The Dark Side of "That Doggie in the Window"

“I have no name, I have no real home, I have no one who loves me. I live in constant fear, I am always hungry and thirsty. I have no concept of time, so the days, weeks and months pass and I am alone. I am cold on some days and nights and hot on others. When I have to pee or poop, I go to a corner and do my business. It falls through the wire into a tray below, but no one comes to clean it very often, so it smells horrible and the flies come in droves and torment me. My feet are cut from standing and walking on the wire and one is infected. Some of my teeth are rotting out and the pain is terrible. Insects crawl on my body and bite me. One of my ears is infected and the pain fights with the pain in my mouth. It seems my life is just filled with pain all the time. I can watch the sun rise and set but never go out and enjoy the sunshine. When it rains it feels good at first but soon the wind picks up and I am soaked, huddled in a corner trying to stay dry. My belly is swollen, not from the hunger that is always present, but from the tiny lives that are forming there.”

Am I describing a prisoner of war trapped in a cage, waiting to die? It appears that this is a female who is pregnant so maybe that’s wrong. They don’t want this prisoner to die. They want the babies, for the babies are worth a lot of money.

No, I am describing life in a puppy mill. The mama dog’s only purpose is to have litters of puppies several times a year so they can be sold for a tidy profit. She has no name because she is not real. She is a baby-making machine and so there is no need for a name. She is in a cage because she is not real and baby-making machines are just there to make babies. So, there is no need to let her run free in a fenced yard or chase a ball or get a pat or a hug. The only need is to keep the machine alive and producing puppies until the machine can no longer function and then it is killed, sometimes by gun, sometimes by drowning. The cage must be empty for the next inhabitant to start the process over again. To keep a dog that can no longer breed costs money. And with no name and no purpose, the only thing left is to get rid of the dog to make room for another.

Things are changing for the better as more rescue organizations are formed and dogs are saved from death at the hands of puppy mill workers. Sometimes the owners will contact the rescue and give up a dog instead of killing her. Sometimes bad puppy mills are raided by law enforcement and rescue operations to save all the dogs. They are then fostered for several months and can become eligible for adoption.

This story is about one of those lucky mamas who was rescued, fostered, and now lives with us. Our brood includes Yuki, a 4-year-old Mini Aussie who is a Red Merle. This is a beautiful color combination that includes reds, browns, and whites in various patterns. Also Abby, our 12-year-old black cat, and Georgie, our gray and white eating machine who is 8. Lady Mae the name of our rescue dog and she is also a Red Merle, also 4 years old and about the same size as Yuki.

These two dogs, born about the same time could not be more different. Yuki was a puppy when we got her 4 years ago and she has had a loving family all her life, with all the care and love that is possible for a dog. Meanwhile, Lady Mae was born and soon taken as a brood dog with no name, no love and no care, living just to have litter after litter of puppies, all to be taken too soon and sold.

This story has a happy ending. It is about one mama dog who made it out and into our home where we are continuing the great efforts of a wonderful foster mom who worked for months to help this poor dog recover from 4 years of horror.

We also must thank the rescue organization that found our girl and got her the medical attention she needed to move on to a foster home. (https://www.australianshepherdsfurever.org).

She was spayed, chipped, and had 11 teeth pulled. Pregnant females need calcium supplements because the puppies steal calcium from the mom. She did not get any so her teeth rotted and had to be pulled. We don’t know the details of her rescue, but health issues could have affected her over the years. Health care was probably minimal and just enough to keep her alive and able to get pregnant. We also don’t know how many litters she had over her 4 years but probably at least 6 to 8 after she was old enough to conceive. The puppies were taken too soon, and she was left wondering where her babies were each time.

Many Australian Shepherds have been a part of our lives over the years and Lady Mae is our 5th over 20+ years of marriage. When I met my wife, she had Mattie, a beautiful Blue Merle who was smart and stubborn and wonderful in every way.

Then there was Cassie and Maggie. Cassie, the slim, long-legged speedster who would race through the woods on our 11 acres chasing deer. Maggie was stouter with short legs, so she developed a “bunny hop” to gain ground and keep up with Cassie.

After both those girls passed away, we just knew we needed to get another dog and Yuki came into our lives as a puppy through friends from our church. She is a Red Merle with a slim body and long legs like Cassie. She is smart and fast and has been our single dog for 4 years.

We decided that Yuki needed a sister and after getting in touch with Australian Shepherds Furever we waited until a dog about the same age and size as Yuki became available.

As I write this story we have only had Lady Mae for just over 2 weeks. She is doing great but will still need us to be patient, take all the time she needs, and just love her until she becomes the best dog she can be. So far that is working out thanks to the incredible work of her foster mom who had her for several months and loved and cared for her to get her ready to find a forever home. We are grateful that we were in the right place at the right time to adopt this little jewel and bring her home to our 4-year-old miniature Aussie named Yuki.

I will continue the story of Lady Mae in more articles that follow our journey with a rescue dog.

Lady Mae- Photo by Hanna Fox

Please take a moment to click on the link below and check out Australian Shepherds Furever. You can help with a donation or even join the foster program. You can even do what we did and adopt a rescue dog and give it a forever home. Lady Mae thanks you for reading her story.

https://www.australianshepherdsfurever.org/

Puppy Mills are terrible places, and many organizations are working to change the way they are licensed and regulated. Many are driven out of business and some are charged with crimes for their treatment of the animals. Check out the following organization for more information about puppy mills and how you can help. You may just save a dog this week!

The Puppy Mill Project

https://www.thepuppymillproject.org/

Cari Meyers can remember the exact moment when The Puppy Mill Project was born. It was a September afternoon in 2009. She had just left a board meeting of a large, nonprofit animal rescue in Chicago. Even with all of the good that rescues were accomplishing, she realized that nobody was talking about puppy mills. She had been researching puppy mills, and as she looked at Chicago’s euthanasia rates and the sales figures from pet stores, she realized that she had to take action.

“The more I learned about puppy mills and pet stores, the more I knew we had to cut off the head of the dragon. Nobody was talking about puppy mills — nobody. Yet, thousands of dogs were being sold in Chicago’s pet stores and thousands more were being killed at animal control. And, the dogs being sold at pet stores were coming from these horrible places known as puppy mills.”

She started her path to change the only way that she knew how — through an old-fashioned grassroots effort. This organization has now become Cari Meyers’ dream, passion, and life’s work. Since 2009, The Puppy Mill Project has worked tirelessly to educate the public about puppy mills, increase consumer knowledge and awareness, and effect changes in legislation related to the puppy mill and pet store industry.

Puppy mills are one of the largest and most systemic forms of animal cruelty in this country. With your support and your voice, we can truly make a difference for the mill dogs. Please join our efforts. Become active in your own community and help us with our mission. We are changing the world for mill dogs.

Puppy Mill Statistics from the Puppy Mill Project

• An estimated 167,388 breeding dogs are currently living in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-licensed commercial facilities for breeding purposes this very moment.*

• There are an estimated 10,000 puppy mills in the United States (this includes both licensed and unlicensed facilities).

• Over 2 million puppies bred in mills each year.

• An estimated 1.2 million dogs are euthanized in shelters every year.

• Thousands of commercially-bred puppies are shipped into Illinois and sold from Illinois pet stores each year.

* These statistics are sourced from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) 2014 Puppy Mill Facts and Figures report (available here) and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Pet Statistics