MO GOP defends puppy mills
UPDATE: Missouri's Gutted Puppy Mill Law In Action. After nearly 1 million voters pass Prop B: The Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act, Missouri's Republican led legislature devises a new bill to gut the original. They approve the we-know-better version, essentially trashing the people's will. Citing economic hardship! and an animal rights agenda! — the nation's Puppy Mill Capital fiercely clings to its epithet.
In fact, Prop B merely mandates sufficient food, water, exercise, cage size, hygiene and medical care. It seeks to shield dogs from intense heat or cold and instate more humane breeding cycles. Voters are furious to see their successful ballot initiative diluted, while breeders fume over any measures to regulate them. Governor Jay Nixon (2009 to 2017) intervenes with the “Missouri Compromise,” a set of softened rules engineered to appease both sides: The Canine Cruelty Prevention Act.
Springboard To Change Or Failed Effort?
4/27/12 » Where Did Missouri's Puppy Mill Debate Go? St. Louis Post Dispatch, Todd C. Frankel. At 1 year under a weakened version of Missouri's puppy mill law, state-licensed commercial dog breeders decrease by 21% in 2011, plus another 10% in 2012. Officially, 1,000 licensed breeders operate in Missouri, compared to 1,802 in 2008 (Animal Care Facilities Act). In early 2012, Prop B funders Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and ASPCA oppose the compromise bill. By March, then HSUS president Wayne Pacelle consents to drop the “Your Vote Counts” campaign in exchange for repeal of a “shelter tax” that takes money from nonprofit shelters and rescues to finance state inspections. Humane Society of Missouri pays an annual $5,500 fee under this rule. Pacelli says it's illogical to charge rescuers who “relieve a burden caused by breeders.”
12/2/21 » Missouri Was The Nation's Puppy Mill Capital, But Advocates Fought Back. STL NPR, Emily Woodbury. In the continuing saga of not-as-bad-as-before, Missouri breeders must now reduce their dog populations, contain animals with space to move instead of wire stacked cages, and give breeding dogs rest between cycles. Over half of Missouri's 2,000 commercial breeders are closed 10 years after the Canine Cruelty Prevention Act becomes law. Before that, Missouri was home to 30% of mill-style sites nationwide, four times as many as the next highest state. By 2021, some 900 licensed dog breeders are in business. The drop-off is attributed, in part, to wider enforcement. Pre-law, only local prosecutors could charge breeders with violations (they rarely did). Post-law, the state attorney general may investigate and close facilities. Debbie Hill, Humane Society of Missouri's chief operating officer, says more provisions have been phased in over the years: “So really, the final product has been enforced now for about five years.” Hill hopes Missouri will take further steps to ban the sale of commercially bred dogs in pet stores.
Lawmakers Step Backward, Toward Cruelty.
2024 » Missouri's GOP supermajority drafts bills that force communities to allow pet stores. In a move that only incentivizes puppy mills, SB-937 / HB-2265 defend corporations like Petland — known for the sale of sick puppies to unwitting consumers. Shoddy breeding methods predispose pet shop pups to chronic infirmities such as hip dysplasia, dislocating kneecaps, seizures, eye lesions, liver, kidney and heart disease, and autoimmune disorders. In California, a state financed study revealed almost half of pet store pups are sick or harboring diseases. These bills also bar local government from enacting laws to ban pet shops — yet another example of government overreach in red states like Missouri. As other states (Illinois, California, Maryland, Maine, Washington, New York) ban sale of commercially bred puppies, kittens, parrots and other animals inside pet stores, Missouri moves in the opposite direction. Take Action.
Chain Of CrueltyWhen people buy animals at pet stores, they perpetuate a supply chain that begins at breeding mills. The demand for pet store pups ensures that breeders churn out thousands more dogs. The mass breeder's bottom line is low overhead and high return. Federally licensed Class A breeders form contractual agreements with brokers, or Class B dealers, who purchase pups for resale to some 16,948 U.S. pet outlets (2023). Brokers seek flawless 8-week old babies to pile into crates for shipment by truck or plane. A dog who misses a broker's weekly pickup may be deemed “too old” by the next collection day and consequently killed. If a broker reaches his regional sales quota, he has nowhere else to market dogs. In most cases, the leftovers are healthy young animals.
A broker's criterion is based on what the public demand. Former director/founder of Flawdogs Adoption, a one-time puppy mill rescue in Missouri, notes: “We saved a lot of Bichon and Maltese pups who have biscuit-colored ears. They won't accept biscuit on a white dog, or any color considered inconsistent, even an odd-colored eye.” Ives took the broken, sick and disfigured, any breeder rejects she could rescue. “How do you pick which ones to save and which ones to pass a death sentence on? They ride quietly in our crowded van. We hold as many in our laps as we can.”
Animals may be culled if: Too small. Too large. Undescended testicles. Umbilical hernias. A sparse coat. A short tail. Abscessed feet, hyperflexion, loss of limbs or bones, deformed legs (from trauma inside cramped wire enclosures)… The “flaw” in older dogs is their inability to produce a viable litter of six or more pups. Mills breed females from six months of age to every heat cycle thereafter. When too worn to turn a profit, dogs as young as two to five years are shot or clubbed in the head. Other throwaways are sold to research laboratories or simply discarded.
