DID YOU HEAR ABOUT SUSIE’S DOGS???
Susie Doglady was a hobby
breeder, like many of us. She had 15 dogs, kept many in the house and a
small kennel building built off her garage for the in/out runs. Of course
all the puppies were whelped in the house, many in her bedroom. Susie had
bred and shown many dogs to their Championships, some to obedience degrees,
and kept her retired show dogs until they passed.
Tam Cordingley
©
TheDogPress
04|01|10
/ Then the laws changed in her state.
They declared that a person could only keep 3 dogs and those dogs must live
according to Government rules applying to commercial kennels. All dogs must
be 500’ away from the house, on concrete or wire, no wood must touch them,
no bedding that could not be hosed down to sterilize. Only one litter a year
could be bred, and if one wanted to keep a puppy one of the adults would
have to go. Only commercial, government approved food could be used.
Of course Susie was distraught. She’d been
breeding and improving her line of dachspaniels for over 30 years. They had
always lived in the house, her favorites sleeping in her bed. How could she
possibly dispose of 12 of her pets? How could she condemn the others to
living outside, away from normal household activity, and without the soft
bedding they were accustomed to? She made them home prepared meals, using
only natural and organic foods, how would they accept a commercial diet, and
would it nourish them properly?
Well for Susie the answer was obvious, she
couldn’t do this. So in one fell swoop Susie became a criminal. Her
dachspaniels were quiet, they were always fenced, and so she’d keep them and
just not license them. The veterinarians were required by law to turn over
the names of all those who vaccinated dogs for rabies, so they could not get
their shots, but that was OK as they were mainly in the house anyway.
This
went on for a time, with Susie always staying home from 8 to 5, the hours
Animal Control worked, to keep everyone silent. She didn’t breed any
litters, didn’t attend any shows, and hoped she’d be allowed to keep her
beloved dogs until they died. Susie herself became a virtual prisoner.
Then there was a complaint from a nosy
neighbor, who had looked in the window and had seen 4 dogs. Thank goodness
he didn’t see the other 11! Down swooped the Animal Control, Police, TV
crews, and the “Humane Societies” who always happened to be nearby with a
camera crew.
Animal Control officers threatened Susie
with immediate incarceration and a trial for hoarding animals if she did not
immediately surrender her dogs to the authorities. Susie was hysterical. She
was a nice woman, who had never been in jail. Who would take care of her
house? Who would take care of her garden? How would the bills get paid?
Would she lose her house? And most importantly what would happen to her
dogs?
Maybe it would be better to let the
authorities take them to the shelter and hope if she cooperated she might be
able to get at least the legal 3 back. So, reluctantly she signed them over,
put them in crates, and let animal control police take them. Then she sat
and cried, then called her lawyer.
Now, as they were surrendered, she didn’t
own any of them, not even the legal 3. The authorities gave them all to
rescue people, who were supposed to re-home the dogs. They would all be
spayed and neutered, the end of a long line of beautiful and sound
dachspaniels. But this isn’t the end.
One of the rescue people saw that the dogs
were of excellent quality. She had a friend who was a vet and could certify
them as purebred so they could be registered by one of the commercial
breeder registries so that they could be sold. So they were registered and
sent to a breeder auction. The puppy factory people loved this rare breed
and bought them up.
Now they could legally be bred, by puppy
factories just as the Government demanded, in separate cages, no bedding,
hosed down daily, 500 feet from a dwelling. The puppy factories are legal.
They can be licensed to keep hundreds of dogs, as long as they are fed
commercial food and kept like prisoners, with no creature comforts.
A puppy factory owner saw one of the newly
registered dogs, with a new name and a different registry. He decided to
enter the dog in a dog show, since the major kennel club would now register
it too. This super little dog naturally won Best in Show, so now the puppy
factory could also enjoy the glamour of the TV lights, the evening-gown clad
judges, and could legally claim he had the top winning dog in the country.
This is the story of how dog shows will be won by factory farmed dogs. No
more hobby breeders, no more individuals breeding a few dogs in their homes,
no more grand dogs available. The only place to buy a dog is from a legal
puppy factory.
The first step is to limit dog ownership,
not by care or knowledge but by numbers. The second step is to make it
illegal to own an intact dog except if kept in sterile conditions. When we
allow this to happen we have made it possible for the puppy factories to
stand beside the proud and caring breeders on an equal footing.
Susie and her dogs will be history. What will you be?
Tam Cordingley's Handy links:______________________
Columns
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No Margins. No Limits. And
a criminal story of how rescue, registries, animal control
and police destroyed a breeder while aiding puppy factories
and animal rights.
