The American Kennel Club fights to keep puppy mills open. They breed at puppy mills

[freshwest]

8. Years ago, when the dog pound in my city carried unwanted or feral pets in the open, and you could

see the animals, instead of these refrigeration almost looking trucks they now use, my husband and I talked to the dog catcher, and his tale reminds me of this.

He was picking up a dying cat from the sidewalk as we were coming up the street. The cat was in his death throes from feline distemper and there was nothing to be done at that point for him. I don't know where his owner was, or if he was feral.

We looked at the scene, then the animals in the crates. A variety of dogs and cats, mostly old and unwanted, all looking out at the world on their last ride. We talked to him, commiserating on their fates as they were unwanted. It seemed most were older pets, and would all be put down. In that era, it was not the way it's done now.

We thought it awful people just threw away their pets when they got old. He said it was not only the old that he was sent to pick up. He showed us a young kitten he'd been called to pick up from a pet store. We asked why would they do that.

He said the store said his markings were not coming out right, so they would not make the profit they intended, so they called the pound. He had to go there to pick up a perfectly healthy kitten, from the pet store, who knew it would be killed.

He was a 'lilac-point siamese' (as our vet later told us). Seeing the looks on our faces, he said, if you want to give him a home, I'll give him to you here as I haven't made the paperwork. But once I'm back at the office, his chances are pretty bad and I can't do anything then.

So we adopted a throwaway kitten, somewhat on the sly, I guess, who we loved dearly. The AKC and the pet stores are not a good way to get pets. But I've since known people who see pets as status symbols, also as a means to make money. I don't know any but one after time, as I consider them rather shallow individuals.

The one I still know stopped breeding and has kept all of her dogs and will keep them until they pass on. She never kept them in cages and treated them as family members. She thought she'd found good homes for them, and took some back, but became convinced on her own that it was wrong.

I also had a family member who worked in a pet store in a small town, and they had a large pup who had developed a terrible case of the mange. He talked the owner into letting him take the dog home when they decided to send him to the pound. It took months of his treating the dog's skin, even going to the university to have him treated. They worked out an experimental protocol that cured him of the mange and that product is now on the market. The dog lived a happy life and of course loved the person who took the time to rescue and treat him and they were sad to have to put him down at about 12 years old.

Keep up the pressure on this.