Millie
Vanillie of Kansas - Page 4
So now
what? Did anyone really do
anything wrong or illegal? The
consumer was hoodwinked, but as you can
see from this
link, they weren't necessarily
overcharged for the going rates being
charged - AKC and CKC 'purebred'
Chihuahuas are pricing about the same
when the link was checked... Were they
told they were getting a puppymill puppy
and there would be lots of issues to
deal with, and might not be overcome?
No.
Did the
Hunte Corporation as the broker and its
relationship in regards to selling 'AKC'
puppies do something wrong? We
leave that for you to decide, but we'd
wager the 'fancys' (reputable dog
breeders) might not find this incident
palatable when they work so hard to
produce the 'best of the best' --- but
seeing a Millie have the same
credentials as one of their best ---
especially when the general public
usually cannot make the distinction
between all of this confusing jargon and
paperwork. One could say this is a
glitch in the system, but our sources
advise us this happens frequently and it
is NOT a 'one in a million' occurrence.
Other AKC-registered purebreds have been
found in like circumstances... being
registered as AKC without having both
parents AKC registered.
If you
have been following along with
Millie's blog, you will read the
foster mom's experiences with Millie as
the rehabilitation process goes on.
We don't breed or show purebred AKC
dogs, so the fact Millie is now an AKC
registered, spayed, purebred Chihuahua
means little to us. Our job is to
rehabilitate this little pup into a dog
that is balanced and as normal as we can
expect to achieve, and then hopefully
find a great furever home for Millie
eventually.
Those of
us in rescue deal with the aftermath of
the puppymills --- and from a personal
perspective, feel once again the public
has been hoodwinked and the consumer has
been taken advantage of.
Perceptions are reality for many people,
and if you make something confusing
enough, it is easy to hide the flaws in
any system. Sales clerks can tell
anyone "we don't sell puppymill puppies"
and in the heat of the impulse buy, a
consumer will believe them. When
handed over papers such as Millie's at a
local petshop or purchasing a puppy via
the Internet, the American consumer
believe they are truly getting what they
paying for when they hear terms such as
'registered', 'purebred', 'AKC', 'USDA
breeder', etc.
Will that
puppy grow into the beautiful LITTLE
Chihuahua with that cute little look
they expect? No, of course not -
puppymills are legal and there is little
anyone can do with backyard breeders
either.
While
"AKC" once meant a level of quality, now
EVERY puppy purchase is a 'buyer beware'
situation unless the puppy is bought
from a reputable breeder, and the
general public can see both parents in
person to get some idea of what this
puppy will eventually grow into - both
physically and personality-wise.
Until the
American consumer demands accountability
in this multi-billion dollar industry,
not much will happen except more litters
will be born every day --- nine out of
every ten puppies will not get a home
nor grow old with their human companions
as nature intended --- but will end up
as carcasses in a rendering plant to be
made into fertilizer.
Millie is
one of the lucky ones. When the
owners who bought her from a petshop
realized her issues were beyond them,
they turned to a rescue who was willing
to invest the time to get her balanced
(or at least attempt to, for whatever
hope of 'balance' one can hope to
achieve with a puppymill puppy.
Those other eight puppies will not fare
as well.
For those
puppies that are bred in puppymills,
sold to petshops, bought by consumers
and backyard breeders, who then start
yet another business of selling puppies
for profit, the perpetual process
continues without slowing down.
Failures
arrive in the shelter systems, where the
State of California is currently killing
one companion pet every 4 minutes and 32
seconds - the Chihuahua breed follows
only the Pitbull in volume. As
these unwanted companion pets sit in our
state's shelters, each taxpayer (whether
they own a pet or not) pay an average of
$173 per pet as they process through the
shelter systems (housed, adopted or
euthanized).
At a time
when our state's budget is being cut in
human service areas, environmental
issues, etc., it seems unreasonable that
the state's budget is being drained in
this fashion by other states who have
legalized puppymills and our own state
which cannot pass any anti-puppy mill
legislation.
Spay/neuter laws are SLOWLY being passed
at a local level, but as it is estimated
that a female dog that is bred every
time she is in estrus and is bred until
she can no longer reproduce can produce
anywhere from 20,000 - 40,000 pups,
depending on how many pups she has per
litter (which is a function of her
breed) and her offspring doing the same
(such as what the puppymills do because
this is a business and these animals are
'stock' - source - ASPCA, HSUS etc.).
Rescues in
our particular county account for one
third of the dogs taken out of the
county's shelter and eventually adopted
by a great furever home. With the
failing economy, nonprofit charities
have been hit harder than other venues -
the first thing to dry up in tough times
is donations - and all rescues survive
by donations, not adoption fees.
Slowly, rescues are being forced to cut
back on what they do, as the public
increases in the volume of dogs they are
taking to shelters.
Why are we telling Millie's story then?
If ONE
person adopts instead of shopping in a
petshop for a Chihuahua puppy, we have
achieved our goal...
We hope to
educate the public in that 'papers' does
not indicate they will have an adult
that looks like, acts like or even
closely resembles the breed that they
love...
Voters
need to demand puppymills are no longer
legal and that taxpayers don't bear the
burden of this unregulated and inhumane
industry...
That GREAT
Chihuahuas can be found in our local
shelters and rescues who will both look
and act more like the breed we love and
rescue day in and day out --- for
despite our passion and efforts, the
mills produce more than we can save!
Update
on the Millie Story - 12/1/09
