This Friday, Oprah investigates Puppy Mills

[oregonjen]

Please try to encourage your friends to watch this important show. This is one of America's shameful secrets. People who buy puppies from pet stores are just feeding the whole process. Those who rescue pups from mills know the conditions these little ones come from and understand how much they suffer. It's time for all of us to open our eyes, make it illegal to operate one and shut them down!

I wrote Oprah months ago asking her to do a show on this and finally she is. Please watch!
Jen

[stuntcat]

1. thanks!

I don't ever watch but I'll remember to.. NOT that I need to see evidence, I'm perpetually horrified now by what people do to animals, but I'll make an email to tell my family about the show!

[shaniqua6392]

2. Thanks for letting us know about this.

I never watch Oprah, but I am glad she is doing something of value on her show. I will plan to watch it and spread the word. Thanks again.

[flvegan]

3. Winfrey Dedicates Show to Her Late Dog

CHICAGO (AP) — Oprah Winfrey plans to dedicate a show investigating abuses at puppy mills to her cocker spaniel, Sophie, who died last month from kidney failure.

"Sophie gave me 13 years of unconditional love. She was a true love in my life," Winfrey says on the broadcast scheduled to air Friday. (Advance remarks from the show were released Tuesday by Harpo Productions.)

The show features special correspondent Lisa Ling investigating puppy mills, which Ling calls "horrific" and "haunting."

Winfrey says the show is "for anybody anywhere who loves a dog, has ever loved a dog, or just cares about their basic right to humane treatment."

While Sophie was not a product of a puppy mill, and Winfrey's three current dogs were adopted from breeders, Winfrey says in the future she would look to adopt from an animal shelter.

"I would never, ever adopt another pet now without going to a shelter to do it. I am a changed woman after seeing this show," she says.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h9RcpYWbaIokhj09MQWhERZ6uT3AD8VPE2300


Thanks for posting this. I hadn't heard about this, and will spread the word.

[oregonjen]

4. Kick for afternoon crowd

[DarkTirade]

5. Somewhere along the line people stopped seeing them as friends and companions

and started seeing them as profit margins.

[oregonjen]

6. Shameless kick for the evening crowd

[SallyMander]

7. I have had a few foster dogs rescued from mills

Our one little girl Ailsa was so scared at first, she just stayed in her crate and trembled for days. We had to feed her ice chips just to get some water in her. She was scared of grass, stairs, cords, brooms, noises... the list goes on and on. Heartbreaking. Luckily my soon-to-be in-laws adopted her, and she is doing GREAT!

She fell in love with my dog Elmo, and just stuck by his side while we had her... here's me and Elmo (big mutt) and Ailsa (little black cairn) (and a big-ass glass of wine). She still gets SO excited when she visits with her "foster brother." :D




Edit to add -- thanks for the OP! :hi:

[oregonjen]

9. Thanks for being a foster and thanks for your pics!

:toast: :pals: :hi:

[flvegan]

10. How'd you get your rescues?

Might help others that want to take in a mill dog.

Thanks, btw. *moves SallyMander higher on Favorite DUer list*

[SallyMander]

11. Originally i was fostering for our local shelter

I used to work at a vet clinic so they gave me lots of the medical fosters -- ones healing from hit-by-car injuries, or getting over kennel cough, even some puppies with parvo. :cry:

After that, I randomly answered an ad on craigslist looking for foster homes for cairns. I love terriers and our current house is *tiny*, so it seemed like a good fit. We've had three cairns from Cairn Rescue USA (CRUSA). They get a ton of mill rescues, along with pets that people are getting rid of (gah). And they're always looking for help/foster homes! It's a national rescue so if anyone's interested in more info go here: http://www.cairnrescueusa.com/

Thanks for the opportunity for the plug, flvegan. :D :hug:

[tilsammans]

8. Kickin' it . . .

. . . and telling all my friends to watch.

:kick:

[Catchawave]

12. Good for Oprah !

:kick:

[riverdeep]

13. This may be bad form,

but if I have to personally kick this thing until the show airs, I will. Not a big fan of Oprah, but a huge fan of Lisa Ling, who actually did the reporting- she's a real journalist.

Oprah does have the power though, and I'm glad she's using it for some good here, like she's done at other times.

[LibDemAlways]

14. I know a woman who unknowingly bought

two puppy mill dogs. She found this "breeder" on the internet and he agreed to bring the puppies to her. The puppies seemed fine when she paid him big money. They both almost immediately showed signs of illness and died within a few days. When she called the man back, the number he had given her was no longer in service. Later he was arrested after police found dozens of sick and dead puppies in the attic of the house he was renting.

