(PUPPY MILLS) A new report released by the Humane Society brings to light more abuse of AKC-registered dogs at puppy mills and new shocking information about the organization. It criticizes the AKC for catering to the interest of large scale commercial breeders rather than high-quality small scale breeders in their registry. Numerous puppy-mill operators at facilities that passed AKC inspection have been charged with animal cruelty. The HSUS also found that in 2012 alone, the AKC asked its supporters to oppose many laws that would prevent animal abuse such as leaving dogs in hot cars, stacked wire cages, and keeping dogs in kennels for more then 14 hours a day. The report calls for the AKC to distance itself from large commercial breeders and go back to supporting small, responsible, premium breeders. It’s time for the AKC to become part of the solution instead of the problem. Read on for more of the HSUS upsetting findings, and click the take action link to find out what you can do to help. — Global Animal
Humane Society of the United States
The Humane Society of the United States released a report calling on the American Kennel Club to reverse course and support
- Voice your support against puppy mills and changing AKC standards.
efforts to protect dogs from the worst abuses at puppy mills. The report also criticizes AKC for pandering to the interests of large-scale, commercial breeding facilities rather than serving smaller-scale, high-quality breeders who make up the majority of AKC.
The report notes that numerous puppy mill operators who have been charged with animal cruelty have been selling AKC-registered puppies and some of them even passed AKC inspections.
“The American Kennel Club bills itself as ‘The Dog’s Champion,’ but our report shows a pattern of activity that is entirely at odds with that self-description,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. “The AKC has opposed more than 80 bills and proposals in the last five years that would have implemented common-sense, humane standards of care at large-scale breeding facilities. We are shocked that a group that should be standing shoulder to shoulder with us is constantly lined up with the puppy mill industry.”
The report is based on information uncovered during HSUS-assisted raids of puppy mills, AKC “alerts” sent to breeders, materials published on AKC’s website, and AKC’s lobbying activities over the past five years.
Among the findings:
- Humane organizations have assisted law enforcement in rescuing suffering dogs from large puppy mills whose operators regularly registered dogs with AKC. In just the past six months, this includes three facilities in North Carolina where more than 250 dogs were caged in squalor. Ironically, the AKC’s primary office is located in Raleigh.
- Over the past five years, AKC has opposed more than 80 different state bills and local ordinances designed to provide stronger protections for dogs in puppy mills. The group has opposed landmark measures enacted in Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, West Virginia, Texas, Washington, and other states.
- Since the end of the 1990s, when AKC was facing a boycott of its registry by large-scale, commercial dog breeding facilities, the group has dedicated significant resources to fighting laws that would regulate those facilities.
- In 2012 alone, AKC asked its supporters to oppose:
- Laws in several states that would have required puppy producers to comply with basic care standards
- Legislation in three states that would have prevented the debarking of dogs without a medical reason
- An ordinance in a Tennessee town designed to prevent dogs from being left in hot cars
- A Rhode Island state bill to prevent people from chaining or crating a dog for more than 14 hours a day
- A Louisiana state bill that would have prevented breeding facilities from keeping dogs in stacked, wire-floored cages
- AKC has attempted to deflect independent regulation of large-scale breeders on grounds that it maintains an internal kennel inspections program, but standards for the program are unclear and its results unpublished. The HSUS report discloses that some puppy mills had been “inspected” by AKC but were still the subject of law enforcement-led rescues—with facility operators later convicted of animal cruelty on account of the poor conditions of their dogs.
- Most recently, AKC has been lobbying breeders to oppose a proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture rule that would regulate Internet puppy sellers under the federal Animal Welfare Act. AKC’s chair described the regulations as “onerous,” even though the proposal includes exemptions for breeders with fewer than five breeding female dogs as well as breeders who sell only to buyers they meet in person.
While the AKC does have beneficial programs such as an annual Responsible Dog Ownership Day and AKC Companion Animal Recovery disaster relief assistance, these make up just a tiny percentage of AKC’s annual outlays. Therefore, the report calls on AKC to distance itself from the large-scale, commercial dog-breeding industry and return to its original focus of representing small, premium, responsible breeders who belong to national breed clubs, participate in dog shows and other events, and have the welfare of their dogs as their top priority.
