(738)   Sat 16 Nov 96  8:47
By: Marty Leipzig
Re: Fundy Puppy Mills

From the Saturday, November 16, 1996 Houston Chronicle.


Critics show teeth at church fund plan
Users of Internet yelp "puppy mill"
by T.J. Milling
Houston Chronicle

A woman's plan to breed and sell dogs to help fund a Spring (Texas)
church's children's program raised howls of protest around the world
via the Internet this week.

Kay Peterson, an animal dealer, placed a classified ad in the Chronicle
stating Northfield Christian Center wanted to buy purebred breeding dogs.
The ink had barely dried when someone posted the ad on the Internet, and
canine connoisseurs from Germany to Jersey went rabid.

"This ad is disgusting," Karen Reardon of New Haven, Conn., wrote to
the Chronicle via electronic mail. "Be assured, this ad is flying all
over the Internet."

Scores of other equally outraged dog lovers deluged the Chronicle with
E-mail and tied up Peterson's and the church's phones.

The caller's concern was that the church was starting a "puppy mill",
jargon for the nefarious practice of overbreeding and interbreeding
dogs to produce the largest number of litters and turn the biggest
profit without regard to the dog's health.

Northfield's Rev. Don Riley, a self-described cowboy preacher who
has raised everything from sheep to horses to bulls, was a little
flabbergasted by all the growling over a program that hasn't even
started yet.

"I'm an animal welfare person", he said. "I don't want anything hurt.
I just don't understand all the fuss. Dogs are for sale every day."

But the protesters, some of whom are breeders, questioned whether
Peterson or Riley has the experience to raise purebreds. If breeding
is done properly, with all the genetic checks, bloodline research and
examinations, it is seldom profitable, they said.

"I find it absolutely appalling that a so-called 'church' would even
consider such an activity to raise funds for their operation," wrote
Trish Mims of Houston. "It is painfully obvious that these people are
either totally callous to the myriad unwanted animals euthanized daily
in the Houston area or they are completely uneducated."

There have been horror stories across the country of whimpering, sickly
puppies cooped up in filthy cages, mass bred because their breed is the
latest fad. And when the fad ends, the puppies end up at the pound.

"Take a trip to your nearest shelter and see just how many 'pure-bred'
puppy-mill dogs take a one-way trip through that establishment," wrote
Judith Bandsma of Charleston, S.C. "If you are a feeling person, it will
break your heart."

But a surprise visit Friday to Peterson's five-acre Pet-N-Pony ranch in
northeast Harris County by the Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals and the Chronicle didn't quite turn up a nightmare. The 60 or so
dogs there were well-fed, the facilities were clean, and there was plenty
of space. Peterson said she had only bought one Welsh Corgi for the church
program.

"The animals were in good shape", SPCA chief investigator Dave Garcia said,
but Peterson and the church may have some paperwork problems.

Under the Animal Welfare Act, anyone acting as a dog broker must be
licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Garcia said. And because
the church's name was used, it may need a license, or it could lose it's
tax-exempt status.

Garcia said he will contact the USDA and the Internal Revenue Service
on Monday.

Peterson said she didn't know she needed a license, but would get one.

Riley says he doesn't need a license to accept any donations Peterson
might raise by selling dogs. But the situation is a little more complicated
because she is director of resource development for Reveille Ranch,
Riley's private concern next to the 300-member church.

Riley said the fund-raising is for an expanded ministry to disabled
and troubled children. He hopes to bring them out by the bus load and
interact with ranch animals and learn responsibility by feeding and caring
for them.

"It takes a lot of money to do what I want to do," Riley said. "I can't
do it with bake sales. I might be able to do it with bake sales and
puppies...These kids wake up to the same routine every day of their lives.
I want to give them a new day, not just another day."

Anne McGuire, a member of the Greater Houston Golden Retrievers Club,
said that the church may mean well, but there are better ways to raise
money than breeding dogs.

"You don't find good breeding stock by putting an ad in the newspaper,"
she said. "There are too many dogs in the world now. If every dog in the
U.S. were to have a home, every family would have to own over 100 dogs.
There are too many out there not to justify breeding responsibly."

*30*

... Tagline deleted. Nothing even remotely funny about this shit.
--- Blue Wave/Max v2.30
 * Origin: A Little Corner in Time (1:106/113.0)
SEEN-BY: 12/12 24/888 102/2 106/38 113 977 990 2000 2001 3302 9788 109/7
SEEN-BY: 114/262 271 121/8 124/1 130/1 133/5050 143/1 147/2021 167/166
SEEN-BY: 170/400 213/213 218/2 801 890 900 901 907 252/140 270/101 275/429
SEEN-BY: 280/1 169 282/1 283/120 284/29 290/14 310/666 322/739 323/107
SEEN-BY: 324/278 343/600 352/3 369/32 377/86 381/900 382/92 395/100 396/1
SEEN-BY: 396/2 690/660 730/2 732/10 733/1 2360/10 2401/0 2608/27 2803/1
SEEN-BY: 3603/420 3606/10 3612/41 3615/50 3619/25 3651/9 3652/1 3666/401
SEEN-BY: 3667/1 3674/1 3804/130

@PATH: 106/113 977 990 2000 396/1 218/907 801