Alert 5-21-07 Bland County Puppymill – ACTION NEEDED!
Thanks to the good people at Best Friends in Utah, there is updated
information on the Bland County puppymill case with a very good and thorough
outline of what needs to be done next.
The date for a public hearing is
6/4/07 (different than in our alert we sent on 5/8/07 regarding ongoing court
cases). I confirmed the 6/4/07 date.
The 6/4/07 meeting is a Planning
Commission meeting. The Planning Commission will make a recommendation to the
Bland County Board of Supervisors, scheduled to meet sometime later in June and
at that time make the final decision.
Please act with all due haste. We
say this because we are concerned about a possible local “baby steps” approach
and a reluctance to impede a local business.
In addition, a recent
editorial in the Wytheville Enterprise of 5/3/07 suggests those out of the area
“may have some important input to offer”, but this is to be “a local
process”.
We differ with that conclusion. Animals without proper care go
well beyond the bounds of Bland County. When without proper care, and in fact,
when killed, they are everyone’s pets. Later in that same editorial, there is
reference to “best way to produce a pet” (emphasis added). These
aren’t farm animals but pets, even in Wythe and Bland counties.
The
editorial notes that the Schmuckers are “making a sincere effort to be in
compliance”. This is mystifying as we have also been told that if the
Schmuckers, who own the puppymill, are denied their “CPU” (conditional use
permit) – and they should be denied it - they will move to Giles County,
VA, where they already own land which can become Dogwood Kennels #2, showing
this is not just a Bland County issue. The problem can and may very well walk
next door.
It is the right time to stand up and fix the problem
now.
And how nice that a group with national reach is showing plainly
this is not “a local process”.
The Best Friends email makes wonderful
suggestions about points to make in your calls, letters, faxes, emails, etc.
However, despite repeated tries, we were unable to include their email as part
of the alert, so we must do with the points below taken from their email. Note
that I can forward to you individually the original email; just
ask.
Please do what you can, and attend in person if at all
possible.
Thanks.
Lillian Clancy and Don Marro
Below is the
vast majority of the Best Friends message of 5/16/07:
Tragically, on
March 21, of this year 192 dogs and puppies suffocated and burned to death in a
puppy mill known as Dogwood Kennels that is owned by the Schmucker family. This
incident appears to have occurred because Dogwood Kennels used a kerosene
lantern. Their puppy mill has no electricity. Less than a year before this very
sad event, dozens of dogs and puppies died at the same puppy mill allegedly from
drinking unsanitary water given to them.
Dogwood Kennels has continued to
operate the puppy mill and it turns out, they never obtained a
conditional use permit from the county to operate a puppy mill. They have been
operating all this time without a permit. But they have not stopped their
illegal operation. Instead, they now have applied for a conditional use permit
from Bland County, Virginia where they are located.
If the county gives
them a permit, hundreds more dogs will be at risk. You can help stop
this!
On June 4, 2007 there will be a hearing where the public
will be invited to speak and comment on an application by the Schmucker family
for a Conditional Use Permit to operate Dogwood Kennels. Dogwood Kennels breeds
and raises at least 15 different breeds of dogs and sell to brokers and pet
stores in New York, Beckley, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Best
Friends calls on you to attend this hearing located at the Bland County
School Board Offices at 361 Bears Trl. Bastian, Va 24314at 7:00 p.m. EST. If
you cannot attend, please send letters, faxes or emails (letters or faxes are
best) to the Bland County officials listed below. Let the County
Administrator, Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors know they should
deny this permit. Don’t wait; write or call now! Please be
polite!
Officials to contact:
Jonathan Sweet
County
Administrator
P.O. Box 510
Bland, VA 24315
telephone
276.688.4622
toll free 800.519.3468
fax 276.688.9758
jsweet.bland.co@state.va.us
Planning
Commission and Board of Supervisors
County of Bland
P.O. Box 510
Bland,
VA 24315
276.688.4622 phone
276.688.9758 fax
Tell these officials
you are concerned about:
Dogwood Kennels has announced they may dispose
of dog waste by putting it on farmers’ crops. They plan to douse it first with
lime and mix it with “redworms”. Dog feces contain worms that can be transmitted
to humans and cause blindness and also affect other tissues and organs. The
University of Minnesota Extension Service and University of Wisconsin
veterinarians and soil scientists have described use of dog feces for fertilizer
as “definitely a potential human health hazard”.
It is not known exactly
how Dogwood Kennels will otherwise dispose of waste from so many dogs or the
possible impact there may be on the environment including water sources.
There has been no environmental assessment of having so many dogs living
in primitive conditions with no electricity or running water. Dogs have already
died both because of an outdated heating source, kerosene lamps, and also
apparently unsanitary water.
At the time of the fire there was no fire
protection at all at the facility that housed the dogs; there is no evidence
Dogwood Kennels has fire protection now.
Dogwood Kennels has demonstrated
at the very least their gross irresponsibility and disregard for the law in
operating this puppy mill. Even now, they are operating without a permit at
all.
The puppy mill is a nuisance and a real hazard to neighbors and
other citizens of the county.
Many puppy mill dogs are inbred and have
diseases, illnesses, birth defects and behavior problems. It is such a problem
that many states have passed “puppy lemon laws” to protect purchasers of dogs
that have been inbred, not socialized and poorly cared for at puppy mills. Many
times purchasers have found themselves with thousands of dollars in vet bills
because they bought a dog at a pet store. Most pet stores get their dogs from
puppy mills.
Many puppy mill dogs will end up in public shelters, adding
to the cost for animal control for the county. There are estimates that 25-30%
of shelter animals are purebreds that came from puppy mills.
This is not
the kind of business Bland County should allow.
In addition to contacting
local Bland County officials, you can help in other ways. Encourage everyone you
know and in your communities to adopt not buy dogs and other pets.
Dogs at this facility and others like it sell puppies exclusively to pet stores.
Never purchase a pet from a store or over the Internet.
Click here to
sign a petition to protest the issuance of a permit to the Schmuckers or Dogwood
Kennels to allow them to continue to operate a puppy mill.
http://www.petitiononline.com/nopupmll/petition.html
Tell
everyone you know to sign the petition!
Tell everyone you know about the
June 4, 2007 hearing and encourage them to attend or contact the County
Administrator, Bland County Planning Commission and Board of
Supervisors.
__________
This is the way the message from Best
Friends was signed:
Thank you for any support you may be able to provide
and for being a part of the Network!
Best regards,
The Best Friends
Network Team
Best Friends Animal Society
5001 Angel Canyon Road
Kanab,
Utah 84741
http://network.bestfriends.org/