Puppy mills, by definition, come up short on animal welfare, taking moral and practical shortcuts in order to churn out dogs for the pet trade – by confining animals indefinitely, breeding them every heat cycle, and denying them proper veterinary care. But the conditions our rescue team witnessed at a raid in Mississippi on Monday were nothing short of appalling. It was, in a word, a nightmare for the animals.

Chuck Cook/The HSUS

When our staff arrived on the scene with the Walthall County Sheriff’s Office, they found live dogs sharing cages with the bodies of dead ones. Surviving dogs suffered from terrible injuries, including one dog with a severed leg. Blankets of feces covered the bottoms of the cages, and scattered throughout the property were the skeletal remains of many dogs for whom help arrived too late.

We were able to pull 104 dogs out of that hellhole. They have been safely transported to the Humane Society of South Mississippi where they are being treated by a team of veterinarians and other animal care professionals. Those nursed back to health will be screened for adoption so they can enjoy new, better lives.

Over the past five years, we’ve partnered with law enforcement to help close down dozens of mills. Nearly all of them were selling puppies online. This sales strategy requires no federal license, and in Mississippi and other states with no rules governing mills, commercial breeders who sell puppies online are subject to no oversight whatsoever.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture only inspects dog breeders that sell to pet stores, but it is currently in the process of making final a rule change that would require large-scale breeding facilities that sell puppies online to be federally licensed and inspected as well. If the USDA could inspect all large-scale commercial breeders, regardless of their means of commerce, it would be in a position to prevent a house of horrors like the one we witnessed in Mississippi.

Additionally, Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. and David Vitter, R-La., along with Reps. Jim Gerlach, R-Pa., Sam Farr, D-Calif., Bill Young, R-Fla., and Lois Capps, D-Calif., reintroduced the Puppy Uniform Protection and Safety Act, S. 395/ H.R. 847, which would require direct sellers of 50 or more puppies to be federally licensed and inspected for basic humane standards of care. The PUPS Act would also require that licensed facilities let dogs out of their cages for at least an hour a day.

This Mississippi case reminds us of what’s at stake, and why it’s so critical that we adopt this policy.

Watch the video:

India is known throughout the world as a nation of vegetarians, and vegetarianism is indeed very common there. In recent years, however, this growing economic power, even with its strong, animal-friendly religious and cultural traditions, has seen meat eating on the rise, and the worst elements of factory farming are taking hold. There are an estimated 140 to 200 million egg-laying hens living in conventional battery cages in the world’s largest democracy.

When I went to India last November to launch our new offices on the subcontinent, I visited nearly a half dozen battery cage facilities. I saw hens living in space allotments smaller than a sheet of printer paper. I saw filth and flies and overcrowding. And I saw animals who would never make it out of their cages alive.

Erin Van Voorhies

Such confinement violates the provisions of Section 11(1)(e) of the 1960 national Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, which requires that animals confined to cages be provided with reasonable opportunity for movement. Guided by the plain language of this foresighted statute, the Animal Welfare Board of India issued an advisory a year ago to all state governments stating that battery cages should not be used, and that existing battery cages should be phased out by 2017.

Humane Society International India has been following up with all of the state animal husbandry departments in the country, convincing them to issue a directive that it is a violation of the PCA Act to confine hens in battery cages. Accordingly, a majority of them have issued directives to their officers, and poultry farmers have been instructed to phase out and avoid battery cages, and not to make any investments in these extreme confinement facilities.

In India, there is a big gap between what the law says and what happens on the ground, and that’s especially true when it comes to animals. But in this case, the law is unambiguous, and we know that there are other ways to raise birds. This correction may take a while, but the trajectory is clear. Our staff members in India are determined to see this through. No nation that values animals, as India does, can indefinitely confine more than 100 million birds in these kinds of conditions. 

Speak Up For Hens! Tell India’s Government to Enforce the Ruling >>

Last night, during a marathon round of voting on amendments to its version of the Farm Bill, the House Agriculture Committee approved a destructive and constitutionally questionable amendment, offered by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, that threatens to wipe out important state laws banning the cruelest factory farming practices, and leave a raft of other state laws and rules regulating agriculture hanging in the balance.

