Are any of you familiar with "B Dealers"? I don't know what you call them in the rest of the country, but that's what I've always heard people call the folks who collect "abandoned" pets for sale to processors who used them for experimentation or training other animals (like fighting dogs).

They were a big business here in Atlanta and some were even so bold as to take smaller dogs from their own backyards or runs. And friendly cats were easy prey to these people.

I worked a few raids on these dealers years ago and it was so sickening, so totally nauseating, a couple of times was all I could handle. In one of the raids we found neatly stacked shoeboxes, marked by month, and each shoe box had collars, some with tags, taken from pets we suspect had been sold.

It got even worse when the "dealer" received a fine (light fine, in my opinion - less than $1,000) and was released. I always wondered if anyone called any of the phone numbers on the tags to tell them what had happened to their pet, but I doubt it.



[This message has been edited by Vi Co Bi (edited March 18, 2001).]