Two homes in Skagit and Snohomish counties where authorities seized more than 300 dogs that were living in filth and squalor — some without food or water — in the past week belong to a woman and one of her daughters, authorities said. […]
According to Skagit County Chief Criminal Deputy Will Reichardt, approximately 400 Chihuahuas, shih tzus, poodles, Yorkshire terriers and other small breeds were found on the mother’s property in the 16000 block of Mountain View Road. Many of the animals were heavily matted, standing in their own feces and left without food or water, he said in a news release Thursday.
The metric for profits over low quality of life for running a puppy mill—out of your house—would have to be fairly high to make this sort of business worthwhile. Like, seriously, how much income is required to make it tolerable to live in a home carpeted with hundreds of shit-crusted Chihuahuas?
Those people probably already had shit-crusted lives. They just found another way to make some money.
It’s disturbing to me that anyone would buy an animal from a pet store. What legal roadblocks are preventing, or tightening, animal sales at pet stores?
I doubt the dogs were actually in the house. There was probably some sort of barn or kennel structure outside.
If you buy a dog, unless do a significant amount of research to find a reputable breeder, you are most likely contributing to practices like these. Just adopt. It’s cheaper, you’re saving a dog’s life, and with breed rescues and websites like petfinder.org, you can usually find specific breeds of dogs for adoption, if you “must” have a specific kind of dog. [/soapbox]
the health, physical and mental and temperament are just a few things to consider when adoptiong. all issues which can be almost eliminated when buying from a reputable breeder.
just saying…. not that i don’t know of awesome rescue dogs and bad pure breeds.
also, some pure breeds are so rare they never end up in shelters. occasionally they are surrendered back to the breeder. check breeder’s sites for owner surrenders, its in their sale contracts so the dogs don’t end up in shelters.
This post has nothing to do with either pot nor being gay. I commend you sir.
It seems like the operators of these puppy mills are just begging for some disease to take hold and wipe out all the dogs, and thus their income. With designer dogs bringing in anywhere from several hundred to a couple thousand dollars each, why is it so difficult to give them a clean place to live and enough food and water?
@3 – yes, there are some breeds that don’t end up in shelters. But… if you just want a dog for a pet (and not as a working dog), why on earth would you need an Ibizan Hound or a Shiba Inu?
As to your first point, I would recommend working with a rescue group that fosters their dogs. We got ours from a breed rescue, and they were great to work with — they truly cared about making sure we adopted a dog whose health, temperament and activity level fit our lifestyle. The foster parents were able to tell us quite a bit about the dog – there were no surprises. We got the exact dog we wanted (breed, age, sex, appearance, temperament) and he is truly a wonderful pet.
I also think that finding a truly reputable breeder (one who actually will reduce the risk of health or temperament problems) is quite a bit of hard work… probably more than you would put into selecting a rescue dog. A friend of mine attempted to find a good English Bulldog breeder, and after two places he thought were puppy mills, and one breeder whose references didn’t check out, he ended up finding a bulldog puppy through a rescue.
Adoption is so the way to go. My older dog was abandoned and has been with me now almost 11 years, and our 1 and a half old little dog came from a rescue.
It is easy to find a rescue group near you for any breed. Google the breed in quotes, with the nearest big city or your state, and the word rescue.
Google: “cocker spaniel” seattle rescue
Purebred dogs get way sicker, way sooner than your average mutt. It’s not only that it will cost you hundreds of extra dollars up front – it will probably cost you thousands of extra dollars over the life of the dog.
“It seems like the operators of these puppy mills are just begging for some disease to take hold and wipe out all the dogs, and thus their income. With designer dogs bringing in anywhere from several hundred to a couple thousand dollars each, why is it so difficult to give them a clean place to live and enough food and water?”
You’re assuming that the idiots who buy milled animals are smart enough to notice, or care enough to take them to a vet.
I doubt these pets are bringing in several hundred to a couple of thousand dollars each, they’re poorly bred trash, have no papers, and the owners abuse them through physical means along with other “training” they receive.
“Purebred dogs get way sicker, way sooner than your average mutt.”
That statement is so wide-sweeping it’s useless.
MANY popular purebreds are genetic wrecks, however some other popular breeds have a wide enough genetic pool that they’d be a safer bet than the mutts.
When are they going to start busting the Amish. They do the same thing where ever they are (IN, PA etc.)
The profit motive was high, $760 per puppy. You can adopt a shelter dog, often purebred, for less than $100 in most places. Or you can go to the breed rescue and adopt a surrendered, foster care dog for usually under $300.
Hurrah for breed rescues! We foster dogs for an Australian Shepherd rescue group. These high-energy herding dogs are frequently turned in to shelters and rescues by clueless owners who “loved that beautiful dog in that commercial” and then realized what it’s like to live with a dog bred to herd cattle out west.
By screening the homes that want the rescued dogs, we prevent them from cycling through more clueless families who might pick them up at the shelter because they are generally so striking in appearance.
“[These pets are] poorly bred trash.”
No, you are.
I wouldn’t mind seeing these puppy mill operators euthanized.