The committee, over the objections of its leadership, did approve an amendment led by Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., by a vote of 28-17, building on the existing federal law against animal fighting by making it a crime to knowingly attend or bring a child to an animal fight (the vote tally is pasted below). The Senate Committee on Agriculture, which took up its version of the Farm Bill on Tuesday, included a similar provision in its bill, thanks to the efforts of committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss. With both versions of the Farm Bill including the same core provisions on animal fighting, it should be included in any final bill approved by the Congress.

Agriculture Committee chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and former chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, spoke out against the animal fighting bill. Goodlatte said he felt the McGovern amendment provides too severe a penalty for perpetrators, and argued that parents who brought a child to a dogfight would be separated from their children and that was something he couldn’t support. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Oregon, one of the two veterinarians in the House, said he worried much more about not interceding when a parent brings a child to an animal fighting spectacle, with the violence and other forms of criminality all right out in the open. Ironically, Goodlatte touted his support for a prior upgrade of the federal animal fighting law in 2007, making interstate transport of animals for fighting a federal felony. Someone arrested for that crime has as much a chance of being separated from a child as an individual arrested for a bringing a child directly to a fight. The argument made little sense, and appeared to be just another attempt to stand in the way of any progress for animal welfare.

Goodlatte also joined Rep. King’s gambit to wipe out numerous state animal protection laws, including those regarding factory farm confinement, horse slaughter and shark finning, along with others related to food safety, environmental protection, worker safety and more. King’s measure passed by a voice vote after a contentious debate. There were forceful arguments raised against it by Reps. Jim Costa, D-Calif., Jeff Denham, R-Calif., John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Schrader.  

If passed by the full House, King’s amendment could allow the overturning of every voter-approved animal welfare ballot measure relating to agriculture, including Proposition 2 in California (banning extreme confinement crates for pigs, veal calves and laying hens), Proposition 6 in California (forbidding the sale of horses for slaughter for human consumption), Proposition 204 in Arizona (banning veal and pig gestation crates) and Amendment 10 in Florida (outlawing pig gestation crates). The amendment could also nullify six other state bans on gestation crates, horse slaughter bans in six states, comprehensive animal welfare standards adopted by the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, and a raft of anti-downer laws and other animal protection laws designed to shield farm animals from abuse and extreme confinement.

The Senate version of the Farm Bill does not contain any language similar to the King amendment. The  HSUS and other groups will work to strip the King amendment from the House Farm Bill on the floor, and also push for adoption of the landmark agreement between animal welfare groups and the egg industry in phasing out the use of conventional battery cages, and creating minimum care standards for the welfare of laying hens. The battle over the Farm Bill is just now gearing up and now all members of Congress, and their constituents, can have input on the process.

Animal Fighting Amendment Votes:

NEWS ALERT: This morning, Governor Bill Haslam of Tennessee vetoed the legislature’s proposed ag-gag bill, squelching the only state anti-whistleblower measure that made it to a governor’s desk this year. See our full statement on this major outcome for our cause – preserving our right to conduct investigations and to document animal cruelty.

Now comes another sweeping, menacing attack against our movement – this time in Congress. An Iowa congressman wants to force a vote to repeal the rights of citizens to regulate how their food is produced. The traditional responsibilities of state legislators to establish laws governing food safety, animal husbandry and worker protections would be eliminated, wiped from the books – in both existing law and any future law. County and local ordinances? Eliminated.

Shocked? I am.

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This is the work of Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. Typically, conservative Republicans like King vigorously defend states’ rights. But not, it seems, when they can serve special interests. In this instance, conservative values are tossed to the wind so that King and his allies can strong-arm the states aside. Yes, this is an almost unheard-of power grab, but it’s not a matter of King wanting the federal government to establish strong, uniform standards for agriculture. In fact, he’s dead-set against that too, as evidenced by his opposition to pending legislation establishing space requirements for laying hens and labeling standards for eggs (the Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2013 - S. 820/H.R. 1731). No, in King’s world, weak or nonexistent standards would take the place of states’ rights – consumers and animals be damned.

