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June 10, 2009 07:36 pm
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The horrors of puppy mills
The more than 230 Yorkies, Chihuahuas and other dogs rescued last week from a grossly overcrowded puppy mill in Harrison County will soon be relocated to good homes and the incident quickly forgotten by the public. It shouldn’t be.
Behind the innocuous phrase “puppy mill” hides a grim reality. The vast majority of the more than 2 million puppies sold annually by retail pet stores, through classified ads or on the Internet are mass produced in abysmal conditions by operations that range in size from several dozen dogs to more than a thousand.
These are not responsible breeders. Instead, these puppy mill owners maximize profits by churning out the greatest number of dogs for the lowest possible overhead with scant regard for the health and well-being of the parent animals — or their offspring. Hence, the growth of a wretched industry that cuts corners at every opportunity and for all practical purposes operates with few regulations and minimal oversight.
We who dedicate our professional lives to closing down the worst of these pet factories and working for legislation to clean them up are driven by the sights and sounds and smells we invariably experience when accompanying law enforcement on a raid to serve a complaint warrant for cruelty or neglect.
Typically, you smell the place before you actually see the flyblown filth up close. There’s an overpowering miasma from months or years of accumulated urine and solid waste. Ramshackle chicken wire cages or plywood boxes, often stacked atop each other, can house hundreds of breeding females.
At the Breezy Valley Farm in New Albany, we were confronted with the tragic plight of animals who spend their entire lives imprisoned in this squalor. Most puppy mill breeding dogs may be confined indoors or outside, often with little more than plastic sheeting or a tarp for shelter from the elements.
They get no exercise, no meaningful human interaction and never touch grass or solid ground. Infested with fleas, ticks, and mites and riddled with intestinal parasites, some are barely able to breathe or defecate through matted fur encased in hardened feces.
After years of being soaked in urine, their paws are raw and bloody from acid burns, or from cuts caused by living on wire. You see ulcerated eyes, rotten teeth and diseased mouths. Bred repeatedly from their first heat with no time to recover between litters, their physical fortitude quickly wanes and they are destroyed or discarded.
Inbreeding, minimal or no veterinary care, poor quality food and shelter, lack of socialization — that’s life in a cruel and callous industry that treats dogs like a cash crop.
The product: Defective animals who retail for hundreds, even thousands of dollars, then end up costing their owners double or triple or more in veterinary bills — if they don’t have to be euthanized.
Consumers end up buying puppies suffering from an array of immediate veterinary problems or harboring genetic diseases that surface years later. They include parvovirus, distemper, pneumonia, heartworm, mange, intestinal parasites, chronic diarrhea and dental problems.
Typical congenital and hereditary conditions are heart and kidney disease; respiratory, musculoskeletal and endocrine disorders; epilepsy, deafness and eye problems.
Lax enforcement of animal cruelty law has allowed Indiana puppy mills to thrive, but a new law that takes effect July 1 will give the state increased authority to crack down on these canine factory farms. If you’re planning to get a puppy and choose to buy instead of adopt, visit humanesociety.org/good breeder to obtain an HSUS Good Breeder Checklist.
— Anne Sterling, Indiana state director for The Humane Society of the United States, Indianapolis
Reader confused by vigils for slain abortion doctor
It is somewhat confusing. I read in the newspapers and hear on the TV newscasts about so many of the abortion-rights groups around the country holding vigils praising Dr. George Tiller after his untimely and sudden death.
There’s no question that we should all extend our condolences to his wife and family. There is also no question that the person who shot Dr. Tiller was very wrong and is a murderer. He tried, convicted and applied the death penalty all in one act.
True pro-life supporters all know this is very wrong and cannot be condoned. It certainly is not the American way. Those of us who oppose the death penalty do so because we feel that one killing does not justify another. Only God can create life and only God has the right to end a life.
Abortionists seem to feel that this does not apply to all lives, especially those in the womb. It appears that despite the wrong in murdering Dr. Tiller, giving praise to him is somewhat like giving praise to a serial killer who did not give his victims a fair chance to live — even though some killings might be legal in the eyes of the courts who are not God. Despite the spin, the abortion-rights people put on this act, each time the act occurs a life is snuffed out and, in Dr. Tiller’s case, according to news accounts, 60,000 lives were snuffed out.
