A photo of an unhealthy breeding dog at a Mill owned by Bob Mehmert in West Point, IA. Photo from the USDA through iafriends.org
Mary LaHay is a woman on a mission. That mission: shut down or, at minimum, improve conditions at so called “Puppy Mills”, or pet-breeding farms where dogs are bred–often times with little regard for the health and safety of the breeding animals.
LaHay, based in Des Moines, is the founder of Iowa Friends of Companion Animals. She started the group in 2008.
“I got started because I found out about the problem. I had no idea it was going on, and most Iowans don’t know it’s going on. I tried to find someone who was doing something about it, and I couldn’t find anyone,” LaHay said Thursday on the KBUR Talk Show, “So I did.”
Puppy Mill dogs are often sold to brokers, who then turn around and sell them to big, chain pet stores.
LaHay says that while Puppy Mills must be licensed by the USDA, that does nothing to mitigate the sometimes deplorable conditions that exist inside the mills. LaHay says the the regulations the USDA is following are archiac.
“They are beholden to the ‘Animal Welfare Act’, which is a set of regulations,” said LaHay, “A good example of how inadequate they are is [regulations on] cage size. They can measure a dog from the base of it’s tail to the tip of it’s nose, and add six inches. That’s all the wider and deeper a cage has to be, and a dog can spend it’s entire life in that cage.”
The USDA also has inadequate power to punish offenders. The USDA has no method through which they can report offenders to the state government, meaning that offenders can sometimes get away with abuse unscathed.
Iowa has over 200 puppy mills–the second most in the country. A huge number are in southeast Iowa, Lee County is home to 21 Mills, the second most in the state behind Sioux County, which is home to 27.
LaHay will be in Burlington on April 6th at The Drake Restaurant downtown to host an informational meeting on Puppy Mills. You can visit the group online at iafriends.org.