You may have heard of the King amendment last year – when he advanced it as part of the 2012 Farm Bill. Well, the Farm Bill was sidetracked by election-year politics. But this year, Congress is likely to act and complete work on the bill. That means the King amendment is no longer a debating point, or a simple sop to the big ag lobby. It’s a threat to every consumer and to every animal in agriculture. The House Agriculture Committee is scheduled to vote on it Wednesday. This same committee voted in favor of a virtually identical King amendment last time around.

King’s goal is to overturn every voter-approved animal welfare ballot measure relating to agriculture – Prop 2 in California (banning extreme confinement crates for pigs, veal calves, and laying hens), Prop 6 in California (forbidding the sale of horses for slaughter for human consumption), Prop 204 in Arizona (banning veal and gestation crates), and Amendment 10 in Florida (outlawing gestation crates). The amendment could also nullify six other state bans on gestation crates, horse slaughter bans in a half-dozen other states, the comprehensive animal welfare standards adopted by the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, and a raft of anti-downer laws and other animal protection laws designed to shield farm animals from abuse and extreme confinement.

But the reach of his amendment goes further. It seeks to nullify every state, county, or local law that creates any standard or condition relating to an agricultural production activity – so we’d have no state laws for agricultural facilities relating to worker rights, animal welfare, environmental protection, or public health. It’s hard to overstate how sweeping and far-reaching the King amendment is.

King thinks it’s fine to spend taxpayer money doling out billions to corporate farmers in the way of direct payments, crop insurance, predator control programs, and other subsidies. He’s built a reputation on it. But he doesn’t want the agriculture community to have to abide by any rules related to food safety, animal welfare, or environmental protection. In his mind, the federal government is a bank for the farm lobby, and not a protector of society’s broader interests in a safe, humane, and sustainable food supply.

He’s also spent his 10-year congressional career attempting to block any and all animal welfare laws. He favors killing horses for human consumption, killing American bison in Yellowstone National Park, and trophy killing of polar bears, even though they are an endangered species. He is the best friend that dogfighters and cockfighters have in Congress, trying to stop any law-and-order bill to make life tougher on these criminals. And get this: he was even one of a handful of lawmakers to oppose legislation that seeks to include pets in disaster planning.

We need level-headed members of Congress to stop this craziness now, before it becomes part of the billions of dollars in horse trading that any new Farm Bill produces. Contact your representative today and tell them to overthrow the King amendment.

As we await final action from Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on the fate of the state’s awful and overreaching ag-gag bill (which the state’s attorney general yesterday called “constitutionally suspect” in a formal written opinion), Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder late this week took an extraordinarily hostile action on another bill we have a great interest in. He signed a bill pushed by state Sen. Tom Casperson that not only seeks to undercut the petition drive we and our partners launched to block wolf hunting, but also gives unilateral authority to the seven-member Natural Resources Commission to remove just about any species in Michigan from the protected list and open a trophy hunting or trapping season on them.

iStockphoto

In a coordinated one-two punch against wolves and other wildlife in the state, the NRC approved a fall wolf hunting season just hours after Snyder signed the bill into law. Trophy hunters and trappers will be allowed to kill about 43 wolves in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and that figure certainly would have been higher but for our intense scrutiny of the plan to kill members of this keystone species. There are only about 650 wolves in the entire state, and they were just removed from the federal list of species threatened with extinction, after decades of protection.

Our original wolf protection referendum – which we submitted at the end of March with more than 253,000 signatures – should be certified for the ballot, and it will indeed appear on the November 2014 ballot. We believe that if voters decide to favor our position on the ballot measure to reject the original wolf hunting law that the legislature passed, that the NRC should honor the wishes of the people and terminate a hunt. 

But it’s impossible to know how the NRC will react to our winning the 2014 ballot fight. The question now is, do we mount a second referendum campaign to nullify the law that Snyder signed and quash their attempt to kill perhaps thousands of wolves over the next decade and turn back their larger, more dangerous plan to consolidate all authority over hunting programs in the hands of a few bureaucrats appointed by the governor?

