Sometimes people are amazing.

[Stonepounder]

About a week ago rumblings started on Facebook about a 'puppy mill dispersal auction'. Seems that a known puppy mill finally went too far and was being required by state authorities to 'reduce their stock'. Seem that there were over 100 dogs, mainly Cavalier King Charles Spaniels being house in a 600 sq ft 'kennel'. Several individuals decided to try and 'rescue' these dogs.

(A brief aside here. Most formal rescue organizations have a firm policy not to buy dogs. However, in this instance individuals who happened to be associated with various rescue organizations, acting on their own, started trying to raise money. The rescue organizations were generally supportive of their efforts, but were in no way directly involved.)

A gofundme account was set up, as were a couple of other fund raising sites to try and raise money for the volunteers to take to the auction to try and buy as many of the dogs as possible. In one week collectively over $200,000 was donated and today, the rescue organizations managed to buy every single dog!. Ninety four Cavalier King Charles Spaniels are coming into rescue - being turned over to various Cavalier Rescue organizations to be vetted, fostered, and forever homes found. The remainder of the dogs, mainly Cocker Spaniels were rescued by various Cocker Rescue groups.

The fact that so many people would donate so much money in such a short time to save a passel of dogs that most of them would never even see is, to me, truly amazing and goes a ways toward restoring my faith in humanity. Bless every one connected with this rescue, from the $5.00 contributor to the $500.00 contributor, to the volunteers who organized, coordinated, caravaned to Missouri, and bid against the puppy millers, and managed to save a number of dogs who otherwise would have spent their lives in tiny cages being bred over and over again until they could no longer breed and then be put down. You all are truly angels on earth.

[hunter]

1. I hope the puppy mill was shut down for good?

Breeders like this are horrible. Licensing, regulation, and inspection of this business ought to be intense, and I'm still not certain of the ethics except for actual working dogs. All three of our dogs are from the animal shelter, and all three were bred by and sold to people who didn't know enough about dogs to care for them properly.

[Stonepounder]

2. I wish I could tell you that the mill was shut down.

Unfortunately, she will simply take the money from the auction to move to a new location and start up again. There are no good choices in a situation like this. To not try and save the dogs in a situation like this means that they will lead short, miserable lives. To go in and try and save the dogs means that the puppy miller will just start up again somewhere else.

I agree that licensing, regulation, and inspection is needed. But, in many states the millers are big political contributers (ya know $$$ = free speech and no politician would be corrupted by $$$), so it becomes almost impossible to pass stronger laws, and even if the laws get passed, there is no money to hire inspectors and no real enforcement budget even when there are violations.

Sigh.