“Meet Kingston! He is a super bouncy and playful little guy
who is ready to meet his new family! He has been hand raised around children,
as well as other pets. He will greet you with his tail wagging and ready for
you to spoil him! He has a nice full, thick coat that is fluffy and soft. His
tail curls right over his back, making him a showstopper! He is just a gorgeous
boy! Don't miss out on this guy!” –purebredbreeders.com
Kingston, an eleven-week-old male Bichon Frise, is one puppy
of the 100+ breeds currently listed on www.purebredbreeders.com. White,
even-tempered and weighing 2.5 pounds as of his post-date on Wednesday the
24th. Kingston’s mom has a listed weight of 7-8 pounds, while his dad weighs a
similarly vague 9-10 pounds. A friendly phone sales associate named Camella can
even send a picture via e-mail of Kingston’s “mommy” to guarantee his
upbringing.
With “lifetime guarantee pet insurance” and a triple health
check, Camella will repeat that Pure Bred Breeders do not deal with pet stores
or puppy mills; they only deal nationwide with top breeders that can supply
healthy puppies. Pure Bred Breeders turn away about 90% of the 1,000 breeder
applicants every year, to ensure only the finest of “designer breeds.” If
something goes wrong within the first year of purchase, the breeder will refund
the buyer 100% of the original sale. Between 2-10 years after purchase, Pure
Bred Breeders will refund the buyer 50% of the original sale.
Kingston can be delivered within the week from his “loving
family of breeders” in Arkansas. Pure Bred Breeders uses the same delivery used
by the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, PetSafe. He can be picked up at John
F. Kennedy International or LaGuardia Airport, “pre-spoiled” for his buyer
because he has been so well loved in his Arkansas home. With all of the details
laid out, this handsome fellow should be worth every penny of his listed price,
$1,575. But what if he isn’t?
“We cannot guarantee the disposition or temperament,
conformation, size, weight, color, markings or breeding ability of your new
puppy,” says an exception listed under the Lifetime Guarantee.
This exception may seem a bit contradictory for such a
previously detailed account of little Kingston’s perfectly balanced personality
and physical features, something Joyce L. Nieweg learned the hard way in 2009
when she thought she had found her dream Bichon Frise, Shane, on a similar
website, www.newyorkbichonfrisebreeders.com.
Nieweg explained it was on this website where she saw Shane,
“the cutest little Bichon I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” Much like
Kingston, the website listed the parents’ weight and all of the other
information. “They described him as a handsome little guy, great personality,
loves everybody, has all his vaccinations… this cutie loves to run around and
play with toys. Shane would be a great addition to any family.” The website
listed Shane’s registry as APRI (America’s Pet Registry, Inc.) Living with her
family and a number of pets in their home in Jamaica, Queens, Nieweg believed
Shane would be perfect.
After requesting to see Shane in person, a Buy Puppies
Direct associate, Pam, wrote back in an e-mail on January 1st, “I can reassure
you that all these puppies are being home raised with their breeders and
families and are being well socialized… to see the true personality with one
visit is very difficult.”
Nieweg requested more information about Shane’s father in
early January of 2009. She was in contact with Jackie of
www.buypuppiesdirect.com on January 6th, stating she never received the responses
Jackie had promised her, and she was therefore worried. The following day,
Jackie responded with one photo attachment of Shane’s supposed father. Jackie
writes about Shane’s father, “he’s very handsome very fluffy coat! I know how
excited you are about today, and I know how happy you will be with your new
little one around the house!”
After $1,439 was charged to her VISA account however, Shane
was not the dog she would pick up from JFK later that week.
Nieweg’s tone during a phone conversation with this writer
dropped as she remembered picking up the dog at the airport, “They fly this
thing into me, and I look in the cage, and there is this poor, little thing,
shaking in the back of the cage, covered in urine, I cannot tell you, it was
the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in my life… now starts my complaining.”
