While there is no evidence of collusion between Andrew Hunte and the
American Kennel Club, mass puppy sales and registrations have been
profitable for both.
In 1991, Andrew
Hunte incorporated his mass production dog breeding business in
order to provide retailers, i.e. pet shops ... "with the happiest,
healthiest purebred and designer hybrid puppies available."
2001
USDA Loans Hunte Over 4 Million Dollars
Your tax dollars helped expand the Hunte Puppy Mill Empire with (instant
information)
ii USDA guaranteed loans.
Viet Nam veterans deserved the assistance they received from the USDA and
other government agencies even though it encouraged them into puppy
farming. It may however be hard to accept the help Hunte Corporation
received under the
ii USDA’s Rural Development program.
At the same time,
ii USDA Is Stretched Too Thin to
inspect Puppy Mills This may or may not reflect Hunte Corps’
cozy relationship with the USDA.
2001
The Secret Hunte/AKC Meeting
A lot more than just the scheduled Missouri meeting between Hunte Corp, The World’s Largest Puppy Mill and AKC, The World’s Largest Registry.
You might re-think how you've been taught to sell a puppy and why
people go to the mall. Patience please -
Insider Info
2002,
ii AKC Announces the High Volume Breeder
(HVB) Committee. Their only job? To justify the puppy mill registrations AKC had
always depended on and in retrospect, to prepare “responsible”
breeders for the already-in-the-works Petland Contract. The
HVB Committee's glowing reports on the “wonderful facilities” and “modern
methods” employed by "commercial breeders" were not quite
convincing.
The AKC’s High Volume Breeder Committee went diligently about their assigned task which was as we see it, to wash the dirt off puppy mills, polish up the concept and convince the dog fancy that it really needed “high volume” breeders because WE could not meet the public demand for high quality puppies.
ii The Good Breeder Myth.
HVB Committee members enthused about the Hunte
operations in the dog magazines and of course, at kennel clubs and
dog shows across the country.
"Lets Support The Puppy Mills" describes All Breed Judge Denny
Kodner’s praise for Hunte’s facilities and practices but
then all committee members who visited the Hunte puppy producing facilities wrote glowing reports.
AKC Board member Patti Strand, greatly respected for creating NAIA
(which we are compelled to point out, received at least $50,000 in
contributions from AKC) lost many supporters as chairperson of the
HVBC. Things went quiet on Hunte Corp and puppy mills for a
few years. We were about to learn why.
Fast forward to the Sept. 2006 AKC Board Minutes revealed the in-your-face
Petland Deal that resulted in rather subdued Delegate outrage.
Perhaps we should mention that AKC’s
Contract With Petland vastly profited the Hunte Corp which by
then was contracted to supply the majority of Petland produce.
There is little doubt that Hunte's massive trucking distribution to the Petland pet shop
chain contributed to the 2009 puppy inventory software program
called PRIME.
Getting puppies to Petland and other puppy mill outlets resulted in confusion about Hunte and Hunt.
Chat lists buzzed about “Hunt trucks” all over the highways. There
was the tragic 2006
Hunte Truck Fire that burned 60 helpless puppies alive. While it
was considered an accident, the truck had other safety violations.
The fire was investigated by USDA – which in itself raised eyebrows.
We dutifully reported the
Hunte Puppy Mill Broker & JB Hunt Trucking partnership! It
wasn’t that big a story but to make sure subscribers had the facts,
we included the actual Arkansas state partnership filing.
TheDogPress also published a full bio/obituary when, in December
J. B. Hunt Sr. passed away.
Andrew Hunte and his puppy-producing / retail distribution
corporation continued to grow and prosper. Breeders who smelled a
rat or who recognized a loss of buyers for their carefully bred and
nurtured puppies, kept their mouths shut or left the AKC system.
Actually, awareness among show breeders and the desertion of the
puppy mills to form their own registry accounts for the precipitous
drop in registrations from over 1,500,000 in 1992 to less than half
that (only 870,192) by 2006. Clearly “the economy” was not in play
in 2006.
Indisputably the American Kennel Club’s marketing campaign had paid off.
Serious show campaigners shut up about Andrew Hunte and AKC’s
alliance with the puppy mills. Breeders who feared AKC’s
Investigations and Inspections department shrugged their
shoulders about Petland and Hunte. TheDogPress however, did not.
In 2008 we ran a minor story with on the
Hunte-AKC Alliance because we found it interesting that the new
Hunte Corp. VP in charge of “Breeder Support” was none other than
Doug Hughes who had twice been convicted of animal cruelty.
The former operator of DoBoTri Kennels registered dogs with AKC
before he went to work for Hunte Corp. What was interesting was that
we could find no record that AKC ever suspended Hughes for those
multiple cruelty convictions.
The fancy didn’t bat an eye about the $20 Million lawsuit filed
against Petland, Inc, Hunte Kennel Systems, and Hunte Delivery
Systems, Inc. in 2008 so it seemed that the Andrew Hunte puppy mill
and distribution methods had become pretty ho-hum.
By 2010, it had all come together. The long love affair between the
world’s largest puppy producing facility and the world’s largest
registry we all know and love went public
when
PRIME was also revealed by TheDogPress.
The Hunte Puppy Mill saga would not be complete if we
neglected to include the following coverage which, depending on
perspective, may or may not relate to the relationship between AKC
and Hunte Corp.
PRIME - AKC's Pet Shop Software our fees used to develop the pet
shop puppy inventory
AKC Registers Unregistered Dogs a clever move to regain the
puppy mills market and all those paperless pets?
AKC Registry Redacted 10 questions sent to AKC re new
registration rules/procedures.
As a columnist for the Canine Chronicle, I covered The Hershey Case,
revealing that AKC has known about the “black market in blue slips”
for decades. AKC is aware of and apparently powerless to
prevent registration fraud, as is evident in this information.
http://www.akcethics.org/ftc_warning/intentional_consumer_fraud.htm
We owe it all to Hunte Corp, the world's largest puppy mill.
Perhaps we should also give some crumbs of credit to the American
Kennel Club, the world's largest dog registry? And let's not
forget Petland, an international puppy mill produce distributor.
More on Petland to follow.
And in Feb. 2012, we did
Petland & AKC
History
http://www.thedogpress.com/PuppyMill/Hunte-History.asp