May God show him mercy that he did the 60,000.
— W. L. O’Bryan, New Albany
Reader: ‘If you don’t like Theatair X, don’t patronize it’
As a 40-year resident of Clarksville, I am tired of seeing ads and reading letters from people who live in New Albany, Charlestown, Louisville and surrounding areas voicing their ideas about Theatair X. These people want the business prosecuted or closed for minor infractions, such as staying open too late or having inner structures that block the view of the manager.
In all the time I have lived in Clarksville, I have never been inside Theatair X, but I know it is an adult book, video and toy shop. And should I want to see or be there, it is my right to do so. Surely, the residents of Louisville, New Albany and Charlestown have enough stores and issues in their own communities to occupy their energies.
I agreed with removing the outdoor screening of
X-rated movies at the old Theatair X drive-in because it could cause major distraction on the adjoining highway, where 40-foot-tall nudity could be seen. But what goes on inside a store for adults only is not my concern, unless it involves minor children or people who are there against their will.
Since all who enter must be older than 18 and are not forced to be there, why is Theatair X of such interest to those who don’t live in the same community?
All the major investors along Veterans Parkway were not deterred by the small-town adult bookstore. If other residents don’t like the business, they need not patronize it.
I actually believe all the negative press has acted like a promotional campaign for Theatair X, which has more cars in the parking lot than ever before. And I much prefer seeing the cars at Theatair X to seeing voyeurs in cars at the local schools, parks, pools and malls.
Anything one could see at Theatair X can just as easily be viewed on today’s Internet, which is readily accessible to underage youth. Perhaps these organizations and individuals could better direct their efforts to stopping pornography and prostitution on the Internet and leave Theatair X to the adults who desire to patronize it.
To even suggest that the Clarksville Police Department and its chief are protecting this business is beyond absurd. It borders on libel, also prosecutable.
To all the critics, I say, if you don’t like Theatair X, don’t patronize it. No patrons, no business.
Thank you for allowing me to express my opinion.
— Mary Deel, Clarksville
Reader disagrees with council members over Utica cleanliness
After reading David Mann’s May 23 article, “Utica: Junk law gets mixed reaction,” I was reminded of something I was told once by a wise elderly woman.
Several years ago, I worked as a residential technician for the local telephone company in the west end of Louisville. Much of my work was performed in the public housing projects. As I worked in those places, it became obvious to me that most of the residents weren’t very tidy. It wasn’t very often that I would encounter a really clean apartment. But one day I experienced an exception to this when I called on a wise elderly woman living in one of those apartments.
As I entered, I noticed that the place was sparkling clean. The expression, “so clean you could eat off the floor” could have been used to describe those living quarters. I was really impressed and complimented her on her cleanliness. Her answer was one that I’ll never forget. She said, “Just because you’re poor don’t mean you have to be dirty and messy. Soap and elbow grease don’t cost nothin.’”
Oh, I forgot to mention that this woman was also blind and did most of the cleaning herself.
Ken Hall asserted that the Utica Town Council might be “catering to the rich” and placing a burden on lower-income residents in regards to the cleanliness of the town. But this brings to mind the words of the blind woman that remove any excuse for poor people to be messy or dirty.
Also, Councilman Chris Bach was quoted saying, “I’m not going to tell anyone how to live.”
Now, if I’m not mistaken, elected officials are supposed to enact laws and to ensure they get enforced. And if you don’t like telling someone to keep his or her property clean so it won’t drive down the value of all others in the same community, then perhaps, Chris, you need to be doing something else.
Utica has the potential to be a beautiful community and if there are some who are physically or financially unable to keep their place tidy, then I’m sure there are others in the community who would volunteer to help out. If a poor, blind elderly woman can keep her house sparkling clean, then there isn’t much of an excuse for the rest of us to be messy, is there?
— Jim Calvert, Utica
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