A conservative Republican recommended me to CAPS (Companion Animal Protection Society) to do video and public relations work. After viewing this video, I couldn’t say no.
As a dog owner, this struck a nerve.
As part of our campaign against Shake A Paw, CAPS investigated Pick of the Litter, a large-scale brokerage facility in Minnesota in the fall of 1997. The owner, Kathy Bauck, told our investigators that she had 573 dogs who all have names. The February 25, 1998 inspection report listed 603 adult dogs and 309 puppies.
Our investigators saw dogs in a variety of enclosures. They saw numerous outdoor dirt pens with only doghouses for shelter. Ms. Bauck owner told them she brings all the dogs inside during winter. CAPS’ investigators observed this would be impossible due to lack of space. Pick of the Litter had six buildings for breeding dogs, two buildings for puppies and one building for brokered puppies. Our investigators noticed that all the buildings had large accumulations of feces and inadequate ventilation. The building with the brokered puppies was the worst facility with respect to sanitation and ventilation. A concrete drainage ditch that ran the length of this building was covered with feces encrusted grates. All the buildings had a heavy fly infestation. In one building, the CAPS investigators saw old disposable syringes and needles scattered about.
Several Shelties housed underneath a pole barn had no hair. One CAPS investigator saw a dog with a prolapsed uterus. He also encountered a Dalmatian licking her dead puppy. The mother dog picked up the puppy several times and desperately tried to hand it to our investigator so that he could help her. According to a former Pick of the Litter employee, Ms. Bauck left puppies with the mother dogs so they could grieve. This employee claimed that dead puppies sometimes stayed in mothers’ pen for as long as a week. Because Ms. Bauck’s husband came into the kennel, the CAPS investigator was unable to take a photograph.
According to a former employee who filed a complaint with the Otter Tail Humane Society, Ms. Bauck threw dead dogs in a manure spreader. This employee saw her throw live newborn puppies in the spreader. The employee rescued the puppies. This employee stated that Pick of the Litter had animals buried out back or burned in the wood burner. In addition, she claimed there were dead dogs under the hay shed and in the silo.
So I am now a conservative Republican animal rights activist.
Deal with it.
“So I am now a conservative Republican animal rights activist.”
Nothin’ to be ashamed of. There’s a special place in Hell for those who abuse and misuse our best friends. I hope they get to meet all those dead dogs when they get there.
Yeah some “pet factories” up here were caught by anonymous investigators several years ago and reported conditions similar to this. They made a documentary out of it too and it was aired on Radio-Canada’s TV networks.
Horrible stuff. THIS is what animal activists should be fighting against.
We once bought a dog from a puppy mill, (we were young, and did not realize that this man was basically breeding dogs with each other over and over. Live and learn.) That dog was so hard to work with. It was horrible. We learned out lesson, and it sickens me to think people would be so gross about this, all for the love of money. So I am with you on this.
Now, if you start asking all of us to donate money toward the purchasing for ear phones for ipods for cows that are being led to slaughter, so that they can hear soothing music, and relax them on their way, (yes, my sister told me they are trying to do things to relax them on their way to slaughter, and this was one suggestion! She is a lib animal rights activist.) then I will have to stop following you! I would miss ya Bob, so do me a favor, and no ipods for cows going to slaughter okay!
“So I am now a conservative Republican animal rights activist.”
can’t blame ya. This is one of the few REALISTIC way to be an activist, most others are damn radical. Makes me sick to people like Bauck EXIST. We got out little schnauzer from a nice couple, who were breeders as well. Luckily, they only had a small number of dogs at any one time. We search LONG and hard for some good folks to get a dog from. We also search long and hard for some nice folks who take care of dogs when owners are away, and as luck would have it, we found a nice little family who does just that, and our schnauzer is even happy to SEE that family when we’re out of town. They definitely love to keep the dogs they have in their care happy. If only bad breeders didn’t exist..we wouldn’t have to worry so much
Bob, have been reading but not posting much lately, sorry (really, I never miss a day of reading!)
I read this post to my 16 year old daughter who is studying to be a veterinarian (she goes to a special pre-veterinary charter high school) and she said you need to make a slight correction.
According to her animal sciences teacher you would be more correctly labeled a “conservative Republican animal WELFARE activist”.
That being said, we are behind you all the way, as usual. We don’t have a dog right now (our beloved Australian Shepherd died last year) but huge animal lovers and Alison will be volunteering for a no-kill shelter this summer over her break.
I happily stand corrected, Mommy.
A simple solution is to vote with your wallet and never pay money for a dog. When I was a kid we used to get puppies free from newspaper ads. Not too many of those ads anymore. So I got my friend Duncan from a shelter. There are plenty of nice dogs at the pound, which is where too many of these poor souls end up anyway after their purchasers are tired of them.
Besides, isn’t it frowned upon to buy your friends?
And that mistress of the hellhole differs from the commander at Auswich how, exactly?
Hey I’m a conservative Republican and I am for equal rights for minority members, getting rid of (real, not CO2) pollution, and protecting animals from abuse. The people who look like they are pursuing these issues are only hijacking them and bastardizing them to reap votes from the ignorant.
Finally a description of me! I’m a sucker for animals. How heart rending to see this video and read about it. Made me give an extra hug to my two rescue JRTs and I’m sending another to Weezy, please give it to her for me.
Something happened to the quote from Mommy RN I had at the beginning of my post — “According to her animal sciences teacher you would be more correctly labeled a “conservative Republican animal WELFARE activist”.
Karma’s a bitch, Bauck will get hers one of these days.
The video was brutal. Made me feel bad for some of the evil thoughts I’ve had towards my new puppy: an 9 week old chocolate lab named Moose. I can call him “chocolate” can’t I? Or, is that somehow racist under the PC rule of law? Anyway, as long as the little shit keeps coming in and pooping in the house after I’ve had him out for the last three hours, I suppose the homicidal thoughts will continue.
Bob, I too am an animal welfare activist. I’m also a Republican environmentalist, but I prefer the term “Conservationist.”
Unfortunately, Animal Rights work has left it so that folks like this are virtually the only source for animals. If you get cats or dogs from a shelter, they MUST be fixed before you can take them home, which means no kittens or puppies, and the lesson of birth is never witnessed at home.
Indeed.
Animals do not have rights; the phrase “animal rights” is an intentional oxymoron.
The Machine: “And that mistress of the hellhole differs from the commander at Auswich how, exactly?”
In, precisely, that animals are not human beings. The Leftists already have their thought-killing ‘memes’ installed into your mind; can you not see that?
The humans who run this should be nailed to the floor and the dogs allowed to bite, tear, defacate, and basically kill them.
There is no word to use for people who so violate those who cannot defend themselves, even if they are animals and not humans.
I watched only 5 minutes and couldn’t bear to watch any more and I don’t even care for dogs, being a cat person. But this was just WRONG. It IS wrong. It should be stopped. Thank you Bob for doing what you are doing. It is a very worthy cause.