The report comes a week before the close of the public comment period on the USDA’s retail pet stores rule, a rule designed to ensure that large-scale puppy producers (like the one in the video above) who sell animals online or by mail or phone sight-unseen be regulated just like the producers who sell to pet stores. Concerned citizens can voice their support for the rule at humanesociety.org/usdapuppymills.
Read the full HSUS report: http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/pets/puppy_mills/report_akc_breeders.pdf
More Humane Society of the United States: http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2012/07/akc_puppy_mills_
and a portion of your purchase – in any department – is donated to Global Animal Foundation.
Can anyone tell me why the Humane Society of the Unites States has any credibility at all when less than 1% of its entire budget goes to actually helping pets in need?
Most of the humane laws we have today are because of HSUS.
The most cruel and inhumane factory farming practices are crumbling before our eyes – mostly due to HSUS.
Thousands of puppy mills have closed due to HSUS laws, and that lessens the burden on shelters and stops the birth of millions of mill dogs (who will live suffer from sickness and/or end up in shelters).
Although HSUS’s mission is national, legislative and educational, they give shelters and rescues millions each year, fund shelter programs, and pet adoption promotion programs/advertisements.
HSUS runs 6 state of the art sanctuaries and rehab facilities. They save the lives of thousands of animals every year and give refuge to thousands more.
HSUS rescues thousands each year from puppy mills, hoarders, and natural disasters and national emergencies.
HSUS is truly a friend to animals – and truly an enemy to animal exploiters.
Those who have actually read the so called loop hole know that this ruling does not affect the large scale volume breeder at all. It will affect all rescues and show and hobby breeder which is who HSUS and animal rights radical want to shut down because they are the only place one can get well bred healthy dogs from people who stand behind their dogs. Show breeder do not want to put their dogs in the kennels or raise their puppies according the USDA guidelines. You may ask why and if you are not just a puppet of HSUS Then you will understand. THe USDA guidelines require puppies to be raised on concrete isolated from all other dogs, animals, children and even their mother after weaning until these puppies are 4months old. Study after study shows that home raised puppies have better immune systems and are easier to train. HSUS wants no one to own a pet as that is enslavement according to HSUS. That is the only reason they are pushing to inspect people’s homes. Once you make a law that allows the inspection of a home that is not a business they you have lost your rights as a citizen. Show and hobby breeders do not run a business. HSUS has been lying for so long that the pubic thinks a puppy mill is behind every house. This is not true and never has been. So HSUS upped what is abuse, so using a treadmill is abuse, using a leash and a collar is abuse, using a crate to house break a puppy is abuse, providing water the isn’t ice cold is abuse, and now not brushing your dog’s teeth is abuse. They keep on adding things that are not a dogs normal desire habit or behavior and calling it abuse. As a vet I have seen some of the so called raids on supposedly abused animals. These animals were healthy well fed and well groomed, but the HSUS took them saying the water wasn’t cold enough. Normally, the kennel owner would have been told to supply colder water, but dogs don’t like to drink cold water. So HSUS talked the local animal control into taking these animals. This is theft under the color of law. If the judge has any common decency he will return these animals. HSUS is now on its way into court for breaking the law. Not for raiding but for lying and bribing a witness. That is the people you so admire. Its time for the public to wake up and see the true goals of HSUS is to make millions of dollars while the real shelters suffer for lack of funds. HSUS doesn’t give any money for the direct care of animals to other shelters. The give less than 1% to their own horse sanctuary and other sanctuaries they raided for the money in their bank accounts. HSUS is a scam organization and soon they will be outed as they are now coming under investigation by the IRS.
Where has good investigative journalism disappeared? Has repeating the press releases of individuals or organizations on the “I like them” list replaced old-fashioned fact finding journalism?
AKC supports laws that support good responsible pet ownership. When a law or ordinance is introduced that has irresponsible or damaging consequences to pet ownership, of course, AKC encourages the dog community to be aware of what could be a negative outcome.
