Puppy Mills in Missouri and Euthanasia numbers

Earlier this week, the AP released a story about puppy auctions in the state of Missouri. You can find it here and here (I'm providing two sources for the same story in hopes that at least one link will last awhile).

The article centers around a dog auction in which about 250 dogs were bought and sold...many were bought with the purpose of rebreeding these animals so the buyer could make back their money.   At this auction, a dog was sold an average of about every 58 seconds...and the average price was about $155.

Missouri has long been known for being very lax on commercial dog breeders.  This lax attitutude has caused the number of commercial auctions for dogs to rise from 10 in 1995, to 28 in 200o to 67 in 2005. 

At a time when euthanasia rates are falling throughout the country, according to the Missouri Animal Control Alliance, the Missouri Euthanasia rates are going up.    In 2007, Missouri has seen a 4,000 animal increase in the number of animals killed at licensed shelters throughout the state.  This is nearly a 10%  increase over the same timeframe in 2006.

While kill rates are a reflection of the commercial breeding that takes place in the state, there also may be another factor at play.  2006 saw three of the state's four largest cities implement some form of Breed Specific Legislation -- two cities, Springfield and Independence passed outright bans on "pit bull" type dogs, while Kansas City, MO passed a law mandating the spay/neuter of all "pit bulls".   There is little doubt that this led to the death of thousands of dogs in these cities.

What can you do to help?

1) Adopt a dog from your local shelter and encourage your friends to do the same.  Cutting off the $$ supply to commercial breeders will end the commercial breeding.  It's a supply and demand game.

2) Tell your current city to not enact Breed Specific Legislation that causes the the needless killing of dogs.  If your city has it, work to get it repealed.

3) Volunteer at your local shelter and encourage them to do more to adopt out more dogs with off-site adoption events.

It's important that we reverse what is a very negative trend of increasing the kill rates in Missouri. 

Comments

[Caveat]

Those auctions are heartbreaking. Some breed clubs attend to buy up their dogs, which while understandable is the wrong thing to do. It just perpetuates the practice.

Missouri is one of the top miller states, has been for a long time. Most of the dogs are shipped out of state like produce to be sold to unsuspecting people in pet shops across the continent. Some are sold over the internet.

I doubt that the presence of legitimate commercial breeders (and there are a few) is a major factor in the higher kill rates. I suspect it's lack of will on the part of shelters to explore every avenue to find homes for the animals they take in.

You can tell I've been reading Redemption - what a great book.

Peta is running some inaccurate - heck, ridiculous - ads right now about 'breeders' contributing to the deaths of adoptable shelter dogs. That's a crock. Breeders aren't killing those dogs directly or even indirectly.

It's all part of the push to outlaw breeding which, combined with mandated sterilization, breed bans and mass killings of dogs and cats will make dogs very scarce, if not extinct.

[EmilyS]

mandatory s/n led to MORE deaths?
wow, that's sure not what the supporters of these bills claim.

I wonder if there's any way to trace the dogs that turn up in shelters to their source? Do they come from these auctions, or from other sources of puppy mill?

I read a lot of blaming about dogs in shelters, but I haven't seen any proof

[Brent]

EmilyS,

I think it's safe to say that there are a lot of reasons why there are dogs in shelters. People turning dogs into shelters because they're being "difficult" instead of training out the problem. People breeding dogs (and unplanned litters) that lead to more dogs out there than homes. Shelters not doing enough to get dogs adopted out and turning down potential adopters for silly reasons. People who buy dogs for no real reason instead of adopting them. There are likely many factors...and the reason you see no "proof" is because it's hard to find someone who has any data on this information that isn't pushing an agenda of some type. Read "Redemption" and it will give you a pretty good idea of what is causing the 'overpopulation' problem.

Meanwhile, yes, sadly, MSN tends to have the opposite affect that you'd hope to have. I've never seen a single study that has shown MSN has done anything to lower euthanasia rates (unlike really strong voluntary programs that seem to work well). What then ends up happening is that many people who don't have their dogs spayed/neutered end up with their dogs getting taken by animal control for not being in compliance with the law and the dog ends up getting euthanized. Take KCMO for example. They passed MSN for 'pit bulls'. What happens when someone doesn't comply? Well, they get taken to the shelter. Since the shelter doesn't adopt out pit bulls, the dog has a 95% likelihood of being put down. The owners, then, likely go out and get another dog (which further encourages breeders to breed) and the cylce continues. Meanwhile, this all too often takes Animal Control resources away from dealing with other dog issues and causes a host of other problems (including San Francisco that pass BSL MSN and doubled their bite rates the following year). MSN almost always has the opposite affect that it's supposed to have. I wish the people who pushed for these laws would check stats on places that have passed it so they wouldn't do so.

[Caveat]

I read somewhere recently, might even have been here, that MSN also contributes to rabies outbreaks.

Since it's fairly expensive to get a dog neutered these days, low income people have trouble affording it. I don't want to get into whether someone who can't afford basic maintenance should have a dog at this point. They have a dog or dogs.

MSN comes in and there's no subsidized or at-cost clinic so they hide out. They don't go to the vet for shots, since they have an intact dog. No rabies vaccination and if there is wildlife they are vulnerable. So, dogs get rabies and get put to death.

Since no rabies = no licence in most places, people don't license either. There goes any accuracy about how many dogs live in an area.

Health problems aside, mandating radical surgery on the basis of personal beliefs and junk science is just plain unacceptable.

Kind of like breed bans.

[Brent]

Caveat,

Best Friends actually has a great story on their site about MSN. I believe that it was Ft. Worth, TX that had the Rabies situation following their MSN. It covers the lower licensing rates that follow MSN and other problems that come from it. I'd love to link to it, but the link is down right now (annoying). Nevada passed MSN a couple years ago and saw their vets increase S/N rates and ended up seeing a 22% increase in euth rates.

I'm not sure why everyone hasn't follow New Jersey's system where they have really promoted low cost voluntary S/N programs which has actually been really successful in getting Euth rates down.

[Caveat]

Yes, it was Texas, wish I could remember where I saw it, I've been reading a lot of stuff lately.

All of these good intentions end up paving the road to you-know-where.

I wish politicians and other meddlers would just back off and let dog owners get on with their lives.

[selwyn john marock]

The first step is to change the terminology from euthanasia to MURDER,and BSL to GENOCIDE.Start calling a spade a spade.
Their is very little difference between Hitler and his gang of Nazi THUGS and the likes of Kory Nelson's of the world,many ,many similiarities.

[Marjorie]

On that note, selwyn john marock, I was a bit surprised in reading two recent news stories almost back to back. One used the word "murder" in the headline (but not in the story) about a dog that was killed. In another incident, having found a dog which had clearly been sodomized, the act was not only referred to as "rape," in the news story, but the attending veterinarian allegedly did a "rape kit" on the dog, in the hopes of prosecuting the perpetrator.

[Michelled]

I will have to find the email but I believe MSN has had some success when applied properly. In Balitimore (somewhere up there) they have mandatory micro chip on your first offense and then MSN on your second. You only penalize irresponsible/law breaking citizens though...NEVER penalize the majority to get at the minority. This is what scares me with anti-tethering laws...I think it is absolutely cruel but I cringe at how many dogs would be rounded up in KCMO and killed if they passed it here - much like with MSN. "Killing" to "save" makes no sense to me. And people don't seem to get that BSL, MSN, pet limits and even anti-tethering laws KILL pets.

[Michelled]

I should add continuous/constant tethering is cruel - "inhumane tethering".