entire kennel. Treatment costs anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000, with only a 50-percent survival rate.
In the end, many owners decide to keep their puppy mill-bred dogs—healthy or not.
“We tell owners about the ‘Pet Lemon Law,’” said Ditzler. “Buy many are too attached to consider returning them. It’s a hard decision.”
A number of websites offer additional information on efforts to combat puppy mills, including www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/lemon_mn.html, www.unitedagainstpuppymills.org, www.thedogsden.rescuegroups.org and www.mlar.org.