Is crating a dog for more than 14 hours a day responsible pet ownership then?
In response to concerns about thousands of dogs who are denied basic humane care at large-scale commercial breeding facilities, The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published a proposed rule that would close a gaping loophole in the Animal Welfare Act regulations. The rule would require large-scale breeding facilities that sell puppies sight-unseen over the Internet, by phone, or by mail to be licensed and regularly inspected for basic humane care standards. The USDA is seeking public comments on the proposed rule, and you can submit comments here.: http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=APHIS-2011-0003-0001 Please take a moment to speak up for puppy mill dogs!”
Is it not amazing that H$U$ can never seem to find a photo of a well-cared for dog anywhere in the world? Really, does it make sense to keep dogs in poor condition if you are really a breeder? Hey, Wayne, why don’t you seek out the VAST MAJORITY of excellent breeders and post a few pictures of happy, healthy dogs? Do you really think they don’t exist?
HSUS is the biggest modern day scam I know of. Know any other organization who has commercials begging people to donate to their cause… only to spend the $$ on lobbying.
This organization is PETA is sheeps clothing and promotes nothing but half truths or total lies as they spew their propaganda to people who love animals.
I think the 17 million people annually who purchase pets need to understand if HSUS has it’s way… there won’t be any pets left to purchase.
Excellent points Elizabeth! What H$U$ doesn’t tell you is what else those laws they want will do. Lets take a look at their latest attempt, called PUPS (and now with that going nowhere they are working on an end around through the ‘rules’ with USDA)…Just who would be affected by PUPS? The intent seems to be to include more and more breeders under the umbrella of “high-volume breeder”. The bill defines “high volume breeder” as someone with “an ownership interest in or custody of one or more breeding female dogs.” A further stipulation of “high volume” status is that one sells….or even just OFFERS for sale….50 or more dogs in a year. You don’t need to actually sell any dogs! Just advertising or offering dogs for sale is sufficient proof of “high volume”. Now you may think that is a lot of dogs, but not really. If you a)have a breed that has large litters and b) co-own one or more with another breeder you will rapidly reach that number. You needn’t even OWN a dog to become a “high-volume breeder”; just having custody (as handlers and boarding facilities do) qualifies you! HSUS has admitted in their public sessions that their intent is to ratchet down these numbers in future sessions. Since a breeder with ONE intact female cannot possibly produce 50 puppies in a year, it seems logical that PUPS would be amended in the future to adjust downward the permissible number of dogs sold (or just OFFERED for sale) to match the amount that one bitch might reasonably produce in a year. Certainly, less than a dozen puppies. There is a whole segment of breeders who would never sell their dogs through pet stores, but who would be considered “high-volume” under the provisions of this bill. They might be small private home breeders who offer their dogs for sale through newspaper ads or on the internet. They might show their dogs. They might own just a few dogs, or many dogs. They might co-own dogs with others. And the ranks of the hobby breeders could conceivably be joined by handlers, boarding facilities….yes, even rescues, shelters, and kennels that produce service dogs, police dogs, and hunting dogs. Are all these puppy purveyors greedy and evil because they sell dogs? H$U$ would have you believe they are.
Lies, LIES and DAMNED LIES. I hope the AKC sues HSUS and the author of this article. 9 Things You Didn’t Know About HSUS
1. The Humane Society of the United States scams Americans out of millions of dollars through manipulative and deceptive advertising. An analysis of HSUS’s TV fundraising appeals that ran between January 2009 and September 2011 determined that more than 85 percent of the animals shown were cats and dogs. However, HSUS doesn’t run a single pet shelter and only gives 1 percent of the money it raises to pet shelters, and it has spent millions on anti-farming and anti-hunting political campaigns.
2. HSUS receives poor charity-evaluation marks. CharityWatch (formerly the American Institute of Philanthropy) reissued HSUS’s “D” rating in December 2011, finding that HSUS spends as little as 49 percent of its budget on its programs. Additionally, the 2011 Animal People News Watchdog Report discovered that HSUS spends about 43 percent of its budget on overhead costs.
