Last month, I blogged about an alleged puppy mill in the Florida Keys that was raided by police and an animal welfare group. They found dozens of dogs, with five to seven of them pregnant, shut in a windowless warehouse near the Marathon airport that stank of urine. Six adult dogs were locked in a room the size of a closet.

“The rooms were awful,” said Katie Bentley, of Stand Up For Animals, the organization that took in the dogs. One of the pregnant females had her litter that night.

Marni and Tom Jones, who had come to Marathon when Tom was hired there as a firefighter, agreed to turn over 42 dogs to Stand Up For Animals. The nonprofit rescue group works with Marathon’s animal control officials.

And then yesterday, I get an e-mail from Mollie, of Tampa. What has happened, she asked, over the last month to the Joneses and their dogs?

It turns out Mollie had bought a goldendoodle puppy from the couple, who called their breeding operation the Sixth Day Ranch, over the Internet. And her experience shows why shopping for dogs online is just a bad idea.

Mollie, who is 22, says “I’ve definitely learned my lesson.” I am going to post her full note below because her description of the process lays out exactly how eager prospective pet parents get sucked in by unscrupulous breeders.

Fortunately, Mollie’s dog, Rugby, is almost 4 months old and so far seems OK. But puppy mill dogs often are born sick or with congenital deformities, or are not socialized as pups so they have behavioral problems. Jeffrey Wellinger, who started a Web site to expose Sixth Day Ranch, posts photos of his dog Ernie, purchased from the Joneses. Click here and you can see video of poor Ernie limping painfully across the floor; Jeff says its due to hip problems caused by poor breeding.

The Jones family

Jeff and others also posted some scathing comments on a Webshots site, where the Joneses posted this photo of themselves and their dogs, promoting their business. Click here to read ‘em.

Bentley said Stand Up For Animals also has received calls from other Sixth Day Ranch customers who say their dogs are sick or crippled as well.

And the Joneses? The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office did not file neglect charges against the couple, as they surrendered their animals in exchange for not going to court. Animal neglect also is often tough for law enforcement to document to the point that it can be prosecuted.

“I don’t know if malice was involved (on the Jones’s part),” said Marcy LaHart, a West Palm Beach attorney who filed Stand Up’s petition for custody. “Just stupidity and greed.” LaHart fostered eight of the rescued puppies.

The Joneses, who previously lived in the Florida Panhandle and Colorado, quickly left the Keys. LaHart, looking at a FaceBook page maintained by their son, believes they are back in Woodland, CO.

Mollie says she found what she thinks was a link to them this week on Next Day Pets, a Web portal for online breeders, and reported it to the Web master. Apparently, the link has been removed.

So here is Mollie’s story. You’ll see all the red flags that she sees now:

* The Joneses wouldn’t let Mollie see the puppies in their home.
* She had to pay in advance.
* They wanted to “drop the puppy off” on their way to the Keys and met her in a parking lot to give her the health certificate – signed by a vet Mollie didn’t know.

There is a simple way to avoid all this:
Don’t buy puppies online or from strip-center puppy stores claiming to specialize in "celebrity" dogs. Reputable breeders do not sell their animals this way.
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This from Mollie:

I have allergies and really wanted a goldendoodle because they are better for people with allergies. I was looking online and found (Sixth Day Ranch), and I thought it was great they came from a "religious" background. At the time they were still in Destin, FL and had pictures up of apparently where the puppies played, etc.

I did some research on the breeder and really couldn't find anything bad so I went with them. I've never bought from a breeder, especially an online one before.
Now that I look back on it, there were definitely suspicious signs.

Because I live in Florida, I wanted to go to the breeder and pick out the puppy I wanted, but they said I couldn't because the pups were still young and they didn't want any of them getting sick and "that's just not how they did things." They said they would send pictures and video of the pups.

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The media spotlight this past week was on dogs that were brought to Broward County after being rescued from a deplorable Tennessee breeding operation. But it turns out we may have had a puppy mill in our own backyard.

Local10.com, the Web site for WPLG-TV in Miami, is reporting that an alleged puppy mill was discovered in the Florida Keys last weekend. Linda Gottwaldof, of the Marathon Animal Shelter, said 46 dogs were found locked in a windowless warehouse. Many were malnourished and so matted they had to be shaved.

Most of the pups have been adopted, but some adult dogs still need homes. Call the Marathon Humane Society at 305-743-3253.

