Quebec faces puppy mill crisisJake Rupert
The number of dog breeders in Quebec running mass-production puppy mills has reached crisis proportions, says the province's top animal welfare official. Pierre Barnoti, executive director of Quebec's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, says his investigators have opened files on 300 of these breeders and suspect as many as 900 others are operating across province. The problem, he says, is the lack of provincial animal protection legislation, leaving SPCA officials virtually powerless to act. "What's happening is despicable," Mr. Barnoti says. "The suffering these dogs are going through is unbelievable. And it's all for money." Mr. Barnoti estimates more than 400,000 puppies per year are being bred in overcrowded, unhealthy conditions around the province. About half of the animals are sold in Quebec. The others are shipped across the country and to U.S. states where stringent animal protection laws prevent breeders from operating puppy mills on any significant scale. The Quebec-bred dogs are sold in shady pet stores and through carefully crafted newspaper advertisements that give no hint of the conditions in which the "puppies for sale" are churned out. Despite his alarm at the scope of the puppy-mill problem in Quebec, Mr. Barnoti is careful to point out that there are many ethical breeders in the province who can sell you a healthy, well-adjusted puppy. "It's like anything else," he says. "You have fine people operating morally, but on the other hand, you have these guys." Mr. Barnoti says most of the unethical breeders come to Quebec from other parts of Canada. They buy farms in rural areas, often near the border, and set well apart from neighbours. They acquire several purebred dogs of various breeds and get them reprodu-cing as often as possible to get the most puppies. Just like the illegal drug trade, the puppy-mill business has producers, importers, exporters, middlemen and street-level dealers. Deals are usually in cash, and full names aren't used. The people who run these operations are pushing something legal, but with its own kind of addictiveness: Big-eyed Labrador and golden retriever pups with irresistible, heart-tugging charm. "They're little balls of fur that every man, woman and child loves and most want," says Mr. Barnoti. "They're better than Beanie Babies, but if people only knew where these dogs came from, they'd stop buying them. "The people doing this are immoral, unethical and cruel. They don't care about the animals. They care about money. " Once the first litter is ready to be shipped out, brokers or middlemen pay the producers cash and take the puppies away. The animals are then sold for cash to retailers in Quebec, across the country and south of the border. Several truckloads of puppies leave the province each day, Mr. Barnoti says. Retailers include farm-gate sellers and others who might advertise in a newspaper, pet shop owners, or even above-board breeders seeking extra income. Other producers will sell direct by advertising a phone number and meeting customers at "more convenient" locations, such as mall parking lots or parks. The buyers are anyone and everyone who wants a pet -- singles or seniors seeking companionship, children who badger their parents for a dog, young couples taking their first step toward raising a family. Most puppy-mill dogs have tattoos in their ears and papers declaring them purebreds. The going rate for a purebred dog is between $300 and $500. Mr. Barnoti says most of these quality guarantees are decorative fakes that look convincing to the average dog buyer. Besides, even puppies that come from dog factories are cute after they've been washed, had their eyes wiped clean, and their fur deodorized. Mr. Barnoti estimates that more than 2,000 people across the country -- mostly in Quebec -- make their living in the puppy-mill business. However you calculate it, the business is stacked against the welfare of the animals. The motive for their mistreatment is profit. Caring for dogs properly is expensive, but the owners of puppy mills earn high margins by minimizing the cost of feeding, housing and maintaining the health of their animals. Some of the worst operators house up to 70 different breeds at once; top-quality breeders typically work with three at the most. According to the SPCA, dogs are sold with papers saying they've had shots, though many haven't. Phoney vet reports stating perfect health are the norm. Some of the female animals are forced to have three litters a year, leaving their nipples distended and swollen. Viruses run wild in the "kennels." Unsold male dogs are killed because it's cheaper than feeding them. Mr. Barnoti has seen some of the worst cases of mistreatment up close and says it turns his stomach. Earlier this year, at one location outside Montreal, investigators found 300 dogs and puppies living in extremely inhumane conditions. This puppy mill was discovered by pure luck: A policewoman stumbled on it while searching for her own lost dog. She called the SPCA, which obtained a search warrant based on her sworn statement. The search found most of the dogs were warehoused in small cages in a cinder-block building filled a metre high with feces in some places. Several larger dogs were shackled to walls with short lengths of chains around their necks. Most had genetic defects. Others had serious health problems. All were underfed. At the back of the operation, a pile of steaming garbage caught investigators' eyes. A closer look revealed that mixed with the garbage were burned and partially burned pieces of dogs too old to be sold, or too young, sick or old to breed. All of the dogs from the Montreal-area mill were eventually destroyed. Another operation uncovered in an old barn in the Laurentians offered absolute horror. Adult dogs, virtually starved, were eating newborn puppies before the owner could remove them to be sold. The animals were so thin their rib cages stuck out over distended bellies. Dead and partially eaten dogs were everywhere: discarded in corners, piled behind the barn, hanging from rafters. Several of the investigators, including Surete