First Hand Account...

This is a letter written by Jodi Hunter, who attended the dog auction a week ago. This is her first-hand account of the experience...

"I wanted to tell you a little about my experience at the Thorp Dog Auction on 3/11/2009. Here are 2 pictures of an example of a mama Jack Russell with oozing feet from living her entire life on chicken wire and filth, and horribly swollen mammary glands.

This is from an auction who supposedly "cleaned their act up" and were only accepting puppies to 3 year-old dogs; although there were older dogs for sale. What happened to the older dogs, we are afraid to ask.

We met a woman at the beginning of the auction, but didn't understand what she was doing there. Afterwards, when the auction was over, all the dogs were gone, except 3. Someone bid on and won these three dogs, but didn't pick them up (probably the dog's owner who bid to get it started but no one else bid, so he just left the dogs behind). An Amish/Mennonite man asked us if we wanted the abandoned dogs, and if so, we better "take them now or they're going out back." We were later told this meant they were going to be killed and used for fertilizer or thrown live into the dumpster. This is why the woman I mentioned earlier was there so late in the day... to dig them out of the dumpster if need be.

I feel like I stepped into another world and now that I am back home, I will never be the same. When you are at the Thorp Auction, you can't let it get to you. I don't know how, but I did it. Saturday I came crashing down.

When you first walk into the auction building, the smell hits you. To the right there is a row of hay piled to the ceiling and behind it are the dogs, you hear their crying before you actually see them. There is a catalog with a cute puppy on the front with all the dogs listed and descriptive phrases like "good producer"..."heavily bred"..."proven." (Attached to the catalog is a letter from the American Pet Registry in Arkansas telling the breeders how they can keep people out of their mills and who they absolutely have to let in. They tell them not to allow any cameras or filming and never talk to anyone from the press. Why, if they are not hiding anything.)

You walk buy the stacks of cages with dogs and puppies inside. The dogs and puppies don't even come to the front of the cages. They huddle on top of each other, scared to death. TheAmish/Mennonite men bring the dogs/puppies to the table to be auctioned off, stand them on their hind legs so you can see their belly, turn them around and lift their tail and spread their legs apart. It's hard to see who bids, but you certainly can tell who is a breeder and who isn't; mostly Amish and Mennonite. I absolutely cannot explain the feeling. I just know I cannot believe this activity is allowed to go on.

The dogs that didn't get rescued are going back to a life of confinement and hell, not as a farm animal like a cow or pig, they have fields and pastures to run in. The dogs that were sold to back-yard breeders and other Amish/Mennonite dog breeders return to the abuse, neglect and sorrowful life they came from. Some are bought by people who rescue them.

I rescued a little Yorkie. She wouldn't look out of her tiny little box, just kept her face to the back. When I saw an Amish/Mennonite man was bidding on her, I bid as high as it took, probably what they want, but I didn't care. She is 3 years-old and has already had 5 litters of puppies. (This is a photo of Kaylee Renee, the little Yorkie I rescued, along with one of my previously rescued Beagles.)

I am mad, so mad and so unbelievably hurt. It's not only that they are using these dogs for overbreeding, but their condition and broken spirits is absolutely heartbreaking.

Maybe you have to see this in order to completely understand? Perhaps that is why so little has been accomplished to stop this senseless abuse and cruelty. I was shocked to learn my own dog's veterinarian in Wisconsin had never heard of this auction. There aren't words to describe how I am feeling."

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A Post Script to this letter...for those of you who think this kind of abusive and cruel behavior only happens to dogs at the Horst Stables Auction business in Thorp, Wisconsin...check out their website. They auction small animals, and that includes this notice taken directly from their website:
Small Animals: Chickens, rabbits, bird, sheep,

goats, llamas, pigs, exotic pets, and much more!

I shudder to think how these other creatures are treated.

This is really important. If you have purchased a puppy from:

• a pet store,
  
• a breeder you do not know,


• a breeder who does not sell on Sunday


• a breeder who did not show you both the puppy's parents, and the facility where it was raised...
  YOU SHARE IN THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CRUELTY AND ABUSE OF THESE PUPPIES AND DOGS.