3. Six Members of Congress have called for a federal investigation of HSUS. In April 2011, six Congressmen wrote the IRS Inspector General showing concerns over HSUS’s attempts to influence public policy, which they believe has “brought into question [HSUS’s] tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status.”
4. HSUS regularly contributes more to its own pension plan than it does to pet shelters. An analysis of HSUS’s tax returns determined that HSUS funneled $16.3 million to its executive pension plan between 1998 and 2009—over $1 million more than HSUS gave to pet shelters during that period.
5. The pet sheltering community believes HSUS misleads Americans. According to a nationally representative poll of 400 animal shelters, rescues, and animal control agencies, 71 percent agree that “HSUS misleads people into thinking it is associated with local animal shelters.” Additionally, 79 percent agree that HSUS is “a good source of confusion for a lot of our donors.”
6. While it raises money with pictures of cats and dogs, HSUS has an anti-meat vegan agenda. Speaking to an animal rights conference in 2006, HSUS’s then vice president for farm animal issues stated that HSUS’s goal is to “get rid of the entire [animal agriculture] industry” and that “we don’t want any of these animals to be raised and killed.”
7. Given the massive size of its budget, HSUS does relatively little hands-on care for animals. While HSUS claims it provides direct care to more animals than any other animal protection group in the US, most of the “care” HSUS provides is in the form of spay-neuter assistance. In fact, local groups that operate on considerably slimmer budgets, such as the Houston SPCA, provide direct care to just as many or more animals than HSUS does.
8. HSUS’s CEO has said that convicted dogfighting kingpin Michael Vick “would do a good job as a pet owner.” Following Vick’s release from prison, HSUS has helped “rehabilitate” Michael Vick’s public image. Of course, a $50,000 “grant” from the Philadelphia Eagles didn’t hurt.
9. HSUS’s senior management includes a former spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a criminal group designated as “terrorists” by the FBI. HSUS president Wayne Pacelle hired John “J.P.” Goodwin in 1997, the same year Goodwin described himself as “spokesperson for the ALF” while he fielded media calls in the wake of an ALF arson attack at a California meat processing plant. In 1997, when asked by reporters for a reaction to an ALF arson fire at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah (which nearly killed a family sleeping on the premises), Goodwin replied, “We’re ecstatic.”
Want evidence? Vist: http://www.ConsumerFreedom.com * http://www.HumaneWatch.org * http://www.ActivistCash.com
Revised February 2012. Complete sources and documentation available upon request.__._,
Obviously this has touched a nerve for you, a sheltie breeder. But these proposed regulations and the many animal WELFARE organizations urging the AKC to focus more on small, responsible breeders rather than large-scale breeders can only help you as a “small hobby kennel.” Unless of course you have something to hide/protect. Wouldn’t you want your dogs registered by an organization that actually means something good? It would be a much better use of your time to stop attacking people who are trying to be part of the solution. The HSUS might not be perfect, but at least it is striving to make animals lives better, not worse, by challenging the AKC and people like you who obviously – like a majority of these commenters – seem to have ulterior motives.
Good luck with your acting career.
If you’re treating your shelties right you should have nothing to worry about, Ms Brinkley….what are you hiding?
WHAT this proposal would do is be the death of show/hobby breeders , the ones that have dedicated their lives to their breed, take great care in raising healthy, well socialized pups in a home environment not in sterile USDA commercial kennels.More…
exactly the opposite. This would get rid of large commercial breeders so people would have to go to hobby breeders for purebreds, This seems like great news for hobby breeders.
ALSO Wayne P is LYING again to the American public and their misguided members=the USDA/Aphis proposal has no effect on commercial breeders or puppy farms( I refuse to use the coin Puppy m word that the AR’s have invented) they are for the most partMore…
FOLKS H$US is Peta in sheeps clothing-they are opposed to domestic animals of all kinds! When commenting on Mandatory Spay/Neuter laws, Wayne P was quoted a saying one generation and out! Here is a video that H$U$ does not want you to see http://wwwMore…
I’m not surprised – and glad they’ve been found out.