Westminster Dog Show -- They Lie While Dogs Die

By Carole Raphaelle Davis

Not everyone jumped for joy on Valentine’s Day when Malachy, the Pekingese, was named Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show. Real dog lovers raged. Why? Because a Peke won a beauty contest and consequently tens of thousands of Pekes will suffer a horrible fate. Because it means rough years ahead for Pekinese breeding dogs who are abused in puppy mills and backyard breeding operations. Because thousands of Pekinese will be dumped at the pound when the novelty wears off. The Westminster Dog Show and its parent, the American Kennel Club, the most established of the breed registries, has blood on its hands.

I wasn’t always this angry about dog shows. As a teenager I was a total dog geek. I would run every year to Madison Square Garden, the dog lover’s Mecca, to buy the three-day, all-access pass to The Westminster Dog Show. Since then, during twenty plus years in the animal protection movement, I have learned the truth. The Westminster Dog Show is a sham. Behind the flashing lights and the trophies are the American Kennel Club’s dirty little secrets:

1. Annually, the AKC, a “non-profit” animal enterprise, profits over 40 million tax-exempt dollars promoting the business of dealing dogs; many of them inbred with genetic malformations that are painful for the dogs and expensive for the owners. See the BBC’s special, Pedigree Dogs Exposed

2. They routinely register puppies from inhumane dog factories (puppy mills).

3. AKC reps are a constant presence at dog auctions, making deals not to promote the wellbeing of dogs, but to ensure registration fees from unscrupulous breeders. At these auctions, commercial breeders buy and sell breeding dogs,  their “product,” for as low as a dollar. The “product,” which should be a family pet in a loving home is instead sold to live out her sad life reproducing in a cage.

4. The AKC denies and covers up its responsibility for contributing to the millions of  dogs housed in our nation’s shelter system at our expense until they are tragically killed.

5. The AKC spends millions of dollars fighting animal protection legislation in every state in order to continue to profit from the dog dealing business.

And here are the dots it took me twenty years to connect: The Best-In-Show trophy awarded every year at the Westminster Dog Show fuels intense desire for purebred dogs. It promulgates the purebred fetish—the elitist idea that some dogs are better than others because of absurd criteria like the length of their hocks, the shortness of their snout, the texture of their fur or the protrusion of their eyeballs.  Many of the genetic traits that garner prizes at dog shows are congenital malformations that cause suffering to dogs and can eventually kill them. And by the way, none of those standards are the qualities that make us love our dogs and that make our dogs love us.

This year, because of the Westminster Dog Show, millions of people will covet the latest fashion accessory, a Pekinese dog, and commercial breeders will happily cash in on the bonanza. Pet stores will order them by the truck-load from brokers, who will buy them in bulk from commercial breeders. The word on the puppy pipe line will be: “Churn out those Pekinese puppies, they’re selling like hotcakes!”

You can order your Peke on-line at nextdaypets.com. All you need is a credit card and your Peke will come in the mail in twenty-four hours, just like a pair of shoes—if he survives the trip; many don’t. And when Peke fashion passes its peak, you can unload your used Peke at any shelter, where unless a socially conscious person shows up to adopts him, he will be killed.

While dogs are bought on a whim by selfish people who want what they want when they want it, over five million companion animals are killed in our nation’s shelter system for lack of adopters. It’s a national scandal that we are paying over $2.5 billion a year to house and kill these innocent animals. Twenty-five percent of those dogs are purebred dogs.

The Westminster Dog Show is a televised convention to promote the multi-billion dollar business of dealing purebred dogs. Behind the scenes is a sinister web of handshakes and deal-making with the long term plan of fighting any legislative measures the animal protection movement attempts to pass. Any talk of regulation that hinders the bottom line of commercial breeders in order to alleviate the suffering of breeding dogs is met with fierce opposition and deep pockets.

The commercial breeders and the clubs that enable them, like the AKC,  are stubborn in their insistence that animal rights activists back off . The breeders stick together, lobby Washington and take out ads in national newspapers to portray the animal protection activists as “fringe,” “extremist,”  “anti-business” and “fanatics.”

The animal protection movement is not going to back off. We will continue to expose the truth about the dog dealing industry and the shows that promote them. The Westminster Dog Show and the American Kennel Club need to come clean about their shameless disregard for the welfare of dogs. Instead, they congratulate themselves with trophies while we go broke cleaning up their mess, rescuing broken dogs, nursing them back to health, soothing their fear and finding them loving homes.

While the Westminster Dog Show winners celebrate, we cry over our dead—the millions and millions of dead dogs, our supposed best friends.

Carole Raphaelle Davis is the author of "The Diary of Jinky, Dog of a Hollywood Wife" and the West Coast Director of The Companion Animal Protection Society

www.caps-web.org

I'm Dreaming of an Ethical Christmas

     Purebred puppy mill dog in Hermès Kelly Bag = $12,000

    Death row Mutt in Vegan plastic knock-off = PRICELESS


 Hi, I'm Jinky, a dog who was rescued from death row in a Los Angeles shelter so around this time of year, I'm dreaming of an ethical Christmas. 


If you want a dog or a cat or any kind of pet this holiday season, get into the real spirit of Christmas by GIVING a second chance to a homeless animal.


