Fighting Puppy Mills...a New Twist!

[QueenScoopalot]

Subject: a creative way to fight puppy mills

crossposting a great story on creative way to fight puppy mills


Mary Dube'
Southern Comfort Maltese Rescue (SCMR) http://www.scmradoption.com
Application: http://scmradoption.com/html/onlineapp.htm

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is
to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Wednesday, April 7, 2004 10:38 p.m.

Activists work to prosecute Dallas residents selling puppies
By GARY REAVES / WFAA-TV

Dallas residents who end up with a litter of kittens or puppies and try to
sell them from home may be in for a surprise.

Animal activists admit using false pretenses to build real criminal cases
against such individuals, so the person calling about buying pets for sale
may not be who they seem.

Marty Hardisty came to court Wednesday trying to prove she is not a
criminal.

But if she is, her dogs are her co-conspirators: Hardisty is accused of
running a business out of her home by selling puppies. It's a case made not
by city animal control officers, but by a pair of private citizens, Lady
Higgins and her daughter Lisa. They said they're trying to shut down puppy
mills, so they scour the newspaper ads and get the city attorney to
prosecute anyone caught selling dogs from a Dallas home.

"It is basically an issue of transforming a residence into a place of
business," chief prosecutor Robert Miklos said. "You cannot do that in the
city of Dallas."

Dallas Animal Control manager Kent Robertson backs the Higgins. He thinks
the dog breeders are part of the pet overpopulation problem. "They need to
come down and spend a day in the euthanasia lab, where we are forced to
euthanize 26,000 dogs a year," Robertson
said.

The six people Higgins got prosecuted this day, however, claim they are
innocent dog lovers. Robert Spangler got his case dismissed because he sold
his dogs outside the city limits. "I lost a good day's pay," Spangler said.
"My family needs the money, and it is just
a waste of time."

Kathy Hargrave won her case; her lawyer convinced the judge that selling six
puppies does not make a home into a business. "I felt harrassed," Hargrave
said. "I felt like I was intruded upon."

As for Marty Hardisty and her Corgis, their case was delayed, but it won't
go away. The city attorney promises to continue prosecuting anyone caught
selling dogs from their home in Dallas.

Animal control officials again encourage pet owners to have their animals
spayed or neutered. They end up dealing with 35,000 unwanted pets every
year.

[Lixx]

I think that's great. Maybe now people will realise their actions (or lack there of) have consequences.

[AngelZoo]

We!

I hope they make that a nation wide law. No selling of puppy litters!

[QueenScoopalot]

The people who go into the malls and fall for that cute little puppy! If only the truth was before them when they made the descision to BUY.

[leslie flenner]

So if you do foster work, and someone comes to you to adopt an animal, and you ask for the fee of what you've done (spay and etc), does that mean you can't ask for anything more (cost of food etc), cuz if you do, it's considered a profit which would be a buisness? Just curious as to whether or not this will hurt shelter foster homes as we have seen problems here recently with foster care vs. city zoning and health dept regs. (only 10 cats per residence etc).
Ya know?
So far seems to be working in favor of puppies. These 2 women are not reporting ads of people who have animals to adopt litters of pups that are rescued? Do they call first to make sure it's not a good cause- doesn't sound like it- and there may be more to this story than what is here. Just being me!

[AngelZoo]

I think there should defeintly be a defining line to this law, which often they fall short on!

There is a clear and obvious difference between breeding and selling dogs from your home, and just happening to be a foster mom/dad who saved a litter of puppies, and gaining money to reinforce the fee's of all the other animals you have to spay/neuter and other such vet bills.
Besides most people who are fostering don't always just happen to have litters of puppies around for adoption, like people out there trying to repeatedly breed and sell dogs for a buck.