Nieweg then began her own research and discovered a link to
Julie’s Jewels, Precious Puppies in Jewell, Iowa on Shane’s papers. It was on
the website for Julie’s Jewels where photos of Shane, the dog supposedly laying
in her living room, was still for sale, listed at nearly one-third of her
purchase price. Nieweg would also soon find that Julie’s Jewels was in fact not
listed as registered on the APRI website. Looking through Nieweg’s file on this
case, a screenshot of the Julie’s Jewels website description reads, “Shane is a
handsome little guy who loves to be held and cuddled. He should be around
8-9lbs full grown.” Nieweg’s first visit to the veterinary office the day after
receiving the dog proved he was already eleven pounds.
Contacting www.buypuppiesdirect.com, the site associated
with both www.newyorkbichonfrisebreeders.com and purebredbreeders.com, Nieweg
wrote that upon picking up the dog at the airport, she notified the breeders
that the dog was not Shane. The breeders then avoided all return contact with
Nieweg. Nieweg contacted them at 1:15 PM on January 12th regarding Shane’s
listing, and by 1:40 PM the “Puppies for Sale” page on Julie’s Jewels website
listed five completely different puppies.
On January 8th, the day after receiving the dog at JFK,
Nieweg was charged a vet bill of $262.90 for the treatment of kennel cough, a
“large amount of earmites” and parasite Giardia. Dr. Odette O, an Associate
Veterinarian at the Animal Hospital of Roslyn, also noted in an invoice, “On
physical examination, he had reasonable body condition, and all of his
deciduous dentition. There was fecal/urine staining and a poor (thin, dull)
haircoat noted.” The puppy also had an upper respiratory infection and skin
scabs.
Nieweg spoke with the Mayor of Jewell, Iowa, who expressed
his greatest empathy, saying, “the conditions that these animals are living in
is so despicable, when they do get notified that there will be an inspection,
of course they clean it up to look beautiful… it was the most horrendous
heartbreaking thing [I’ve] ever seen in [my] life.”
On January 21st, Nieweg wrote to the Better Business Bureau
explaining the dog she ordered was not the dog she received.
On February 2nd, Buy Puppies Direct responded in saying,
“Ms. Nieweg’s confusion is because she found the breeder’s website which was
not updated. That’s why her puppy was still listed as available on the
breeder’s website. Our website, however, was instantly updated… Ms. Nieweg is
upset because she discovered that our organization charges more than the
breeder charges for her puppies.” The company then explained several reasons
for up charging the breeder’s list price, including their 10 year health
guarantee, the breeder screening service that, “only accepts the very best
breeders,” and the simple difference between paying wholesale and retail.
Nieweg’s printed rebuttal from the following day reads that
on January 12th, she contacted Paul Whitmore, the sheriff of Jewell County,
Iowa, who informed her, “that he is very familiar with these breeders and that
they run a puppy mill where these animals are treated terribly and live under
deplorable conditions. He has been trying to shut them down for years.”
In response to proving she had in fact received a puppy
other than Shane, Nieweg explained that days after she had received the dog,
Carolyn Arenob, one of the breeders at Julie’s Jewels was willing to sell her
Shane. Nieweg also notes here that the other breeder, Julie Peterson, “actually
signed the USDA form that came with the puppy as the USDA veterinarian.” The
entire noted USDA form appears to have been filled out by the breeder, Julie
Peterson. Peterson signs her own name on the appropriate line, as well as the
USDA veterinarian. The same penmanship also appears under the animal
identification section and the vaccination history section. Across both of
these sections is written sloppily in Peterson’s hand writing over scribbled
lines, “This pup has passed a general examination and can be shipped in temps
are between 20-85°F.” In the boxes below, the name and address of a Dr. Michael
W. Yanda is written in the same handwriting, with a signature that appears to
be the only thing written differently than the rest of the form. Yanda is a vet
at Webster City Veterinary Clinic in Iowa. Though this is a legitimate clinic
still in business today, it does not add up for the entire form to be filled
out by the breeder, only to include one signature, possibly signed by one
veterinarian.
Nieweg also spoke with representative of PETA, who she
remembers said to her, “Ma’am, I hate to be disrespectful, but if it wasn’t for
people like you, these puppy mills wouldn’t exist.”
“You know something?
You’re absolutely right,” Nieweg regretfully responded.
