SD Animal Defense Team: July 2013

July 24, 2013

It is done!

San Diego July 23, 2013

There is dancing in the streets tonight as San Diego becomes the lucky # 13 city in California to ban the sale of puppies in any pet stores within the city. And... just because it is right, we also added cats and rabbits to the ban. Today was the second (and final)reading of the ban by the San Diego City Council. It was pulled for discussion because there were public comment slips turned in by the opposition.
Thanks to the great 6 City Council members who voted YES today. (Sherri Lightner and Scott Sherman sadly voted on the side of puppy mills.) David Salinas, owner of San Diego Puppy, called together 13 people to make public comments against the ordinance. Those included the cat fanciers, a member of the La Mesa City Council, the owner of Pet Market, David Salinas and others. When questioned by Lightner, Dr. Gary Weitzman, Director of the San Diego Humane Society and Dawn Danielson, Director of the County Department of Animal Services did a great job of explaining the technicalities of the ordinance.

Thanks to everyone who was there today! Thanks to everyone who made this happen! It will go into effect 30 days after the Mayor signs. He has 10 business days to sign.

WooHoo! VICTORY for the puppies

and their mothers!

July 12, 2013

Finally! No more puppy mill sales in San Diego!

VICTORY!!!

The ordinance to ban the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in San Diego pet stores was passed by the City Council yesterday! Those of us in the Council meeting room cheered with joy when the unanimous vote came in. We have worked long and hard for this and that includes every one of you receiving this message.

We know what you did. We know how much you cared. We celebrate this victory with YOU! It is because of you that puppy mill pups will no longer be sold in the city of San Diego.

With full hearts we thank you.

For those who couldn't be with us yesterday, we thought you might like to read the presentation, given by Janice Hatch on behalf of the San Diego Animal Defense Team, as part of the working group who gave this the final push. In addition, we had over 15 speakers lined up to weigh in during the public comment section to cover every aspect of the outrage of puppy mills. They spoke with one voice -- the voice of compassion and knowledge. They put it over the top!

The San Diego Animal Defense Team is a grassroots group that has been working exclusively on the local puppy mill problem since 2008. Our focus is the connection between puppy mills and San Diego city and county pet stores. We have held hundreds of educational outreach events and protests at all of the pet stores selling puppies, including Pet Works in Grossmont Center, Pups and Pets in Santee, California Pets in Escondido and Carlsbad, Puparazzi in Mission Valley Shopping Center, Puppy Stars in Clairemont, Naedeen Puppies in Oceanside, Pet Place in Rolando and San Diego Puppy in Grantville.

We documented the puppies in each store. We investigated and researched their breeders. What we found is disturbing.

Every San Diego store that we investigated uses puppy mill breeders. We have been able to identify these breeders through information given to us by people who bought the puppies, which we then tracked through a central data base and USDA reports.

Many of the same mass-producing puppy mills supply all of the San Diego area stores.

(slide) One is the infamous Stonehenge Kennel in West Point, Iowa. 1,118 breeding dogs are trapped in cages in the buildings you see on the aerial view slide.

(slide) Here's what you see when you look inside. They have multiple USDA violations of the most basic kinds of humane care.

In addition to educational outreach and investigations, we sent a letter to each store, offering to help them change to a humane model so they could continue their businesses cruelty-free. I have a copy here if you want one. We don't want the stores to close. We also don't want them to build their business on the backs of suffering animals.

We offered to provide contacts with breed rescues and shelters. We offered to promote the store. We offered to provide additional information about professional and public relations volunteers who would help them promote their new humane model stores at no cost.

We are sorry to report that no one was interested.

It's important that we all keep in mind these are businesses that do not sell products. They sell living, breathing, feeling animals. The animals feel pain and fear and they need the comfort and companionship of humans. We hope you agree with us that San Diego does not want businesses that are fundamentally based on cruelty to animals.

This is a multi-billion $$$ industry, with profits at multiple levels -- the puppy mills to the brokers to the puppy stores. Everyone wins at this money game but the animals. And they lose every time.

This ordinance is about protecting them. Please do the right thing. Vote YES.

July 08, 2013

T O M O R R O W!!!!!!

Here we go! We are down to the final City Council vote that will stop the sale of puppies from puppy mills in San Diego! After all of your hard work, standing at pet stores holding signs, passing out flyers and educating people about choices to find a puppy or kitten, making calls, signing petitions and endorsing this ordinance, it is NOW TIME that we can all go to the City Council and be counted!!!

THIS IS IT!!!

JOIN the San Diego Animal Defense Team

to tell the City Council

to ban the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in

San Diego pet stores!!!

Now is the time to let them know that we

want this ordinance!

PLEASE WEAR RED TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE
ORDINANCE!

You will be given a speaker's form for public comment when you enter. If you want to speak, that's great! (You will have one minute.) Otherwise, please write on the form that you will give your time to

the San Diego Animal Defense Team.

