Everyone enjoys a good party. Whether it’s a birthday party, anniversary party, or an engagement party you know it’s bound to be a good time. But what if there were puppies at the party? It doesn’t get much better than a puppy party! Unless you find out that those puppies are allegedly coming from puppy mills. In fact, if I was invited to a “Puppy Party” and found out the company supplying the pups was getting them from a puppy mill, I would boycott the event completely!
New York City-based PuppyParty.com is currently being accused of obtaining their puppies from puppy mills. The company has been getting major media attention lately for their “Puppy Parties.” Essentially anyone throwing a party can hand pick the puppies that they want at their event and a member of the Puppy Party staff will bring them to the party for a hefty fee. It’s basically just renting puppies for a few hours to entertain the guests at your party.
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It does sound fun, and it is certainly unique, but what kind of a quality of life is that for those poor dogs? And, since Puppy Party doesn’t breed dogs, where do they obtain the pups? The Companion Animal Protection Society (CAPS) has already investigated nine of the many brokers and breeders who have supplied or are currently supplying Puppy Paradise, the source of the Puppy Party puppies.
They have documented records stating that Kevin Street is one of the irresponsible breeders that sold to Puppy Paradise. The animal welfare group rescued a boxer, Molly, from Street’s facility in 2013 when they were there for an investigation. Molly had signs of cattle prod burns and a painful growth, which veterinarians later discovered resulted from lying on an ongoing ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
They also reported that Gayle Duncan, of Gayle’s Country Pups in Oklahoma, supplied Puppy Paradise with puppies. A CAPS investigation of her facility exposed numerous Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations. One of the puppy mill’s employees even admitted to running a dog over with a four-wheeler because the dog tried to bite him after trying to escape its pen. The same employee also stated that he carried a gun with him at all times to shoot any “aggressive” dogs.
Dwayne Hurliman, another Puppy Paradise supplier, was found with 1,000 dogs and puppies in his care when a CAPS investigation was done at his puppy mill. He claimed to only have around 500 animals at the time. The report from the investigation stated that the dogs and puppies were in crowded, dirty cages and some of the cages were collapsing but still had dogs inside. The owner stated that he primarily focused on breeding females that would have large litters, and that most of them averaged about 3 litters every two years.
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CAPS has documentation on a few other subpar breeders that have sold puppies to Puppy Paradise as well, but that’s not where the problems end. An employee of the pet store told CAPS investigators that the store doesn’t buy puppies from puppy mills and claimed that they only use four or five breeders. Investigators uncovered the truth when they reviewed the Certificates of Veterinary Inspections from 2012-2014. These certificates showed 33 different brokers and breeders, most of which had a laundry list of serious AWA violations.
If these allegations are true, many people have been duped by Puppy Parties, including some big name celebrities. It is despicable to think that a company who claims to love dogs so much would do business with puppy mill owners and irresponsible breeders. Follow up investigations need to be done to document current violations and past violations that have yet to be brought up to code. These “businesses” need to be shut down.
