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It’s Official: Morrison County Board Approves Kennel Permit

April 05, 2007, 12:0AM MT

By Kelli Ohrtman

McDuffee allowed to keep and breed 500 dogs

McDuffee allowed to keep and breed 500 dogs

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By Kelli Ohrtman: Best Friends Network

News of the Morrison County board’s probable decision leaked to the newspapers early, but the official word came today. After adding 13 new conditions, the board unanimously approved Gary McDuffee’s Conditional Use Permit (CUP). He will be allowed to keep 500 adult dogs for breeding purposes, not counting puppies.

The permit also requires that 1/6 of the indoor building be reserved as an exercise area, though no outdoor exercise is required. The facility will be subject to annual inspections by a county staff member, with 24-hour advance notice.

It was a disappointing decision to all who have opposed the permit, including several animal welfare organizations, 400 Morrison County residents, and 22,600 others who signed a petition opposing it.

Here are the conditions under which McDuffee has agreed to operate, as directed by the Morrison County board:

Special Conditions

1. All feces generated by the dogs on site must be double bagged and hauled to the Morrison County Landfill.

2. Adequate supervision and monitoring of the site must be continuously maintained. This may be accomplished by someone living on the site and/or through electronic monitoring which, at a minimum, means monitoring for power outages, fire, and temperature.

3. A fifty (50) foot buffer strip of conifer trees will be planted within one year of approval of the Conditional Use Permit and maintained on the north and east side of the property as recommended by the Morrison Soil and Water Conservation District.

4. All wash water from the kennel must go through the onsite septic system.

5. County staff will conduct an inspection of the site on an annual basis with 24 hours notice for compliance with the conditional use permit and special conditions of the permit.

6. If an outdoor exercise area is provided it must be located on the west side of the present building. Hours of outdoor exercise will be limited to the hours of 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

7. No dogs shall be debarked. No shock collars will be used to control barking.

8. One-sixth (1/6) of the total indoor building area will be set aside for an exercise area for the dogs.

9. The number of adult dogs permitted onsite is 500. An adult dog is defined as four (4) months of age or older.

10. Removal of dead dogs from the site must be done through a cremation or rendering service.

11. The owner of the dog breeding facility at this site must be in compliance with all federal, state, and county statutes related to the operations of this dog breeding facility. If at any time the owner of this dog breeding facility is convicted of any violation of such statutes, the Morrison County Board of Commissioners shall hold a hearing to consider the revocation of the Conditional Use Permit, at which time the owner shall be allowed to be heard on the issue.

12. The USDA kennel license must be maintained at all time.

13. The Conditional Use Permit is non-transferable without prior Morrison County Board of Commissioners’ approval.

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Comments

Posted April 25, 2007, 11:35AM by mikefry

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Posted May 06, 2007, 1:14 by Waldo3

What's wrong with this county board? Are they included in the profits or what? And then to give a 24 hr notice for an inspection of the facility? What a joke. Who needs 500 dogs to multiply and create more homeless and abused animals. Get a life Cty Board and use your brains if you have any. Money is your purpose? Well how about a little love for all these dogs? Anyone who thinks this is right is totally crazy! I have and own dogs but would never be able to think of breeding any. Have you ever considered the amount of dogs in shelters? Adopt a few of them if you think you know how to reaise dogs-don't keep breeding them for the love of God! Grow Up! Money isn't everthing. So lets have puppies and sell them and just kill them right? As long as you have the money for them who cares! You are a sick freak! God created animals for a reason - NOT TO ABUSE and then KILL! Many dogs are considered family members. Is it like if you decide you wouldn't want one of your children just abuse her/him and then kill them? THINK!!!! Jeanne

Posted April 10, 2007, 3:25 by cattees

This makes me wonder how much of the profits go into the Board's collective pocket. Shameful!

Posted April 10, 2007, 3:50 by Evie2979

THIS DECISION IS MOTIVATED / BASED ON / INFLUENCED / DRIVEN BY....................

MONEY MONEY MONEY GREEDY MONEY GRABBING SELFISH MONEY MONEY MONEY

Posted April 05, 2007, 3:56 by mikefry

Naturally, the big question is this:

Since Morrison County knew McDuffee was out of compliance with USDA regs for at least 5 years, and since they knew he was out of compliance with Minnesota State cruelty statutes, what makes them think he will comply with these conditions? And how will they enforce them? An annual inspection? That is a joke!

Posted April 08, 2007, 6:0 by ratmom

A puppy mill is a puppy mill whether you're double-bagging dog poop or not. It's bad, bad, bad and should be stopped. There are so many good animals out there, we sure don't need some venal breeder adding to the stock.

Posted April 05, 2007, 2:42 by kendra

Nooo!!! Oh come on! Even with all those extra requirements, it doesn't matter! What about how often the dogs are allowed to be bred? He can still breed them every time they come into heat! And what about what happens to the puppies once he sells them to a broker? They'll still be packaged up like products and shipped all over the country! And what about the simple fact that we don't need 500 dogs producing more puppies every year!! Let's do the math, even if only half of those 500 dogs are female (which I'm sure it's more than half), that's 250 dogs producing puppies. Each litter is about 6 puppies, and each female can have, what?, 4 litters a year? That's 6,000 more puppies a year! It's probably more likely that at least 75% of the dogs are female. So that's 375, with 6 puppies 4 times a year. That's 9,000 dogs. So now this guy can pump 6,000 to 9,000 more puppies into the country every year!
They shouldn't be allowing him to produce even more puppies just based on the simple truth that it's completely irresponsible! It's a proven fact that there are not enough homes for all of the puppies produced in this country. And the taxpayers end up suffering. We have to pay more in animal control costs because guys like this are greedy and selfish! And the volunteers suffer because we have to work harder and longer, and we pay more in donations than the taxpayers will ever pay. Plus we have to live with the fact that no matter how hard we work and no matter how much money we give to rescues, we will never be able to save them all so long as people like this McDuffee jerk are out there producing more and more puppies! Grr! Now I'm all irritated...

Posted April 08, 2007, 6:42AM by go_cat_go

Oh no!!!

Posted April 09, 2007, 4:34 by mcmars

What a disappointment... an to think that this was an unanimous decision. I just can't believe this. To the Morrison County Board... this disaster is on your head.

Posted April 10, 2007, 9:29AM by alex

"Removal of dead dogs..."?!?! That says it all...I don't know what these people are thinking - these are sentient beings being produced here not clothing or furniture...don't they see that this is wrong?

Posted April 10, 2007, 2:53 by yoshie1

The fight continues. Please see www.animalarkshelter.org to continue the fight challenging the McDuffee CUP. It's not over yet.

Posted April 10, 2007, 7:29 by Animal_Lover_Forever

Oh how horrible!!! I can't believe that these people can't see how incredibly cruel these awful puppy mills are!