Animal advocates protest 'puppy mills'


Kate Rindy, director of the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society, left, stands with volunteers Kashaya Reed and her mother, Kirsten Reed, as they try to turn traffic away from a puppy sale.

| The New Mexican
May 22, 2005

Dozens of puppy lovers gathered at a pet sale at Santa Fe County Fairgrounds on Saturday -- some clutching checkbooks to buy pricey pups and others waving signs protesting the puppy sale.

Some Santa Feans were angry that dog breeder Sylvia Bell was allowed to sell 16 varieties of small-breed dogs at the fairgrounds.

About a dozen protesters showed up outside the fairgrounds, holding signs reading "puppy mills breed misery" and "don't shop, adopt."

The United States Humane Society calls puppy mills "canine breeding facilities which frequently house dogs in shockingly poor conditions (with) animals caged and continually bred for years, without human companionship and with little hope of ever becoming part of a family."

But Bell and her husband, James Bell, said they are breeders and brokers, but they do not operate a puppy mill. "I can see why people protest agains0t puppy mills," said Sylvia Bell. "But they need to see our kennels before they protest against us."

The Bells set up a row of baby playpens lined with shredded newspaper. Each pen held five or six curly poodles, jumpy miniature pinschers or fluffy Pomeranians.

People paid $4 for admission to the puppy fair and sale, run by W.D. Brown, owner of Morning Star Expositions. Brown said he probably will not return to New Mexico any time soon. The Santa Fe protest was the first he has encountered, he said.

"I don't allow just anyone to sell animals at my show. We don't want anything to do with those puppy mills," Brown said.

The Bells, who sold about half of the 65 puppies displayed Saturday, gave each buyer a record of the puppies' vaccination and de-worming records.

But contracts that each buyer signed said that the puppies must be checked by a veterinarian within 72 hours. The contracts also specify that a puppy will be replaced only if it dies of parvovirus or distemper within seven days of purchase. Further, the Bells do not guarantee the puppies are free of parasites.

Although the puppies lack the highest certification a purebred puppy can have, the Bells said, the facilities are inspected three or four times a year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But Lou Guyton, director of The Humane Society of the United States Southwest regional office, said many breeders are USDA licensed but that doesn't ensure the puppies are healthy and treated well.

"When they go to sell the puppies, they are usually all cleaned up really nice," Guyton said. "Everything looks really well. But do they have congenital defects? Do they have their vaccines?"

The New Mexican's Sandy Nelson contributed to this report.