The American Kennel Club fights to keep puppy mills open. They breed at puppy mills [View all]

[Maraya1969]

I posted somewhere else that years ago I worked for a "breeder" of Corgies. They sold their dogs for over $1,000 and always had one or two making the dog show rounds. These dogs go from a crate at night that is like the one you take your pet to the vet with to a dog run during the day on concrete. They rarely get out to play. They are no different from animals who are looking for a home at animal shelters. There were always litters of puppies at various ages coming up. I find it hard to believe that they didn't kill some of them just because it would be hard to find a buyer for each.

Someone then told me that the AKC has been fighting to keep puppy mills alive. Maybe they are doing it because they are damned puppy mills.

I will NEVER go to a dog or cat show and I may just boycott the advertisers of their shows on TV.

TODAY Show Exposes Link Between Puppy Mills and the AKC

This morning, the TODAY Show ran a hard-hitting exposé on the American Kennel Club, revealing that the nation’s largest purebred registry group, one that self-identifies as “the dog’s champion,” is connected at the hip to the puppy mill industry. The program, as reported by Jeff Rossen, highlighted a report released by The HSUS that revealed that the AKC has now opposed more than 90 state and local bills to establish some minimum humane breeding standards for the care of dogs over the last five or so years. The central problem, also picked up in today’s news report, is that the AKC is financially beholden to the puppy mill industry through its puppy registration program. It is estimated that about 75 percent of its constituency are commercial puppy producers. The TODAY Show broadcast includes a variety of scenes from HSUS raids of squalid, overcrowded puppy mills that were registering puppies with the AKC.

This sort of exposure – which reminds people that AKC papers are essentially meaningless to anyone interested in acquiring a dog – is helping to drive consumers toward shelters and rescue groups and to more responsible breeders as the source for the new animal in their lives. That’s as it should be. More resources are readily available for consumers, such as the Shelter Pet Project for adoptable pets, and our guide to finding a responsible dog breeder.

Sales of dogs in pet stores, one of the primary ways puppy millers sell their dogs, have been steadily declining as a result of our investigations, consumer education and outreach campaigns, and policy reforms. The country’s two major pet supply chains – PetSmart and Petco – do not sell dogs from breeders, and make dogs available for adoption from shelters and rescues. In Canada, Petland stopped selling puppies completely because it is no longer profitable. More than 2,000 independent pet stores have signed our pledge not to sell puppies.


http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2013/05/today-show-puppy-mills-akc.html