I am outraged about the governor’s action, and the actions of an arrogant legislature, which thumbed its nose at the people, and has tried to subvert a constitutionally guaranteed right to decide issues directly. But I’d like your opinions. Write me and let me know if you think we should mount a second effort to protect the wolves and to protect the right of the citizens to more directly control decisions related to wildlife protection.

As part of “Puppy Mill Action Week,” The HSUS today released “A Horrible Hundred,” a report that documents a litany of deficiencies and appalling details concerning the mistreatment of dogs at commercial dog breeding facilities. Don’t read the report if you are not prepared for your blood to boil. Many of the facilities listed have been cited by federal inspectors for violations, including dogs found freezing in the cold or left out in the sweltering heat without protection; dogs with open wounds, injuries and tumors who had not been treated by a vet; filthy conditions; and in some cases, operators who even shot and killed their unwanted breeding dogs. Most of the puppy mills in the report are still actively selling to pet stores across the country while others sell puppies online without a federal license.

Meredith Lee/The HSUS

The good news is that we’ve been calling on lawmakers to crack down on these kinds of puppy mills, and increasingly, lawmakers are responding. This month alone, Vermont and West Virginia passed bills to protect dogs from irresponsible breeding. The West Virginia measure was signed into law last week, and the Vermont bill is awaiting the governor’s signature. And today, a bill in North Carolina passed the House of Representatives; it now moves on to the Senate. Bills are moving forward in other states, too. These states join 24 others that have passed new laws to crack down on puppy mills over the last five years; more than 30 states altogether have some laws to regulate puppy mills.

Earlier this month, we learned a proposed rule that would help to regulate the hundreds of puppy mills that sell over the Internet moved forward to the final stage of the federal approval process. When finalized, the rule will require large-scale puppy producers who sell online to be federally licensed and inspected.

For this year’s Puppy Mill Action Week we also released a number of new features to help you spread the word about puppy mills:

• A new phone application that helps pet lovers find nearby pet stores that do not sell puppies. Text PUPPY to 30644 to find “puppy friendly” stores that support their local shelters and do not sell puppies (message & data rates apply).
• We also released a new video that explains puppy mills and asks consumers to do their part by pledging not to buy a puppy mill dog from a pet store or Internet site, and by always considering adoption from a shelter or rescue group first.
• A Humane Society University webinar about stopping puppy mills was offered live this week, and is now available online for free.
• A new comprehensive story, “Anatomy of a Puppy Mill Raid,” gives readers an inside perspective on a puppy mill raid from the rescuer’s point of view.

We won’t relent until the puppy mills are shuttered and only humane and responsible breeders remain. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to promote adoption of dogs from shelters and rescues as the first option – so that people can not only get a great companion, but also save a life.

I am in Nashville today for the official opening of Animal Care Expo, which will host 2,000 people from all across the country and from 40 nations. It’s the animal welfare movement’s leading training, education and inspiration conference, and I am so pleased that The HSUS brings so many people together to learn about best practices, innovations in our field, and new strategies for helping dogs, cats, horses and other animals.

It’s very timely that we’ve assembled in Tennessee, since Governor Bill Haslam will be deciding in the next few days on whether he will sign or veto an “ag-gag” law that just narrowly made it through the state legislature. Yesterday, he announced that he’s waiting to see the analysis of the constitutionality of the proposed law by state Attorney General Robert Cooper, Jr. This is an overbroad, overreaching measure, and there’s no reason for it to be enacted, and every reason it deserves a veto.

The HSUS

Ag-gag bills are part of a national effort by agribusiness groups to pass laws that make it difficult or impossible to expose inhumane and often illegal behavior at animal-use enterprises.  But here in Tennessee, the only major investigation undertaken by The HSUS was an exposure of a corrupt, suspended Hall of Fame Tennessee walking horse trainer. His abusive, barbaric behavior, and that of his stable hands, was widely condemned and resulted in numerous criminal convictions. No sensible person has excused what he did.