TOMORROW!!!

JULY 9, 2013 at 2pm

Be sure to come early to get a seat in the room.

202 C Street, San Diego

Wall of Shame: These San Diego Stores Sell Puppies

The Animal Defense Team has targeted the stores listed in red with protests.

San Diego Puppy

5825 Mission Gorge Rd.

David Salinas is selling puppy mill puppies in this storefront and online.
His Horton Plaza kiosk was cancelled the day before our big protest there. Surprise! We are continuing to monitor Horton Plaza to be sure no other puppy stores open there. We have been protesting and doing educational outreach at this store since May, 2012. Please join us at our events.

Puppy Star's CLOSED MARCH 2012!!!

6167 Balboa Ave.

Clairemont

+ Naedeen's Puppies -- owned by Puppy Star's CLOSED MARCH 2012!!!

1021 S. Coast Highway

Oceanside

+ Pet Place -- owned by Puppy Star's CLOSED 2012!!!

6512 El Cajon Blvd.

San Diego

Lemon Grove Pets

7034 Broadway

Lemon Grove, CA 91945

619-460-1965

My Puppy Closed! This store has shut down. If you hear of it reopening in a different location, please let us know. 7770 Vickers St. Ste. 101, San Diego 92111

California Pets at North County Fair, Escondido

California Pets 2525 El Camino Real, Carlsbad (Plaza Camino Real)

Pet Works CLOSED DECEMBER 2010! Grossmont Center Shopping Mall, La Mesa

Fiesta Pet Shop 1145 Highland Ave., National City

Noy's Pet Shop 2550 Imperial Ave.

Pet Market 1536 Sweetwater Rd., National City

Puparazzi -- CLOSED SEPTEMBER, 2011!!! Woo Hoo! Mission Valley Shopping Center

Pups & Pets 50 Town Center Parkway Santee, CA

Please help us keep up-to-date on current stores selling puppies on San Diego County! Thanks

From Sourcewatch.com: USDA

USDA certified puppy mills There are only about a hundred USDA inspectors to monitor 10,000 facilities across the country, ranging from research labs to zoos. Furthermore, "standards" are abysmal. Federal guidelines allow a medium sized terrier to be kept in a cage the size of a clothes drier for its entire life. The federal Animal Welfare Act is hardly the gold standard for compassion. For example, the act does not say you cannot have 300 dogs confined to cages for their entire lives; never to be taken for a walk or receive any personal attention, let alone be a part of a family. A breeder passes USDA muster as long as the dog has food, water and enough space to turn around. USDA standards are very minimal. Adhering to them does not prove that a breeder is not a puppy mill. Even more so, since even these standards are often not enforced. Many licensed breeders for large chains like Petland, have significant violations. [12]

Prisoners of Greed Compassionate Vet Pledge

We are researching which San Diego County veterinarians partner with local puppy stores and will be posting them to this website soon. We will also present provide those vets with puppy mill information, ask them to reconsider their alignment with pet stores selling puppies, and give them the opportunity to sign the Compassionate Vet Pledge.

Compassionate Vet Pledge
Most dogs in puppy mills live their entire lives in wire bottom cages, they are bred when they are six months old, bred every time they come into season, never allowed out of the cage to exercise, not provided quality food or medical care, left outside in the winter and summer without heat or air-conditioning and killed when they do not produce. Certainly veterinarians who are dedicated to the care of animals would object to these practices.

The Federal Animal Welfare Act requires that a veterinarian prepare a vet plan. Without a plan, the kennel can not obtain a license from the United States Department of Agriculture. If every vet in this country, stood for compassion and refused to be the vet of record for a commercial kennel or a pet store that sells dogs/puppies, no commercial kennels could operate.

Download the USDA Policy on Vet Requirements

We are asking all vets to sign the Pledge of Compassion. Every vet who signs the Pledge will receive a framed Certificate of Compassion to hang in their office. The vets will also be featured on this website and recommended as Compassionate Vets. Clients can then determine whether their vet is a Compassionate Vet who will stand up against the misery created in commercial kennels.

Print the pledge and take it to your vet. Have them sign it. Send us a copy and also send it to the Coalition Against Misery Box 343 Pocopson, PA 19366. They will send them the framed certificate and some Prisoners of Greed brochures to display in their office.

Will your vet stand up for the dogs?

Download the Pledge

What is a Puppy Mill?

The term is used by Humane Societies, the ASPCA and the community to indicate USDA kennels that commercially raise wholesale dogs with profit instead of the welfare of the animals as their primary objective. The dogs are farmed as a cash crop.

Animal Planet says it's now a one billion dollar industry with brokers, breeders and pet stores getting rich off of the unbelievable suffering of the dogs in the breeding mills. Under the USDA standard of care, the breeding dogs -- the mothers of the puppies -- NEVER get out of their cages, are housed in wire crates, often stacked so that the dogs on the bottom tier live in terrible stench and filth with no human contact, and receive only enough food and water to be kept alive. YES THIS IS LEGAL, BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT HUMANE.

