MO: Puppy Mill Broker Caught in Insecticide Scam

Puppy Mill Broker Caught in Insecticide Scam

Posted Dec 23, 2009 by lauraallen

• Companion Animal Breeding

The U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that Hunte Kennel Systems and Animal Care Inc., a division of Hunte Corporation, the largest U.S. wholesaler-distributor, and also an international broker, of puppies, has agreed to pay a $56,632 civil penalty.

Hunte is paying the penalty to settle charges the company illegally sold an insecticide meant for use on cows and pigs as a flea and tick treatment for dogs. Hunte is said to have repackaged and relabeled the insecticide, Prolate/Lintox-HD, and sold it under the name Paramite.

This scam is said to have violated the federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.

The Hunte Corporation breeds and raises puppies and also buys puppies from puppy mills and sells them to pet stores including to the notorious Petland and has been named as a co-conspirator in a scheme to sell sick puppies from puppy mills to the public.  The puppies that even Hunte believes are not well enough or in good enough condition for sale to pet stores are sold thru newspaper ads, the internet or at flea markets. Hunte also sells puppies for research and sends them to other countries for other uses.

Go here for a look at the USDA's many citations of Hunte for violations of the Animal Welfare Act regulations. (Look at the Breeder and Dealer categories, under H for Hunte Corporation and T for  The Hunte Corporation.) 

Take a look here at an investigation of Hunte Corporation by the Companion Animal Protection Society.

In 2003 Hunte was cited by the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources for dumping dead puppies on its property in violation of the state Clean Water and Waste Management law.

In 2006 60 puppies were killed in a truck fire, and in 2007 94 puppies were jeopardized in another truck fire.  The puppies were caged in Hunte trucks transporting them to pet stores for sale. Hunte trucks have been caught without air conditioning in the summer and with no windows.

Go here and here for information about franchisees that have brought suit in Ohio for what they claim are Petland and Hunte's sleazy, fraudulent business practices.  

Hunte boasts tens of millions of dollars in revenues each year from the sale of 90,000 or more puppies as well as pet supplies such as the faked "flea and tick treatment" for dogs. The company's headquarters is located in Goodman, Missouri, and it is there that Hunte has its facility for puppies. Puppy mills are a big business in Missouri, and the very agency charged with regulating breeders and dealers like Hunte, the USDA, has approved millions in Rural Development loans for the company in the past decade to expand its business. The business that profits from the misery of dogs trapped in puppy mills or bred and sold for research or worse.    


Source: http://www.animallawcoalition.com/companion-animal-breeding/article/1126

NAT'L: This week belongs to Cesar

NAT'L: This week belongs to Cesar
By Ellen Gray
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News TV Critic
DOG WHISPERER: CESAR GOES DOWN UNDER. 8 tonight, National Geographic Channel.

NEVER GOT around to sending out holiday cards?  There's still time if you want to mark "Dog Whisperer Week," which kicks off tonight on National Geographic Channel with "Cesar Goes Down Under," the first of two episodes in which celebrity trainer Cesar Millan travels to Australia to work his pack-leader magic in a whole new hemisphere.

Cable television's been going to the dogs for a while now, and between "Dog Whisperer" and "DogTown," the National Geographic Channel might be vying with Animal Planet to become Canine Central.

Certainly it is this week, as "Dog Whisperer" reruns dominate National Geo's prime-time schedule and may even point up some distinctions between American and Australian dog-lovers.

Turns out the Aussies are pretty submissive, at least when it comes to Millan, whose show airs Down Under, too.

Where many of the show's U.S.-based episodes follow what I like to think of as the "Supernanny" model - unruly children, parents in denial, smug outsider who has to force parents to confront their own shortcomings - both "Cesar Goes Down Under" and next week's "Cesar in Oz" feature dog owners who already assume it's their fault.

"Absolutely, I know, it's me," agrees the owner of Jack, a 150-pound French mastiff that seems likely to swallow one of her friends whole, as Millan assures her that whatever's going on with Jack, she's the one causing it.

And then there's Astro, an Australian red cattle dog in next week's episode, whose owner describes him as "enthusiastic."

Which is a nice way of saying that the dog pretty much never stops barking (and has even encouraged her placid other dog, George, a border collie mix, to kick up a fuss, too).

"I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong to promote this behavior," she tells us at one point. "I know it has to be me, but I do believe Astro's special."

