We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.
Letter as published on
RisingMediaGroup.com
February 28, 2020
Dear Editor:
Almost three years ago we asked the Town of Greenburgh to join other locales
by enacting a puppy mill ban.
Based on the wealth of proof provided to Greenburgh, pet shops use adorable
little puppies and kittens as a cover for cruel and shameless animal
exploitation. Most residents of the town may never see or know the facts
about this awful business, but there are more than 100 complaints on Yelp
and the Better Business Bureau – some as recent as Feb. 20 – plus at least
one pet shop earning a big glaring “failure” BBB rating, attesting to the
fact that animals are produced under inhumane conditions and are miserably
treated and victimized by area pet shops.
After immediately promising a ban, Greenburgh has since evaded, delayed, and
mismanaged this effort, despite almost 300 similar bans enacted in various
U.S. venues, despite seven pet shop bills already enacted in Westchester,
and despite a Greenburgh pet shop actually being busted by the attorney
general in May for selling animals “that required treatment for illnesses
commonly associated with animals bred at puppy mills, such as kennel cough,
giardia, distemper and parvovirus,” and for using puppy mills but telling
the public their animals were “home raised.”
Some pet store owners claim they get their dogs from private breeders, but
the huge number of dogs sold in pet shops – numbers offered by owners
themselves – belie that claim. Private breeders could never supply such
numbers nor would it be in a private breeders interest to sell their animals
to pet shops rather than directly to the public. Moreover, the National
Breeders Club’s Code of Ethics almost completely prohibits and discourages
members from selling to pet stores.
Although they all brag about being “licensed,” most puppy mills are
“licensed by the USDA,” even the especially awful ones used bythe
Greenburgh store the A.G. busted – and their multiple violations for lack of
veterinary care, filth, etc., didn’t get those licenses revoked.
Puppy mills were started by the government and remain entrenched in the
USDA. But states and local venues can make a difference.
Yet despite evidence and the disgrace right in Greenburgh, town officials
continue welcoming pet shops. No one on the town council even flinched when
shown truly disturbing photos of common breeding equipment such as the “rape
rack.”
“What about the ‘good’ ones?” Greenburgh asks as they prostrate themselves
to pet shops. There are no good ones, not one. No one should kowtow to pet
shops and their attorneys while animals are suffering.
Almost all forms of animal exploitation are done out of the public eye –
displays of misery usually aren’t a big selling point. “Pedigree” animals
wind up in shelters, too. People will still have the choice to get pedigrees
from private breeders and breed rescue groups. But this effort is about the
animals – who have no choice. And especially while millions of animals are
killed in shelters yearly, decent people must put a stop to mass producing
dogs and cats by the truckload as though they are dumpster trash, from
tormented parents whose whole life is nothing more than being bred till
exhaustion, who never know a kind word or friendly pat on the head.
Greenburgh needs to stop dodging decency. Town Supervisor Paul Feiner states
he “abhors puppy mills.” Well it’s time to “be a hero and not a zero.”
Greenburgh has a chance to effect change, to help the truly voiceless who
feel pain and happiness just as we do, and love their babies just as we love
ours. Feiner must be the leader in Greenburgh on this issue, and must speak
up. Otherwise his are just hollow words in an empty suit.
Kiley Blackman
Animal Defenders of Westchester
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