Nieweg’s tone of voice sounded defeated when she explained
she had written to and contacted several officials in Iowa, New York State, and
Florida, home to Buy Puppies Direct. “I did everything possible to shut this
place down, and all they did was change names, get off the web for a while…
They are disgusting places that exist all over the Midwest, and they use places
like buypuppiesdirect.com. They’ll show you pictures of a beautiful little
whatever you want, and then they tell you it’s $1500, and they go to these
puppy mills like the one I finally tracked down in Iowa, and they get the
puppies for $500. They make sure they’re in a state where no one is allowed on
their land. They make it look like these animals are treated like gold when
they are notified of an inspection.”
On June 30th, 2008, Julie’s Jewels, located at 3434 Little
Wall Lake Road in Jewell Iowa underwent a routine USDA (United States
Department of Agriculture) Animal and Plant Health Inspection. The one page
inspection, carried out by USDA Animal Care Inspector Ronald Beard reads
simply, “No non-compliances identified this inspection.”
Just over one year after Beard’s inspection, on July 17th,
2009, David Kaminsky, a USDA Veterinary Medical Officer Inspector, prepared a
far different report of Julie’s Jewels. Citing eight different violations, some
to be corrected within three days, others by the start of August, were
violations in records, housing facilities, primary enclosures, feeding,
cleaning, sanitization, housekeeping and pest control.
“…The drainage system removing the solid waste from the
upper tier of enclosures—housing Siberian Huskies—was not constructed… to
effectively… remove waste from the area….” To be corrected by 9-1-09.
“On the inside... of one of the enclosures… housing an adult
female and her five puppies—There were multiple points and edges present with
this defect that could harm the dogs contained within.” To be corrected by
8-1-09
“…The metal self-feeders… were rusted to the point where
they cannot be properly cleaned and sanitized by methods described in Sec.
3.11(b)… In addition… some hair and dirt could also be seen on the inside top
edges of some of the receptacles as well, for, in most instances, there are no
covers present protecting the food.” To be corrected by 8-1-09.
“There was more than a days’ worth of fecal material built
up inside the enclosures. This excessive fecal material was being mashed into
the concrete and was observed being tracked throughout the enclosure. All fecal
material must be removed... on a daily basis to prevent soiling of the dogs and
reduce disease hazards, insects, pests, and odors.” To be corrected by 7-20-09.
“There was moderate/severe buildup of algae on the bottoms
and sides of the water receptacles.” To be corrected by 7-20-09.
To believe that a handful of such violations would have
spontaneously come about within a year after a previous inspection that had no
non-compliances under the same ownership of Carolyn and Julie Arends would be
asinine.
In May 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of
Inspector General (IG) created a sixty-nine page Audit Report 33002-4-SF,
confirming, “the USDA had not been doing its job of enforcing the bare minimum
standards of care as outlined in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).” (Iowa Voters
for Companion Animals)
In the executive summary, the IG writes,
“In the last 2 years, there has been significant media
coverage concerning large-scale dog dealers… that failed to provide humane
treatment for the animals under their care. The breeders, negatively referred
to as “puppy mills,” have stirred the interest of the public, Congress, animal
rights groups, and others. Accordingly, we conducted an audit of the Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) Animal Care (AC) unit, which is
responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). The audit focused on
AC’s inspections of problematic dealers.”
The report explains that the Animal Care Unit “believed that
compliance achieved through education and cooperation would result in long-term
dealer compliance and, accordingly, it chose to take little or no enforcement
action against most violators.” Inspectors did not cite/document violations
properly, nor did they correctly report all repeat or direct violations (those
more immediate to the health of the animals.) Because of this, problematic
dealers were inspected far less frequently, even though the realities of
conditions were, indeed, by moral and physical standards, direct.
Inspectors misused guidelines to lower penalties in about
one-third of observed violators. Inspectors inconsistently counted violations,
applied “good faith” reductions to penalties without merit, allowed a “no
history of violations” reduction when the violators had a prior history, and
arbitrarily changed the gravity of some violations and the business size.
The Animal Care Unit claimed, “it assessed lower penalties
as an incentive to encourage violators to pay a stipulated amount rather than
exercise their right to a hearing.”
With a high materialistic demand for “designer breeds,”
thousands of dogs are left without homes while websites such as what Nieweg
used and subsequent “licensed commercial breeders,” aka puppy mills, thrive.