When you buy a dog from a pet store or Internet seller, you are only enriching animal abusers. Those dogs come from factories, or, as they are often called, puppy mills, where the parent dogs are living out their sad lives in a cage. The puppy you see on the Internet or in the pet store is the product of an incredibly cruel business---where pups are manufactured like machine parts with no regard to their well-being. The parent dogs are exposed to freezing temperatures and get no socialization. 


Don't be fooled: Just because a commercial breeder has a USDA license or breed registry "papers" doesn't mean the breeding facility is humane. If a pup is sold over the Internet or in a pet store, he is from a puppy mill and puppy mills are legal just like chicken factories are legal. To the United States Department of Agriculture, dogs are just an agricultural product. 


I think dogs deserve better. After all, we are man's best friend!


There are lots of really great dogs at the pound! It's hard to believe that all those homeless dogs and cats aren't going to have a family for Christmas unless somebody comes and adopts them. So this holiday season, go to your local rescue organization or shelter and rescue a homeless animal. Get into the holiday spirit and take the $1000 you would have spent on a dog and give it to a family in need so they can have a nice Christmas. 


Hey, if you'ld like a great, inexpensive stocking stuffer that promotes adoption and makes you laugh, I wrote a funny book and I give 100% of the profits to dogs in need.


 Click here to order my book, "The Diary of Jinky, Dog of a Hollywood Wife " from Amazon. 

Companion Animal Protection Society Investigates I Heart Puppies Store in Corona del Mar

CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

National Group Investigating Corona del Mar Puppy Store

Caps undercover investigation of a Midwest commercial breeder that supplies southern CA pet stores. This breeder is USDA licensed and is a multiple and repeat violator of the Animal Welfare Act.

posted: July 6th, 2011 09:01 am |47Comments

A national animal rights group has launched an investigation into the newly opened I Heart Puppies shop in Corona del Mar.

The store, which opened Friday, may have puppies for sale that come from “an egregious violator of the Animal Welfare Act,” said Carole Davis, West Coast director for the Companion Animal Protection Society. She declined to say how she obtained her evidence, but she said it includes undercover video footage of the breeder’s facility and “is not hearsay.”

“I have evidence this breeder supplies the Corona del Mar store,” she said.

The shop’s owners said they stand by their stated mission to get puppies from reputable breeders.

Co-owner Suzanne Bradford said the shop’s puppies come from breeders who in compliance with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “which, as we all know is the agency that inspects the countries food supply. So I think it makes sense that if we trust the USDA to make sure our food is safe for us and our families, we would also trust them with their responsibility of regulating commercial dog breeders,” Bradford said.

Davis said she launched the investigation Tuesday after receiving 30 complaints about the store in one weekend. Typically, she sees that many complaints in a month, she said.

According to Davis, the Corona del Mar shop has puppies from at least six breeders, one of which has been investigated by the USDA and by the CAPS group since 2006.

Davis declined to name the breeder, but she said she had reports from her internal investigations and from the USDA that described dogs living in broken wire cages with no bedding, outdoors in sub-zero temperatures. Water bowls were missing, frozen over or contaminated with feces and urine, Davis said.

“The reports are really disturbing,” she said. One report said the dogs were in cages 3 feet off the ground, “and underneath is so much fecal matter that you would have to wear a mask,” she said. Any pet shop owner who visited this particular breeder “would leave in tears,” she said.

The breeder is located in the Midwest, she said. The violations and terrible conditions occurred in that location and not in Corona del Mar.

“We are not accusing stores of abusing animals,” Davis said.

A complete CAPS investigation could take up to six months, she said. “We inspect, we talk, we get inside, we observe, we talk to people who’ve bought animals, we talk to veterinarians,” she said.

Her goal is to work with the I Heart Puppies shop to convince them to work with local shelters to set up a “humane business model” rather than purchase dogs through brokers who may be getting dogs from unethical breeders. The shop’s owners have said they plan to include an adoption element to their business plan.

When the investigation is complete, Davis said she would send the results to members of the Newport Beach City Council with a request to change city code to ban shops from selling dogs that do not come from local shelters. According to the CAPS website, the group in 2009 successfully worked with four Los Angeles pet shops to convert them to humane business models that work with rescue centers to find homes for adoptable pets. In 2010, the website states that a CAPS undercover investigation resulted in the West Hollywood City Council passing an ordinance prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores with an exemption for the adoption of shelter and rescue animals.

“CAPS is currently working with Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) on an ordinance for La Mesa (San Diego County), CA and assisted Richmond, British Columbia animal advocates on a by-law banning the sale of pet shop dogs,” the website states.

Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Gardner, who represents Corona del Mar, said she was surprised to learn the shop was selling puppies “given the climate today,” but she had not received any calls or emails complaining about the business.

CAPS’ goal is to put inhumane dog breeders out of business by cutting off their sales, Davis said.

“We want to make it so they don’t have a place to sell their dogs,” Davis said. “We want to take away their outlets so they will decide to get a job that doesn’t include animal cruelty. That’s who we’re mad at.”

The shop, located at 2801 East Coast Highway, also sells pet supplies, puppy apparel, leashes and more.

“As far as what Companion Animal Protection Society thinks of the business model for I Heart Puppies, we believe we have a wonderful concept that puts beautiful healthy puppies in loving homes,” Bradford said. “We are very excited about the wonderful response we have had to our store, people appreciate what we have to offer the community and we look forward to providing the area with loving healthy puppies.”

Read our earlier story here.