Click here for the story from Local10.

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On deadline for another piece, so I gotta make this fast...
Our "Sun-Sentinel" Web site just posted a story on the Humane Society of Broward County taking in 130 animals rescued in raid on a Tennessee puppy mill over the weekend by the Humane Society of the United States. This is said to be the largest emergency action against a puppy mill in history.

Click here for the South Florida story:

Here is the first video about the raid:

Click here to read more details about the rescue from the US Humane Society, and see some of the follow-up videos. Some of the puppies and their mothers died in these stacked bare wire cages without food and water, covered with feces that dripped down from the dogs above them. Heartbreaking.

Remember: If you are buying dogs over the Internet, or from a pet store that won't show you real documents as to where their animals come from, you could be contributing to this horror. Don't support puppy mills.

In fact, these refugees from Tennessee will need good homes. Instead of buying a dog, why not adopt one of them?

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Here’s yet another example of how people who abuse animals often are equally callous toward their own species.

A child abuse investigation in Mississippi last week uncovered a large puppy mill operation with more than 180 dogs – many of them small breeds popular with celebutants, such as Yorkies and pugs. Some of the animals were so matted or disfigured, rescue workers could not determine what breed they were.

Authorities initially were called on suspicion that Janet and Ramone Barretto were severely neglecting their nine youngsters. Eight of the children were taken into protective custody; the Barretto’s 2-year-old daughter later died.

As if the death of a child isn't bad enough: the photos taken by the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society, which took the Barretto's animals, are utterly heartbreaking. They should be required viewing for anyone buying a dog from a pet store or from a broker over the Internet that can't (or won't) tell them where their dogs come from. The puppies may be cute, but look at the agony their parents must endure.

This poor Shih Tzu at the Barreto's farm, her fur so matted that she can barely see, still was trying to nurse her new baby when rescue workers put them both into a carrier to take them to a veterinarian.

You can follow the progress of these survivors on at the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society’s Web site. Click here.

Here is the story from the "Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal."

GIRL DIES, PUPPY MILL DISCOVERED
5/20/2008
By Emily Le Coz
Daily Journal

NEW ALBANY - A case of extreme child neglect here Sunday night led to one death, two felony counts and the discovery of a mass puppy breeding operation that has animal officials stunned.

Union County Sheriff's deputies raided the home of Janet and Ramone Barreto, 824 County Road 87 near New Albany, after receiving a tip from doctors that the couple might have abused their adopted daughter.

Once at the home, law-enforcement agents also found more than 180 dogs, 25 cats and several ducks in various conditions. The animals' numbers are expected to increase, because some of them continue to give birth.

Sheriff Tommy Wilhite said the Barreto's 2-year-old daughter was brought from a local hospital to Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis for an unspecified reason. Doctors there suspected child neglect and tipped off Wilhite on Sunday night, when he obtained a warrant and raided the property.

The 2-year-old died Monday morning, but a cause of death was not yet available.

All but one of the couple's nine children now are in protective custody, Wilhite said, although he did not give the whereabouts of the remaining child.

The animals are being taken care of by the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society, which was called by the sheriff's department Sunday night.

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State laws often are surprisingly weak when it comes to regulating pet stores and breeders. New York state is considering a bill that would give more inspection and enforcement powers to county SPCA officials. The action comes after law enforcement removed dozens of dogs from a Long Island home suspected of being a puppy mill. Here is the story.

BY CARL MACGOWAN AND LAURA RIVERA
From Newsday, May 8, 2008

The investigation of an East Northport, N.Y. woman suspected of running a puppy mill illustrates the need for expanded enforcement power for local animal-control authorities, officials said yesterday.

A dog removed from Long Island home

Fifty-six dogs were taken on Tuesday from the home of Irene Monroig, 66, whom officials said was the subject of several complaints from neighbors.
Monroig also was disciplined seven years ago by the American Kennel Club for sloppy record keeping.

Monroig has not yet been charged. A spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney's office said prosecutors are waiting for information from the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals regarding the health of the dogs before deciding how to proceed.

Cracking down on suspect breeders and pet stores is difficult because the local SPCA has limited investigatory powers, said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk society.
The SPCA is not allowed by state law to inspect breeders or pet stores without "reasonable cause" to believe a crime has occurred, said Gross, who wants expanded duties for SPCA officers.

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