As listed in the 2010 report, “some large breeders
circumvented AWA (Animal Welfare Act) by selling animals over the Internet,”
explaining that those selling animals over the Internet are exempt from the
Animal Care’s inspection and licensing requirements due to a loophole in the
AWA. “As a result, an increasing number of these unlicensed breeders are not
monitored for their animals’ overall health and humane treatment.”
Nieweg requested a refund, understandably so, for the dog
she ordered was clearly not what she received, and she was therefore obviously
totally unsatisfied with her purchase. In a letter addressed to Mrs. Nieweg,
Khevna Kamdar, Financial Service Advisor at Chase bank writes, “…our assistance
may be limited as long as the puppy remains in your possession… We want to
assist you in resolving this with the merchant; however, there is a limited
time period that we have to present your information to the merchant’s bank… If
you delay in responding, we will have very few options assisting you.”
Nieweg avidly refused the return of the puppy she received,
now four-year-old Jake, to the breeder. “I wish I could take every one out of
there, so I kept Jake, we changed his name because he wasn’t Shane and Shane
just brought back bad memories. He is a wonderful, loving dog but if you move
your leg near him, he’ll yelp, so you can tell he was kicked.”
A close friend to the Niewegs, Allie Palma, explains despite
Jake living in a loving home for the past four years, he still almost always
appears to be on edge, particularly around males. Palma says, “How he acts to
this day shows how horribly he must have been treated in the mill.”
Nieweg concluded, “Bottom line was that in Iowa, that is
private property, and unless they are notified that they are going to be
visited, you are not allowed to step on their property, even if you are the
FBI.”
When investigating Kingston’s case, this writer was
surprised when the Buy Puppies Direct bubbly phone representative Camella
offered direct contact with Jessica, Kingston’s breeder. Even Camella explained
this was a great opportunity, as usually buyers are not able to connect
directly with the breeders.
Coming from rural Arkansas, Jessica’s warm southern voice
sounded to match the animal-loving family the website describes.
Jessica illustrated Kingston’s life in his 10-acre home as
very socialized, living with two children, two female Yorkshire Terriers, (one
who breeds, the other does not because Jessica thought she was too small at 3.5
full grown lbs.) Jessica’s thirteen-year-old son’s toy Australian Shepherd,
along with the Shepherd’s five-week-old litter of puppies, and the respective
male partners. “He is very playful, I know most puppies are, but he loves to
play,” Jessica laughed. Kingston is one in five of his mother’s fourth litter
of puppies.
While Kingston’s breeder sounded totally legitimate, the
harsh reality shown through Mrs. Nieweg’s story is that there is no true way to
tell who or what you are dealing with by any means of communication other than
face-to-face.
The websites that purebreds like Jake and Kingston can be
found on feature hundreds of photos of perfectly groomed dogs, literally
wrapped in bows and jewels to visualize how well loved and spoiled rotten they
have been at the homes of their exclusive breeders.
Websites such as The American Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) however feature only the national locations one can
find their adoption centers. When an individual calls the ASPCA or North Shore
Animal League adoption centers, the organization explains that the puppies/dogs
on their website may not represent the exact puppies/dogs they have in-house.
Neither adoption center will guarantee what breeds they have in-house either,
encouraging callers to come in and fall in love for themselves, despite the
breed. The ASPCA also urges all members of the family to attend adoption,
including any pets already living in the household, so that their experts may
properly assess how the adoptee will acclimate to their new environment. These
types of thorough actions taken by the ASPCA in ensuring a happy “forever home”
for the animal clearly exemplify the true love and concern the organization has
for each animal.
American Dog Club, a pet store located on 957 Willis Ave in
Albertson, New York has about fifteen to twenty dogs on display in their
facility. There is a nine-week-old multi Shih Tzu male puppy, for sale at the
price of $1,500. The sales associate, Hope, explained that the puppy is from a
private breeder in Illinois. Hope avidly explained this facility is “constantly
USDA inspected,” like the other list of ten-or-so breeders the American Dog
Club has been dealing with since 1995.