So the effort to pass an ag-gag law strikes a particularly false note here in The Volunteer State, since that HSUS investigation provided such an important public service by exposing an abusive trainer in the walking horse industry.

It’s also triggered a national effort to bolster the federal Horse Protection Act. The Prevent All Soring Tactics Act, HR 1518, would strengthen the federal law against soring and make it a crime to use stacks and chains on the feet of competition walking horses and horses of other related breeds that have been victims of soring abuse.

We’ll be hosting a press conference tomorrow at the Opryland Hotel to announce the outcome of an analysis of last year’s federal inspections of show horses. The results are deeply distressing, and that’s why we not only need the PAST Act, but also a new attitude within the industry to obey the law.

We’ll have an army of folks cheering on our efforts to treat animals with more kindness and decency.

This morning, the TODAY Show ran a hard-hitting exposé on the American Kennel Club, revealing that the nation’s largest purebred registry group, one that self-identifies as “the dog’s champion,” is connected at the hip to the puppy mill industry. The program, as reported by Jeff Rossen, highlighted a report released by The HSUS that revealed that the AKC has now opposed more than 90 state and local bills to establish some minimum humane breeding standards for the care of dogs over the last five or so years. The central problem, also picked up in today’s news report, is that the AKC is financially beholden to the puppy mill industry through its puppy registration program. It is estimated that about 75 percent of its constituency are commercial puppy producers. The TODAY Show broadcast includes a variety of scenes from HSUS raids of squalid, overcrowded puppy mills that were registering puppies with the AKC. 

This sort of exposure – which reminds people that AKC papers are essentially meaningless to anyone interested in acquiring a dog – is helping to drive consumers toward shelters and rescue groups and to more responsible breeders as the source for the new animal in their lives. That’s as it should be. More resources are readily available for consumers, such as the Shelter Pet Project for adoptable pets, and our guide to finding a responsible dog breeder.

Diane Lewis/The HSUS

Sales of dogs in pet stores, one of the primary ways puppy millers sell their dogs, have been steadily declining as a result of our investigations, consumer education and outreach campaigns, and policy reforms. The country’s two major pet supply chains – PetSmart and Petco – do not sell dogs from breeders, and make dogs available for adoption from shelters and rescues. In Canada, Petland stopped selling puppies completely because it is no longer profitable. More than 2,000 independent pet stores have signed our pledge not to sell puppies.

Lambriar, Inc. was one of the largest puppy brokers in the country until last summer, when it shut down because of pressure from our community. And even malls are telling puppy-selling pet stores to either stop selling dogs or move out.

Some of the largest Internet sites are making changes, including Facebook, which prohibits advertisements for puppies, and eBay, which displays a warning about online puppy sales and links users to The HSUS’ information about puppy mills. The HSUS is anxiously awaiting a final rule from the Obama administration to bring Internet sellers of puppies under the regulatory authority of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to meet minimum animal care standards under the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Thirty-five states now have some regulation of commercial dog breeders and countless localities have taken their own actions against the industry. But with the American Kennel Club opposing almost every piece of legislation (local, state and federal), these changes have been hard-won.

The battle to stop cruel puppy mills is by no means over, but the work of The HSUS and millions of advocates has already improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of dogs raised for the commercial pet trade. We intend to redouble our efforts, and TODAY’s exposure should provide compelling and somewhat startling information to millions of Americans.

Watch the TODAY Show segment here:

 

The more light that’s shed on the “Big Lick” faction of the Tennessee walking horse industry, the clearer it becomes that Congress must upgrade the original language in the Horse Protection Act to deter the criminal abuse that is inflicted on the horses involved, and to give the federal government the tools it needs to crack down on violators. Newly introduced legislation – the Prevent All Soring Tactics Act – will strengthen the HPA by ending industry self-regulation, fortifying penalties for violations of the law, and expanding its prohibitions to include a ban on mechanical soring tactics, such as the use of stacks and chains on horses’ feet. 

