The Humane Society of the US has uncovered yet another hell hole for our poor dogs in a puppy mill - this time in Mississippi.
Much has been written re the cruelty of puppy mills which sell their puppies to pet shops. If you don't want to be complicit in puppy mill dog suffering, DO NOT BUY puppies from a pet store. You can even sometimes find pure breed dogs in shelters or from rescue groups who specialize in certain breeds.
Now the HSUS message I received today re the Mississippi raid:
"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."
I cannot imagine any of my 7 dogs living in this squalor and
horror or any other dogs for that matter. I really hope that
the people who are responsible for this cruelty will get the
maximum punishment allowable by law. Hopefully, Mississippi
has made offenses like this felony penalties. For far too long
many states considered animal cruelty only misdemeanor acts. With
this mentality, we should not be suprised if people in these
states who mistreated animals probably also committed acts of
cruelty against people as well.
Sadly, a fellow Ohioan - Jeffrey Dahmer who had been guilty of
abusing little animals as a boy, turned out to be one of the
worst mass murderers of young men later. Recently, I saw his
father being interviewed on TV, and I believe that a case of
sympathy was being made for him. However, if he knew that his
son had been abusing and torturing small animals, then he has
to bare some reponsiblilty of what happened in his son's later
life. However, I only saw part of the interview, and he may
not have been aware of his son's cruel propensity for torturing
small animals.
Just another reason why we should have a curriculum in schools
re the need to be caring and compassionate toward animals. Of
course, the first teachers - parents should realize the importance
of teaching their youngsters to be caring and loving - not only
to humans but to animals as well.
Thankfully, six compassionate legislators - 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 U niform Protection and Safety Act. S.395/HR.
847 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 the cages for at least an hour a day.
How shameful that this Act had not been passed in the last Congress.
I don't know much about the legislative process, but I can't understand
why this Act was not passed last year. Was there no interest in
helping these poor dogs? Did we not ask our Congresspeople to pass
it? Whatever the reasons, it is so sad, because had the bill passed
last year, there WOULD NOT HAVE been a need to rescue these poor
dogs in the Mississippi puppy mill from hell- while some died in
the interim.
I hope the PUPS Act will be reintroduced this year and passed. In my
opinion, there is no reason for such a compassionate bill to be not
passed by both houses and become law. Goodness, don't these
Congresspeople own dogs they love and care for?
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