Pet stores buy from these unscrupulous people, and the internet provides even more opportunity for them to fleece the public. The animal cruelty associated with this is horrific. Thanks for the post and the reminder.

[Lady Freedom]

15. Kick!

[riverdeep]

16. Kick for morning crowd.

[flvegan]

17. 4pm EST, on NBC I believe, here at least. Just fyi.

Check your local listings.

[oregonjen]

18. Thanks everyone for kicking it, here's another.

:kick:

[riverdeep]

19. A few minutes to air in Chicago.

But in many markets there's a repeat the same day if you can't catch the original.

[momophile]

20. what is a puppy mill? nt

[Phillycat]

21. I do hope you're joking, but if not...

They are mass dog-breeding operations known for their inhumane treatment of the animals and unethical behavior.

http://www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets/get_the_facts_on_puppy_mills/

[GCP]

22. I'm glad Oprah's finally doing relevant shows again

Instead of "everybody gets a present and all of you love me for it" that she's been doing for ages.

[riverdeep]

23. Here's what happened, if you can't see it. Obviously- SPOILERS

-She started off with a tribute to her own dog that died last month. Kind of a mistake in my opinion because a) it seemed a bit egomaniacal and b) she broke down and had to take a commercial break. This would have been better at the end of the show.

-A guy named Bill Smith form Main Line Animal Rescue, http://www.mainlinerescue.com/ placed a billboard where Oprah could see it on her way to work, saying "Oprah, do a show on puppy mills." It worked. He says 99% of pets in pet stores come from puppy mills. This was later echoed by a Humane Society rep.

-Lisa Ling and Bill stop at a Pennsylvania pet store and pick up some puppies. The pet store owner says they get their pups from reputable breeders and would never do business with those that don't treat their pets well. This will turn out to be a common line. Armed with undercover cameras, they follow the paper trail to reveal where the pups came from. The conditions are miserable. The most fortunate, if you can call it that, are the pups that go to pet stores, as they only have to spend eight weeks in that hell. A few of the male pups are kept for breeding, the rest are either sold away or shot. The female pups are either sold or kept for breeding. They produce litter after litter until they no longer are fertile, where they are then shot. The dogs spend their life in cramped cages, often outdoors year round. They can be either out in the mud or strictly in wire cages. Many never have touched the ground in their lives. The mothers have to walk on and over their litters, it's so cramped. There is no vet care, and most are suffering from some sort of ailment. Some have sores from being tied up constantly. It should be noted that some of these mills are from Amish country, where the attitude toward dogs is more like that of some Asian countries. This is not uncommon in mills elsewhere.

-Talked with rep from Humane Society who said to get your dogs from shelters as a first choice. They don't just have 'mutts', but purebred dogs as well, if that's what you're looking for.

-Profile of Jillian Lange, a rescuer from California, who rescues dogs that are considered unadoptable- blind, deformed, old, injured, etc.

-Profile of Ft. Worth Animal Shelter. Only 4 out of 50 dogs brought in are given a home. The rest are euthanized. Shows dogs being euthanized (with cutaways for the squeamish). They are taken to the room, weighed, given the injection, go unconscious, then dead. They are dumped into a body bag (looks like a garbage bag) and put into a dumpster. Shows full dumpster of bodies. Unfortunately, the only kindness many of these dogs will see is in the moments preceding their euthanasia. The handlers were as kind as possible.

-Oprah points out one of the main reasons for oversupply of pets is the unwillingness of owners to spay/neuter. It's got to be unwillingness because I've certainly been hearing about it forever.

-A segment with Oprah's vet about the benefits of spay/neutering- lower incidence of cancer, lower incidence of escapes, and obviously, less unwanted pets. Says more men are opposed to neutering because they somehow identify with it, for some reason. Shows a neutering procedure taking place. There are places that do it for lower/no cost and the pet recovers quickly.

-Talks with Lisa, Bill and HSUS guy for last segment.



Overall, good show. Didn't tell me anything I personally didn't already know except the extent to which puppy mills dominate the pet industry- I didn't know it was that high. According to the Humane Society rep, there are around 10,000 such mills operating in the country. Missouri has the most. Would liked to have seen more on the Lisa Ling report, but there was a lot to cover I suppose. The pet industry is not going to be happy with this show, but to the extent to which this is accurate- fuck them. They can live in a wire cage and get back to me.

[oregonjen]

24. Thanks for the info, on west coast, won't air until 4pm pst

May I have your permission to copy your post and send it to a woman who is a breeder and quite upset at Oprah for doing this show? She seems to think that if the laws get changed, it would hurt her and not the mills.

If not, I understand and that's okay. I'm just so mad at breeders who seem to think it's all about them instead of the animals.
Jen

[riverdeep]

25. Sure, no problem. n/t