On January 11, 2005, a disturbing article appeared in the Lancaster County newspaper The New Era. John Spidaliere reported on a meeting of the West Hempfield Township Zoning Board where a farmer, Henry U. Stoltzfus, was applying for a permit to build a dog breeding facility in Lancaster County. David Zimmerman, a representative of the Professional Pet Breeders Association, spoke on behalf of Stoltzfus. Zimmerman and others from this association often guide farmers hoping to build high volume dog breeding kennels through the local zoning board process.
Concerned that Stoltzfus was building a "puppy mill" on his property, a neighbor asked Zimmerman what would happen to Stoltzfus's puppies if they are not sold. Zimmerman replied that the puppies would be killed...and that unsold dogs would be exterminated, composted and spread as fertilizer on fields. Zimmerman told the neighbor that they would be "left to rot" and that "they are biodegradable."
In Pennsylvania some may think puppies are biodegradable, but this horrifying practice is inhumane and cannot be permitted to continue. It is absolutely appaling how often these innocent puppies are "exterminated." Older dogs who can no longer reproduce very often share the same fate. It is a ghastly ending to a tortured life.
It's also not just puppies that feel the dramatic effects of puppy mills. Some puppy mills dispose of "exterminated" dogs by dumping them in crop fields to fertilize crops. Excessive dog waste gets the same treatment sometimes as well. Farmers will mix dog feces with lime and redworms and assume the risk of disease is gone. Dog feces carries worms that can cause blindness and other serious illnesses to humans, and the lime and redworms do nothing to eliminate them. The waste also could seep into ground water wells and contaminate water supplies. Both animals and humans suffer from these atrocious puppy mill farms.
Over the next year we will be sharing the words of puppy millers and their advocates on this site. All of the information found here is factual and well-documented. By educating the general public about the day -to -day suffering of the thousands of puppies and dogs coming from Pennsyvlania’s puppy mills we hope to change the future for these animals. It is the great shame of our state that in Pennsylvania puppies are biodegradable.
Above: Shrimp came from Hillside Kennel in Paradise, PA. He was found in the condition you see above. He's doing much better now. You can see more pictures of him here.