The HSUS: "The kennel conditions in which puppies are bred and raised are deliberately kept from consumers."

Missouri Puppy Mill Bust/Support Prop B!

71 Dogs Removed from Missouri Puppy Mill; Help Support Prop. B!

On September 21, the ASPCA Field Investigations and Response Team in conjunction with the Humane Society of Missouri (HSMO) removed 71 dogs from an overrun puppy mill in Camden County, MO. The dogs—who include Dachshunds, Maltese, Shih Tzus, Lhasa Apsos, Huskies and Boxers—were transferred to the Humane Society of Southwest Missouri in Springfield and HSMO in St. Louis, where they received medical treatment and will be cared for until they’re ready for adoption.
“This case was unique in that the dogs were voluntarily relinquished by the kennel owner who could no longer afford to feed them,” explains Tim Rickey, ASPCA Senior Director of Field Investigations and Response. Last week the mill owner contacted a local rescue group, Half-way Home Pet Rescue in Cedar County, for help, and Half-way Home then reached out to the ASPCA.
“When breeders are no longer able to care for their animals, the problem lands squarely on the shoulders of local shelters,” says Half-way Home’s Latisha Duffy, who works closely with breeders in Missouri to find homes for retired breeding dogs.
Known as the “Puppy Mill Capital of America,” Missouri is home to more than 3,000 commercial dog breeding facilities and supplies more than 40 percent of all dogs sold in pet stores nationwide. “We see some of the worst conditions in Missouri puppy mills,” explains Rickey. “The dogs, often very ill, are forced to live in overcrowded, filthy conditions.”
In an effort to end the many cruelties associated with puppy mills, the ASPCA, a founding member of Missourians for the Protection of Dogs/YES! on Prop. B, is supporting Proposition B, also known as the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act. This landmark measure, which will appear on the state’s November ballot, promotes the humane treatment of dogs in Missouri’s large-scale commercial breeding kennels. If passed, Prop B would limit the number of breeding dogs to 50 per facility, and would require large-scale breeders to sufficient food, water and space for the animals under their care.
To learn how to extend your support for Proposition B, please visit our Puppy Mill section on ASPCA.org.

The Truth About Horse Racing

Last year's shameful death list of horses who died racing at Del Mar:

Mr. Napper Tandy
Pocosin's Game Boy
I Want My Money
Mi Rey
Sovine
Peanut Ridge
Maggie and Hopie
Insider
Mad for Plaid
Pauper's Prize
Zetta's Corridor
Endless Moon
Madame Kiawah

Last year (2009) 230 horses died at California race tracks, including the 13 at Del Mar. The evidence is clear: the industry is breeding speed over soundness. Horse's bones, tendons and ligaments cannot hold up to the extreme punishment of racing and horses are paying for it with their lives.

The Animal Defense Team doesn't think this qualifies as either "sport" or entertainment. Do you?

Horses are being trained and raced as two-year-olds, before they are fully mature. Drugs mask problems like pain and bleeding into the lungs, pushing them beyond their physical limits. Lasix, phenylbutazme and corticosteroids are legally used across the country. Drugs keep horses on the racetrack even when they shouldn't be racing.

Losers or injured horses are quickly discarded and sent to the slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada. Since 1980, the Equine Protection Network states more than 4 million horses have been barbarically slaughtered. The Humane Society of the US estimates at least 11,000 a year.

Racehorses are the victims of an industry based on greed, drugging, deception and death.
Del Mar. CRUEL AS EVER.

PET STORE DOUBLESPEAK

They say: "Our puppies come from breeders, not puppy mills." The word "breeder" isn't an exclusive term. Anyone who produces puppies is technically a breeder. A responsible breeder would never sell her puppies to a pet store.
They say: "All our puppies come from USDA facilities, so we know they are not from puppy mills." Being USDA licensed doesn't mean that the business is not a puppy mill. There are hundreds of USDA-licensed puppy mills in operation that have long lists of violations and problems. A USDA license is required for anyone who is a commercial breeder producing dogs for wholesale.
They say: "We only deal with breeders we know." The store's definition of "knowing" a breeder often just means that they have been receiving shipments of puppies from the same place repeatedly, not that anyone from the store has ever visited the breeder's facility or inspected their records.
They say: "Our puppies come with a health certificate from a licensed veterinarian." A health certificate only means that the puppy has had a brief "wellness" exam by a vet. This exam doesn't include testing for genetic disorders, or testing for diseases such as Giardia and Brucellosis, both of which are contagious to humans and are frequently seen in puppy mill pups.

Congratulations! These Stores Have Signed A Puppy Friendly Pet Store Pledge

Pet Stop, 7490 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla
Noah's Natural Pet Market,4431CassSt.,PB
San Diego Pet Supply, 1490 Island Ave., SD