Stop puppy mills
By Pat McQueen, President PETS, Inc The Carolinas Humane Society

In the past 16 years, we have been involved in helping pets taken from puppy mills and backyard breeders. We are amazed at the suffering these animals endured in order to provide a buyer with a tiny pedigree.

Buyers often discover a couple of months later that the little Yorkie or Pomeranian they adopted isn't what they expected. Many have health problems, due to the horrific conditions in which they were bred, the unhealthy parents they came from, or inbreeding.

People pay hundreds of dollars for their new pet to get an AKC certificate, and find this certificate is only useful in the bottom of their cat's litter box.

Backyard breeders' dogs churn out litter after litter. They live in tiny, often filthy cages, terribly matted if medium or longhaired, or covered with feces, and receive no veterinary care.

When they die, they leave their offspring to continue the cycle of suffering.

Several years ago, we heard about a backyard breeder who sold her puppies to the flea market and through newspaper ads. We received stories from people who had adopted puppies from the same breeder.

Veterinarians realized the puppies were suffering from congenital health problems.

A PETS, Inc. volunteer visited this breeder's stall at the Flea Market on Hwy. 1 and wanted to visit the breeder's location to see the puppy's parents before buying one.

Little dogs of many breeds were kept in chicken coop wiring and little cages. The ground was filthy, the water was green, and the food was thrown on the ground for them to fight over. They had little or no shade or covering from weather conditions.

This was the cruel secret behind the beautiful, clean, fluffy little puppies she was selling. The ones that lived, that is.

Three weeks ago two women rescue animals about 50 miles from Columbia received an anonymous call reporting a breeder who was "reclusive," had been in an accident and was in hospital.

The caller felt the animals there were in jeopardy, and gave the women directions. The women found kennels crowded with Sharpeis, Rottweilers, etc., which were full of feces and no food or water.

They found several dozen little carriers and crates, all of them holding thirsty, hungry, terribly matted and terrorized small- breed dogs.

Because of the conditions of the longhaired dogs, they were unable to tell the breed, color, sex, age, or if they were going to survive.

Cindy, a volunteer, took some home. One had gangrene and had to be euthanized. Another was crippled, his foot nearly severed by an imbedded wire. Another weighed over 20 lbs when she took it, but soon realized it was a three- year- old, 10- 12 pound white male poodle. At lease 10 lbs of flea- infested, filthy, solid hard matting had been removed.

The other dogs were in equally bad condition, and several had maggots because their matting was so heavy it was tearing the skin from their bodies.

Thanks to groomers like Cindy, Animal World, Val and her daughter at Val's Pretty Pets, Kim and the other groomers at Cedar Creek, as well as the volunteers and foster people at PETS, Inc., all were scrubbed, groomed, shaved, vaccinated, and dewormed.

Many of these wonderful people worked all night, and thanks to them, nearly all these dogs have been adopted.

If anyone has bought a puppy at a pet store, flea market, or from newspaper ads, then the probability is almost 100% that the dog probably came from one of these breeders.