du Quebec officers who took part in the raid on this breeder, sought the help of psychologists and counsellors usually reserved for police officers who witness mass murders or other mind-numbing violent crimes. All but 10 of the 400 dogs discovered in the Laurentians raid were destroyed. Of those 10, all have serious behavioural or physical problems. In both of the above cases, the owners were not listed in the phone book and kept no business records. Each operator was charged with cruelty to animals under the Criminal Code and faced a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. In both cases, after trials and convictions, the puppy mill owners were given $500 fines. "It blows your mind when this happens," says Mr. Barnoti. "Everybody knows it's cruel, but they get away with it. It's really shameful." The puppy business in Quebec has grown for a number of reasons. The situation arose about 10 years ago, when other Canadian provinces and most northeastern U.S. state governments started passing tough animal welfare laws. Eventually, all provinces and most states, with the exception of Quebec, enacted some sort of preventive animal law covering care, treatment, feeding and breeding of animals. This leaves Quebec SPCA inspectors with no enforcement tool, apart from Section 466 of Canada's Criminal Code, which applies only to the most extreme cases of mistreatment: wilful cruelty and neglect. SPCA inspectors in Quebec can only get involved when the situation is dire -- after the suffering is out of control. "We have no preventive powers to say this is too small a space for the animals or this isn't right," Mr. Barnoti says. "We can only react." Investigators are also stymied by the obstacles to obtaining a search warrant. In Quebec, investigators must meet a stringent Criminal Code test, far higher than the animal welfare criteria in other provinces. In Quebec, if a person calls the SPCA and complains he suspects there are hundreds of dogs being housed inadequately, investigators can say thanks for the information but cannot act on the complaint. What they require is an eyewitness account of actual -- not merely "possible" -- wilful criminal cruelty or neglect, sworn and signed by the witness and taken to a judge who decides whether to grant the warrant. If a warrant is approved, SPCA investigators must go to the police and convince them to supply the manpower to execute the search. Cracking down on flagrant cruelty cases is difficult enough; SPCA investigators are impotent to deal with reports of suspected cruelty, unethical breeding or neglect. In Ontario, where an SPCA Act was passed in 1969 and toughened in 1990, things are much different. In this province, investigators and their agents have the powers of police officers, complete with the authority to arrest and lay charges. To obtain a search warrant, all they have to do is convince a justice of the peace there is evidence an animal is possibly in distress -- a far lower standard than witnessed criminal cruelty. Once Ontario SPCA inspectors get the warrant, the suspect dog breeder must let them in to see the animals. If they are barred from entrance, they can arrest the operator for disobeying a court order. If there is evidence of cruelty, SPCA investigators have powers of arrest and seizure. If conditions need to be brought up to a humane standard, a writ is issued and the breeder is given a limited number of days -- sometimes as little as hours -- to comply. If the deadline isn't met, the animals are seized. "Even if no one's around, we can enter and remove an animal if we deem it is under distress," says senior Ontario SPCA investigator Michael Draper, who co-ordinates special investigations -- including suspected puppy mills and dog fighting networks -- in the province. "SPCA officers in Quebec aren't equipped like we are. In fact, it must be impossible for them," says Mr. Draper. "Even the laws here need to be tightened up. In Alberta and B.C., there are actual offences and charges under the provincial acts. "We're always getting calls from people who bought dogs in Quebec. It's a pretty bizarre situation over there." As tougher approaches were being adopted in other provinces and states, dog factories started popping up in Quebec like mushrooms, Mr. Barnoti says. "These people that are now here in Quebec know the law, that's why they are here," he says. "When our investigators arrive to look at things, (the breeders) say, 'Go fly a kite.' They know we can't do anything about it, and, right now, we can't." But change may be coming. In its last session, after intense lobbying by animal rights groups, a committee of the Quebec legislature examined the issue and recommended an animal welfare law be passed. Mr. Barnoti says it's a step in the right direction, but adds he's waiting to see what happens before declaring victory. "Recommending there should be a law and passing one are two different things," he says. "We'll see." Without a law in place to fight the puppy-mill owners, Mr. Barnoti has resorted to trying to attract the media's attention and lobbying to convince the government to pass a law. "We're exposing these people as best we can," he says. "The public has to know about this. We've been begging the government to pass a law, but it hasn't. So we try our best, but we're losing. "The situation right now is so bad, working with most of these people in the future is out of the question. We need some way to put them out of business." One way to do this, Mr. Barnoti has suggested, is to have the RCMP or Industry Canada conduct commercial practices investigations. He says the forging of pedigree and veterinary documents is so rampant the investigation would be simple. "There are so many dogs being sold for what they are not, so much false pretenses, it's sickening," he says. "Quebec has become the Shangri-La of unethical dog breeding in Canada. It's such a mess it's embarrassing. The situation is too far gone for us to deal with now. We need a new law then we need to do a major, major cleanup. "As it stands now, Quebec is a haven of cruelty. If these were people, it would be mass murder." From Ottawa Citizen Online |
