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Tackling the Supply and Demand

October 31, 2008, 6:29PM MT

By Kelli Ohrtman

Puppy mill industry workshops inspire and educate at the NMHP Conference

Puppy mill industry workshops inspire and educate at the NMHP Conference

Click here for more about Best Friends' No More Homeless Pets Conference

Both workshops dealing with puppy mill issues were first thing in the day, and packed. Conference attendees spoke loud and clear—they want to do something about puppy mills! Two sections covered the issue, which was broken down into two simple components: addressing the supply of puppy mill dogs (commercial breeders) and the supply (Internet sales and pet stores).

The fact that the 8:00a.m., Sunday morning (the third day of the conference) session on pet stores was packed to standing room only should have puppy store owners feeling more than a little nervous.

Puppy Mills: the Nuts and Bolts
Friday’s session, called “Puppy Mills and the pet trade: what you can do” saw about 150 attendees, a good number for our first ever workshop on the topic. Best Friends Campaign manager Nikki Sharp kicked things off by addressing the audience to ask how many people in the room were actively working in their communities to stop puppy mills. A few dozen hands went up. Nikki began with a basic overview of the issue, clarifying that puppy mills are legal and regulated by state and federal governments, and what that means (i.e., very little for the quality of life for breeding dogs in licensed facilities).

Claudine Wilkins, Best Friends’ Attorney- legislative counsel, took over from there and outlined in more detail, how the government regulates commercial dog breeding facilities and prosecutes animal cruelty that is often found there. There was much to discuss and much to learn, but she chose to focus on case studies of two commercial dog breeding facilities that Best Friends helped successfully shut down in the past year—one in Georgia and one in West Virginia.

When the final speaker, Virginian Teresa Dockery—CEO of the Margaret Mitchell Spay/Neuter clinic had her turn, she outlined two more puppy mill cases won in the past year. One of the most interesting take-away points from the session was that no two cases are exactly alike. Because puppy mills themselves are still legal here, they can’t simply be identified and shut down. But busts happen nearly every week in some corner of the country, and each is approached differently based on the unique details of the case. Different angles include: Conditional Use Permits, class action lawsuits, state cruelty laws, environmental and consumer fraud issues. Often, as in Teresa Dockery’s case in Virginia, legislation follows that makes it tougher for the worst puppy mills to get away with cruelty. Click here to read more about it.

Dear Pet Store, Please Stop Selling Puppies!
To be honest, a simple request doesn’t do the trick to stop a pet store from halting puppy sales. We wish it were that easy. Jennifer Krause of Best Friends has been entrenched in the battle to stop several Los Angeles pet stores from selling puppies. She’s been doing this since before Best Friends’ program, A Puppy Store Free L.A. officially began earlier this year.

Since Jennifer has been involved, many groups have come together to successfully shut down Posh Puppy, and are a hair’s breadth away from success at Pets of Bel-Air. A Puppy Store Free L.A. is also now targeting Pet Love, a store that has sold thousands of puppies—many sick, they are finding out from passers-by who have purchased puppies from the store.

The key points to her presentation were to be organized, professional, and dedicated. Running peaceful pet store protests are similar to running a business. You need a plan and staffing (volunteers work great!) and a budget (though not a large one) and the tenacity to stick with it even when your competitors seem to have the upper hand.

In all, the number of conference attendees who are now starting to look at ways they can stop puppy mills has certainly been increased. Breeders beware—you’re up against a new army of inspired souls.

More information and what you can do:
1.) Get active and involved today: start by downloading the guide: “Nine things you can do to help stop puppy mills,” available at the Best Friends puppy mill campaign website: http://puppymills.bestfriends.org (Click the Resources tab)

2.) Learn more about the Margaret B. Mitchell Spay/Neuter Clinic at their website: http://www.mbmspayneuterclinic.org/index.html

3.) Learn more about A Puppy Store Free L.A. by clicking here

4.) To learn more about the specific puppy mill cases discussed in the workshops, click the links below:
Bland County, Virginia

Carroll County, Virginia

Jackson County, Georgia

Wood County, West Virginia

5.) Watch a five-minute video from the conference on YouTube

Posted by Kelli Ohrtman: Best Friends Animal Society
Photos by Clay Myer

Comments

Posted November 01, 2008, 6:34PM by formyluvof_tammy

I live in Kansas and as you know the puppymill problem here is huge! We have two pet stores that have opened and I protested but people here just dont get it! At my last protest no one showed up but my husband and I and my rescue dog Tammy. After the 2nd person pulled up to see if I had puppies for sale I became very upset and just bagged the whole thing. I had big signs and posters and yet it doesnt seem to matter. any ideas out there on what to do???

I love the idea of the puppymill conferences regarding the pet store problem. Has anyone considered coming to Kansas??? I need some help here.

thanks
nancy

Posted November 14, 2008, 9:24AM by Myles_1015

I think you need to have more workshops here in the North East...I live in Massachusetts and I know there would be a full house if you had a seminar somewhere in New England..then maybe at the workshop you could have a protesting sign up to close down diffrent pet stores..the more people show up the better...but you have to get the people together..if you offer it, they will come.
Just and Idea with some Hope mixed in !!

Posted November 09, 2008, 6:30PM by marys

Hey, Nancy, hats off to you for trying! You are correct, they just don't get it there. It took me three years of gentle discussions to convince some of my family there that buying was not a good idea. I'm wondering if animal articles in the newspapers would help. Perhaps gently making the case by giving other advice, etc. and then slowly getting the puppy mill info.into the mix. Or possibly going to speak at the schools.