Hope mentioned several times, without being asked, that they
do not deal with puppy mills or faulty breeders, ensuring their puppies are
happy and healthy from birth. The dog’s papers that Hope displayed listed no
other information about his breeder aside from the arbitrary information of
their location being in the state of Illinois.
Contact with this breeder was not permitted, as Hope
explained the breeders deal with the store exclusively because they do not wish
to be involved with the customer.
Urging his sale, Hope harped on the puppy’s handsome
features, saying that because of his “adorable little face,” he would most
likely sell within the week. Good news then followed, when Hope explained that
if he were to sell in the next couple of days, the store will still have his
sister downstairs in the nursery.
An employee of the store, Christina, confirmed over the
phone that the American Dog Club is currently in possession of between thirty
and forty puppies. This number implies that at least half of the puppies in
this location are kept in the “downstairs nursery.”
In early 2011, this writer had planned to adopt from The
North Shore Animal League after losing her eleven-year-old Golden Retriever to
cancer.
It was a muggy day in August 2011 when this writer took a
trip in a moment of spontaneity to the town’s new pet store, Puppies, Puppies,
Puppies in Bedford Hills, New York. It was less than two hours later that she
had fallen in love with and spent her entire savings account on an 8lb foxy
Shiba Inu she would later call Sadie.
Although she had heard about puppy mills, she never
considered that she might be supporting such a horrendous business in buying
this seemingly friendly, happy and healthy puppy.
On August 26th, two days after her purchase date Sadie had
her first visit to the vet at Yorktown Animal Hospital. This visit was free of
charge with her purchase from Puppies, Puppies, Puppies. She was diagnosed with
Kennel Cough and two intestinal parasites, Giardia and Coccidia. During
follow-up visit, Sadie was diagnosed with ear mites and an Upper Respiratory
Infection. All of these symptoms and diagnoses match almost exactly with the
issues that Nieweg found in her Bichon Frise, Jake after receiving him from the
mill.
For months, Sadie struggled with severe stomach indigestion
issues. Sadie’s vet, Dr. Raclyn of Yorktown Animal Hospital said these issues
seemed like a result of a poultry allergy. Months later, Sadie is now on a
stable dry food diet of Purina One Chicken & Rice Formula.
Now over a year after her purchase, this writer looked back
at Sadie’s papers, where she found the breeders who sold Sadie were Donald and
Judith Rhoads. The Rhoads facility is located at 21035 Hollow Place, Atlanta,
MO. The sale was made to Puppies, Puppies, Puppies in Yonkers, NY, most
recently known to the public as having been fined $20,000 for keeping its pets
in unsafe and inhumane conditions.
As listed by the USDA, Rhoads is a licensed commercial
breeder in Macon County, Missouri.
As of January 25th, 2011, Rhoads had an inventory of
eighty-four adult dogs, and thirty-eight puppies, well over the number to
qualify for a “large” commercial breeding facility, which is only three
breeding adults.
Four USDA Inspections are recorded on petshoppuppies.com,
however only two of the files are available for viewing. June 2009 and February
2010 do not show any violations in the documented reports, while routine
inspections are not at all available for January 2011 or February 2012.
It is a bit nonsensical that a USDA Inspector would take the
time to count out eighty-four adults and thirty-eight puppies, and not then
upload the inspection file for that same date.
It is this inconsistency in the USDA system that so many advocacy
groups have shamed over the years. The USDA’s ignorance to keep updated files,
especially available for public viewing often results in a fatal end for many
puppy mill animals.
According to The New York Times, the recent exposure of
Yonkers’ Puppies, Puppies, Puppies is a primary result of actions being taken
by Eric T. Schneiderman, attorney general of New York in his initiative to
protect New York’s pets.
The Puppies, Puppies, Puppies Bedford Hills location where
this writer purchased Sadie has since been closed for a number of months. Aside
from the $20,000 fine, the Puppies, Puppies, Puppies Yonkers location was
forced to promise a hault in the sale of sick puppies. The recent issues with
the Yonkers location reported by The New York Times indicate further proof that
Sadie, now a seemingly healthy young adult was purchased by the Yonkers store
by a puppy mill run by Donald and Judith Rhoads, a USDA licensed commercial
breeding facility still in business.