Not, of course, too special for Millan.

Millan's preaching to the converted when he meets with Paul, a fitness trainer with four dogs, one of them an excitable Great Dane named Willow.

Though Paul's clearly a devoted student of the "Dog Whisperer's" techniques, he is, of course, doing them all wrong, as Millan quickly demonstrates.

But then every episode of the show does warn viewers not to "attempt these techniques yourself without consulting a professional."

For those who might occasionally tire of the "Dog Whisperer's" unending smugness, there's a nice scene in which Paul runs him up and down a steep sand dune that for some reason has been dubbed "The Mexican," briefly rendering him too exhausted to say much of anything.

Some dogs, though, suffer with owners much, much worse than those who tend to seek Millan's counsel.

Starting Friday, a new season of "DogTown" (10 p.m., National Geographic Channel) revisits some of the dogs rescued from now-Eagle Michael Vick's notorious Bad Newz Kennels and other survivors of the underworld of dog fighting.

The sad-eyed Cherry, thought to have possibly been used as a "bait dog" in Vick's operation, can't be adopted until he overcomes his fear of people, while Georgia, a former dogfighting champion, has a chance to become a "spokesdog" for rehabilitated fight dogs, but only if she can overcome a tendency to go into attack mode whenever another dog enters her sight line.

It turns out to be a hopeful way to begin the new year. *

Send e-mail to graye@phillynews.com.

Source: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20091228_Ellen_Gray__This_week_belongs_to_Cesar.html

NATL: Please think carefully before buying that holiday pet

NATL: Please think carefully before buying that holiday pet
By Patty Khuly, Special for USA TODAY
Holiday pets, anyone?

Yes, it's that time of year — and yet again it's time for vets across America to wring their hands over the holiday pet thing. It's a love-hate issue for us, for sure. While we condemn the trivialization of petdom that comes with a rash "Puppy Palace" purchase, how else would we manage to ring in the new year with a shower of new patients?

Let me be fair: A large-enough percentage of holiday pets are planned. After all, this is one of the few times parents can get kudos for a whole-family present they picked out with care at the exact time of year everyone is best equipped to handle the new responsibilities (vacation time!). These thoughtful people tend not to be the genesis of any vet's New Year's complaint.

Rather, what I decry is the last-minute strip-mall puppy purchase that comes about after a sleepless night on the 23rd: "Will the PlayStation, American Girl doll, Elmo incarnation or hamstery thingie be enough to gratify my insatiable offspring? Perhaps I should blow my budget on this puggle or porkie-poo puppy with the cute runny nose and adorable snore."  These are the humans that make my blood boil.

Next thing you know, the whole family's crying across the exam room table, begging you to make right a situation that's not going to get any better without a sizable cash outlay they swear they haven't got now that it's all sitting in the puppy shop's coffers.

"Just look at those kids, doc. How can you disappoint them? How can you be so cruel?"  Hmmm … you did that all by yourself, methinks. And Happy Holidays to you, too. Remind me to throw you under a bus when I bring my kids to your workplace next time.

In case you think I exaggerate, I'll swear on a stack of my internal medicine textbooks that this is the way it is — every year without fail.

The reality, however, is that the holidays can be a slow season for veterinarians. This is especially true for vets in colder climes, where inclement weather keeps pets safe, warm and injury-free indoors and in neighborhoods where well-to-do clients travel this time of year. Christmastime pets make up for it to a pretty large extent. That's why we welcome them with open arms, offering "Holiday pet" specials and such to get you coming through our doors when we need you most.

I'd so much prefer to spend my New Year's skiing in the Alps or basking in St. Bart's than treating the kennel coughs, distempers and parvoviruses that attend the annual overcrowded puppy mill season. Too bad my income won't allow even a meager approximation of such luxuries.

Instead, here I stand, stethoscope in hand, examining the coughing and congenitally ill alike. Here's where I hand out dire diagnoses like sugarplums to the "we're-attached-now" new owners of pups still bearing their "I'm-a-gift" bows. And, you know, it wouldn't be so bad … not if it weren't for the guilt that comes with raking in some much-needed cash off the backs of sad-eyed pups and their ignorant owners.

But then, as a wise philosopher once said, "You can't always get what you want." Granted, he was probably pretty stoned at the time, but it works surprisingly well as I navigate what's left of this "jolly" season.


Source: http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/pets/2009-12-24-dolittler25_N.htm