Going back to, I believe it was 2019, when this was first introduced in its current form, the puppy mill pipeline is essentially this pipeline from the Midwest of mass breeders, brokers, transporters who take these live animals from these factory farm puppy mills and bring them to New York and to other states, where they are sold at exorbitant prices to consumers who have no idea where these animals are coming from. That's the puppy mill pipeline.
When you go to the store and you buy, like any kind of product, you usually don't know where it comes from. Why is this a problem for puppies and animals? Specifically, what is? What is wrong with having all these puppies being produced in the Midwest and then bringing them over to states like New York?
It's not so much the geography of where the issue is. It's that puppy mills are known for horrendous conditions with animals stacked, one on top of another, with the worst enforcement possible from the USDA, oversight of these puppy mills is the lowest priority for the US Department of Agriculture. It has been that way for the past few administrations. It's always been that way. It's that way with the current administration. So when consumers here in New York go to the pet store, we all know that song from the 1950s How much is that puppy in the window? People? Many people aren't aware of where that animal came from. Maybe they think a nice a grandmother down the road had a litter with too many puppies, and it ended up magically in this pet store. The fact is, is that they are coming from these substandard, inhumane conditions where they are raised just to make money. They go through a horrible transportation process. Many of these animals are given antibiotics, prophylactically, the same way that feed for farm animals is laced with antibiotics, and that's just to keep them alive and healthy long enough to get to the store. The USDA often does not fine or hold accountable the individuals who operate and make millions off of these puppy mills, these puppy factories, often they're given a slap on the wrist with what is known as a teachable moment.
But I can only imagine that not all of the puppies and cats and rabbits were sold or re homed before this law went into effect and stores started closing down or getting closed down. Is that true?
Let me take a step back. We estimate there was about by the by the time this came around and the law was passed, was roughly 60 pet stores in the state. Now, when I say pet store, I mean selling dogs, cats and rabbits. The majority of pet supply stores do not sell live animals. As a matter of fact, if we look at figures from the American Pet Products Association from around 2020, to 2022, it's about $100 billion business people buying pet food, people buying costumes for their pets, toys, treats out of out of that money, that billion dollars, less than 2% comes from the sale of live animals. Less than that 2% is dogs, cats and rabbits. So you're correct these pet selling stores, which I refer to as puppy mill outlets, because all they're doing is saving the consumer a trip from the Midwest to get the same dog that was raised in substandard conditions. Many of these stores, they had two years to change their business model. Many of them did. We did follow up to see many of the stores said, Hey, we're just going to do grooming. We're going to change our business model. Some of them decided that it wasn't economically beneficial for them to make this money by charging over inflated prices for these animals and for the ones that went out of business. We know that at least one of them told me that the truck came and picked them up and brought them back to the Midwest. We had heard some concern. What's going to happen to the animals you know, as if you know something nefarious would happen. They'd be abandoned, they'd be put to sleep. Please understand this is serious money that we're talking about. So those animals that were left here, it's been told to me again through the work that we've done as follow up to see which stores were still selling in violation. Some of those animals went back. Some of them were sold at. Bargain prices to consumers again, just, you know, getting an animal, they don't know where it came from. They don't know congenital issues, defects that might be wrong with the animal. That's what happened to many of these animals. I think more importantly, the focus is that we shut down this pipeline, and now let's take a look at other situations, backyard breeders, let's say, you know, each state has to take care of its own. That's why New York decided. We said, look, we can't count on the federal government. Like so many issues with the federal government at this time, states need to take care of themselves and municipalities as well.
So, it's been some time that the law has passed. Are there still stores that are operating and selling puppies and cats and rabbits?
Unfortunately, these retail outlets were given two years to get their act together and to stop their addiction to the puppy mill pipeline and selling these animals to members of the public, the vast majority of them did change their business model or stop selling animals. There are about three that we are aware of in New York that are continuing to sell these animals. We had done an investigation, actually, with inside edition, the investigative team of that TV program, which many people are familiar with, when we bought one of the puppies for $800 and this was two weeks after the law went into effect. The salesperson at the counter with a straight face when they got busted and the camera went in their face, they said, we're adopting the animals. So that was another tactic too, that suddenly these retail outlets, in some fantastical world of their own thinking, came up with the idea we'll just sell them until people were adopting them. Now, people know the difference between an animal shelter and what an adoption is and what the sale of an animal raised in a puppy mill is, so some of them are still selling. There's three that we know of, and these have been reported to the Attorney General's Office.
So why is it taking so long for them to get shut down if they're violating the law?
I would say the wheels of justice turn slowly. You know, there are so many. Look, you know, WAMC. Listeners, know, you know, I'm a WAMC listener, I'm educated. I know what's happening in the news. There's so much going on right now, and I think just our systems are really bursting at the seam. That's why, as opposed to what's taking so long. I mean, keep in mind this, this law went into effect less than a year ago. So I'm not looking at it so much as what's taking so long. It took us many years to get this law passed. And originally, you know, all of our organizations, not just humane world for animals, the ASPCA, the Animal Protection Federation in New York City, you have voters for animal rights. We were taking a piecemeal approach, even looking at the sprinkler systems to protect puppies. You know, God forbid, there's a fire in the store. And finally, it just came down to look these stores are never going to stop sourcing these animals from these puppy mills.
So, from my understanding, what you're saying is, you know, they were picked up or sold at very cheap prices. But when they're picked up, they just go back to the Midwest, and then they get taken to other states?
Yes, correct.
Ok.
Yeah, it's a business it, you know, with puppy mills and businesses that base themselves on making a profit by raising these animals with the lowest overhead possible and and worse conditions for these animals, they're not about to just say no to to an extra dollar. So when the animals come back, they're they're going to try to find another way to sell them, that's if they come back in the same condition they left in. I mean, think about driving across the country crammed into these these horrible conditions. We've seen infectious diseases also right here in New York, a case of Campylobacter out on Long Island in Nassau County. I think there were two cases, if my memory serves me correctly, and that's what happens when you raise these animals and prophylactically feed them antibiotics to just keep them alive long enough to get to the store. I also want to mention the Animal Welfare Act, Awa Animal Welfare Act, the standards for animals raised in these are the lowest possible standards designed for one thing, just to keep them alive. And I think that the animals in our lives, our family members, these important members of of our families, our pets, deserve more than just the lowest bottom of the barrel conditions that the USDA puts out there through the Animal Welfare Act just to keep these animals alive. It's up to consumers to do the right thing. Don't go to a pet store for your puppy.