Chad Sisneros
The artificial, high-stepping gait called the "Big Lick."

Despite efforts by the Tennessee legislature to enact an ag-gag measure that would cover up abuses in the walking horse industry (that’s a story in itself), national scrutiny of the Big Lick fraternity continues to reveal widespread abuse. Last week, Tennessee and federal law enforcement officials raided a barn allegedly owned by Big Lick trainer Larry Wheelon. Reportedly, many of the 28 horses found there showed signs of having been treated with caustic substances on their legs and were in extreme pain.

Of course this would make Wheelon the second “superstar” of this industry to be exposed within the last year for cheating and for tormenting animals for a blue ribbon in the show ring. Wheelon has been cited at least 15 times for violations of the Horse Protection Act, but ironically he sits on the ethics committee for the Walking Horse Trainers’ Association, and is a AAA-rated horse show judge. It’s no wonder the horses victimized by soring are consistently rewarded as winners at Big Lick walking horse shows – with judges themselves apparently unwilling to follow the law, why would other trainers comply?

As if this weren’t proof enough that strict legislation is long overdue, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has just released the startling results of foreign substance testing it conducted at horse shows in 2012. The USDA tested show horses for evidence that their trainers or owners were putting illegal soring agents on their horses’ legs to make them step higher in the ring, or numbing or masking agents to hide signs of soring. Whichever illegal substance they use, the only purpose is to hurt a horse so badly that he compensates for the pain by walking with an unnaturally high gait. Of the 478 horses the USDA swabbed for illegal substances, 309 tested positive. That’s 65 percent of horses in random samplings at 2012 horse shows. At the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, the “Grand Prix” for the Big Lick crowd, 76 percent of the horses randomly sampled tested positive for illegal substances. Imagine if three-quarters of the players in the World Series or the Super Bowl were found guilty of using illegal drugs. This is the corrupt, warped world of Big Lick horse competition – with many practitioners seemingly undeterred by high-profile prosecutions and widespread condemnation of their cruelty.

We’ve documented over and over the cruelty endured by Tennessee walking horses, and we’re continuing to see evidence that the Big Lick faction won’t reform on their own. Please join us in the fight to protect these horses, and open up the industry to those who wish to take part in humane and fairly-judged horse shows: call your representative in the U.S. Congress and urge him or her to cosponsor H.R. 1518. A Senate companion bill should be introduced soon.

For weeks, my colleagues and I have been sounding the alarm about a spreading threat to the animal protection movement nationwide and, more broadly, to transparency and free speech in our society – the introduction by state lawmakers of anti-whistleblower, or so-called ag-gag bills, in about a dozen states. I was in Nashville on Monday for a press conference at the Tennessee State Capitol urging Governor Bill Haslam to veto the Tennessee anti-whistleblower bill that would make it virtually impossible to conduct an undercover investigation at a factory farm or horse stable. And yesterday, I was in Los Angeles for a taping of America’s top daily talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which will broadcast today and include my interview with Ellen.

Watch Ellen today on your local affiliate, and go to Ellen’s Facebook page to share the interview with friends, family members, and others.

In the interview, I called on concerned citizens, especially Tennesseans, to contact Governor Haslam to veto this legislation. But I also asked everyone to get engaged in our fight to protect our rights and to understand what’s happening with the industrialization of animal agriculture.

The HSUS does so many things, including working very hard to reveal what’s really happening with animals in our society – even if the supply chains extend thousands of miles from us, and the use of animals is far removed from our daily experience.  We are so disassociated from what happens to animals in some sectors of the economy, and The HSUS is trying to close that gap and to call good people to conscience.  Even if abuse or exploitation happens in a far-off place, we are morally connected to it through the supply chains that sell and distribute food in restaurants, supermarkets, and other retail outlets.

At the end of the interview, Ellen surprised me by letting me know that if 25,000 people share the interview she conducted with me, then The HSUS will receive a $25,000 donation. I love the idea of more people seeing the interview and getting this additional support so we can redouble our efforts to expose cruelty and abuse, so I do hope you’ll spread the word.