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Mystery and intrigue as an investigator goes undercover inside puppy mills in Rescue Dogs. A dog in Sussex, England who doesn’t know how to be a dog in the book Gabby. Both books reviewed by Anna Cooke.
There is absolutely noth- ing good that comes from a puppy mill. It is a business where profit takes precedence over the welfare of living beings. The adorable puppies that end up for sale in pet retail stores across the country come with a trail of abuse – from the way they are born to the inhumane way they are transported, to the way they are treated in the pet stores. Many arrive illegally without the proper paperwork or oftentimes forged paperwork. Others are ill, costing the unsuspecting new owner of the puppy hundreds or often thousands of dollars in med-
“Just as we have bred cattle, hogs and chickens for our own purposes, so too, have we bred dogs for our own reasons. The many roles dogs have played for us in the past, such as helping us hunt or raising our social status, were created not by nature but by humans. Even if we believe those purposes are justified, that is no reason to continue to cruelly exploit dogs now.”
An excerpt from Rescue Dogs by Pete Paxton with Gene Stone A TarcherPerigee Book Penguin Random House
ical care costs. Buyer beware takes on a whole new meaning with fraudulent practices including predatory leasing. It’s all standard operating proce- dures for the pet retailer selling puppies. Furthermore, puppy mills (large commercial
breeding facilities) don’t only breed puppies to be sold in retail settings. The book Rescue Dogs, written by private investigator Pete Paxton, first takes the reader undercover to Martin Creek Kennels in rural Arkansas. Owned by a man by the name of CC Baird, one of the most notorious dog traffickers in the United States, the kennel was responsible for breeding and peddling thou- sands of dogs each year to research labs. Many dogs used for lab testing come from
Class A dealers, or licensed commercial breeders, who sell purpose-bred dogs specifically for research. We now know that being licensed and being inspected by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), mean nothing. The majority of dogs used in research are for pharma- ceutical testing, even though many scientists have concluded that dogs are poor predictors of drug effects in the human body. According to the White Coat Waste Project, the government spends as much as $15 billion on animal experiments. There are approximately 10,000 puppy mills
in the United States with 167,000 dogs used for breeding. That means those dogs are producing about 2 million puppies every year. While many puppies are going to laboratories, many others are being shipped to retail stores to be sold for
54 THE NEW BARKER
thousands of dollars as a pet. Pete Paxton is a pseudonym to protect the
author’s identity. He has been nationally recog- nized as the leading undercover investigator and rescuer of dogs in peril. His work has been featured in National Geographic and Time maga- zines as well as on NPR and HBO. He works with major advocacy organizations including Companion Animal Protection Society (CAPS), which is mentioned often throughout the book, and the Humane Society of the United States. Working undercover, Paxton has visited more than 700 dog breeding facilities in the United States. He describes firsthand, the condition under which the dogs live. Florida retail stores receive puppies from
some of this country’s horrible hundred. It is an annual list compiled by the Humane Society of the United States of the 100 problem puppy mills and dog sellers in the country. “When compassion equals diminished
margins and basic care equals a competitive disad- vantage, dogs are going to suffer,” writes Paxton. “Commercial breeders keep their dogs in cages and pens and the dogs are never allowed to roam free. I have never encountered a single exception to this in my entire career.” Just as we have bred cattle, hogs and chickens
for our own purposes, so too, have we bred dogs for our own reasons. The many roles dogs have played for us in the past, such as helping us hunt or raising our social status, were created not by nature but by humans. Even if we believe those purposes are justified, that is no reason to contin- ue to cruelly exploit dogs now. Throughout this groundbreaking book,
Paxton weaves in the stories of eight individual dogs that have impacted his journey as a rescuer. The inspirational stories are good anecdotes to the shocking atrocities he describes from being inside large commercial breeding facilities. Rescue Dogs is a call to action, introducing
the reader to ways they can join the cause and save lives of dogs in need. After reading Rescue Dogs, it only heightens our convictions here at The New Barker to continue to fight for the ban of retail sales of puppies and kittens in stores across Florida. Paxton leaves no questions unanswered about
the plight of dogs commercially bred in the United States, except perhaps, why do we continue to allow puppy mills in this country?
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www.TheNewBarker.com
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