Don't support animal hoarders, puppy mills

Animal shelters are generally filled with lost or abandoned pets or animals picked up as homeless roamers created by unsterilized pets roaming the countryside.

But, there are other reasons why animal shelters have such a problem with too many admissions.

Hoarding and high-volume breeders, aka puppy mills, who have become too big to fail, are a significant contributor and are the toughest to deal with.

When they fail, the volume of animals to be rescued overwhelms shelters.

If the accused decides they want to fight the case, which often happens in high-volume breeder cases, the shelters must hold onto these animals until the case moves through the court system.

You, as a taxpayer, will be footing the bill.

Perhaps you have been exposed to hoarders and puppy mills without realizing it.

In the case of hoarding behavior and other mental illnesses associated with animals, the person may start out as an individual who "saved" a stray and didn't want to bring it to the shelter because they thought it would be euthanized.

Over time, one or two animals becomes 10, 20, 30 or more, and they are living in pens or stuffed in the house, nonvaccinated and plagued with disease.

They are never given up for adoption. Eventually, the hoarder can no longer afford to care for the animals, yet continues to collect them.

Many of the animals the hoarder kept for themselves had good homes at one time and are probably on a shelter's "Lost Report" list, but the hoarder does not report the found animal.

Often times, the hoarder solicits money from the public by saying they are a "rescue organization."

They also use this excuse when someone makes a report and the authorities have to look into the matter. They use this excuse to get sympathy from feed stores and veterinarians.

Another type of animal-related behavioral illness is the person who cannot stop breeding animals.

This is different from commercial puppy mills. Puppy mills are in it for the money.

The person who can't stop breeding animals is someone who refuses to quit, even though they can no longer afford to do so.

They want to see how the next batch of puppies comes out and then another and another.

They can't sell them all, are proud of the ones they have and have no room to house them, so, indiscriminate breeding occurs.

Yet, the person looks the other way and, in some cases, so do their family and friends.

In all of these cases, particularly the commercial high-volume puppy mill breeders, it becomes a case of "Too big to fail."

Opponents of regulations to prevent high-volume issues argue that, as long as the animals are minimally cared for, then what does it matter if they are allowed to operate unregulated?

It matters because, eventually, they all fail, and the cost to clean up the mess falls upon the rest of us.

High-volume commercial breeders are defined by the number of litters or adults sold per year.

In the state of Ohio, it is nine litters and 60 adults, and the law includes the words "commercial" and "high volume."

It is not intended to apply to sporting packs or animals bred for sport or show.

Generally, these breeders are people who are only having a few litters per year and are drafting or selling them within an internally regulated structure.

If you are buying a puppy from one of these people, you are getting a healthy animal.

When you buy from a puppy mill, you will see cages stacked upon cages and are probably getting an animal with lots of health problems.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AllStoriesTheAikenStandard/~3/I1uy_fbGLSE/0621-Animal-Connectiion

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