He had sold the funeral home before I was born so I was never able to see the quality his work. But my mother and her siblings would often tell stories about the kind of work he did. They said he had magic hands and could make even the worst looking deceased  look like they were asleep. On several occasions he apparently made the deceased look better in death than they had in life.

My grandfather had exacting standards, and he wasn’t afraid to tell anyone what they were or how to achieve them. I can close my eyes and hear his deep voice rumble, “The trick to a funeral is to make them look like they are asleep. If they look dead you need to start over, because dead isn’t good enough.” Whenever I go to a funeral, I always look at the body to see if they look dead or if they look asleep. Somehow I think I miss part of the point of a funeral because I am critiquing the body. The deceased person almost always look dead and find myself vaguely disappointed.

My training in identifying a good mortician job began with the first funeral I went to with Grandpa. We walked into the funeral home. There were mourners everywhere. People dressed in nice clothes standing around talking, telling the widow how nice her husband looked and what a good job the funeral home had done.

This didn’t mean anything to me until Grandpa walked up to the casket. He looked down at the body and said, “What an awful job, they should ashamed of themselves.” He pointed to body and waved his fingers over the man’s face. “Annie look at this, you can see where the makeup doesn’t match his skin tone. It’s too light and it emphasizes his sunken eyes and you can see the bruising around them.”

My grandfather was not a quiet man. In fact he had a deep powerful voice that tended to carry…very well. As he continued his critique of the awful job, people heard, and they turned and looked. It was unsettling to have so many people looking at us with that vaguely disapproving look that adults get when you do something inappropriate. Grandpa on the other hand was oblivious to the looks; he was too engrossed in his explanation of what the funeral home had done wrong. He finished his examination and then went to pay his respects.

I remember trailing behind him up to this stranger. He took her hands into his and told her how sorry he was for her loss. She wiped her eyes and gazed up at Grandpa for a minute then said, “I wish you were still in the business Raymond. He looks dreadful, and I know you would have never let him be seen like that.” The interesting thing is that Grandpa often got that reaction at funerals, especially from people who had known him when he ran the funeral home.

Someone asked me the other day why I would drive all the way down to Indianapolis for a Petco day. Granted the drive time is two and half hours one way. I stay for four hours sometimes five if I get there early enough to help set up or tear down the event. I don’t get paid; the gas to drive down there comes out of my own pocket. I spend my entire day off…working. I am either setting up, tearing down, handling a dog, walking a dog, helping get pictures of a dog, maybe doing a transport run back to the kennel or a food run for the volunteers. Once I even had to leave Petco to go meet a transport south of Indianapolis because a leg had fallen through.

Not very much fun…or is it? That is what I have to ask myself. Sometimes I don’t have an enjoyable day and I am beat when I get home. Other times I have a blast and wish the day could have gone on longer. But my pleasure isn’t what Petco day is about. It is about the dogs and what we can learn from them and about each other.

Sometimes action is more about coincidence or fate maybe than about intention. Several of my foster dogs have met their future parents at Petco. If I had not been there that day or they had not needed to buy dog food, a toy, whatever they would have never met my foster. One of my foster dogs actually saved my both my life and my house. Koda shut off the gas to my boiler on winter day. When I woke up the next morning it was very cold. That was when I realized the boiler wasn’t working and I called the heater repair guy. After examining my boiler, he asked me who had shut off the gas. He said that the boiler had malfunctioned at the electrical control and fried itself. If the gas been running, it would have blown the house up and me along with it. I remember Koda barking me before I went to sleep, and he kept running into the utility room. He wouldn’t come out and I finally decided to let him sleep in there if that was what he wanted. He was the only one in there and the gas was on when I went to bed. My agreeing to foster him and working out his transport north was the only thing that had saved his life and in return he saved mine.

A little girl came up to me and asked if she could pet Solomon. Her face lit up as she felt his soft fur under her fingers. A smile spread across her face and she looked up at her parents. Amazingly enough, her parents begin to smile too. For that moment her entire family was just a little better, a little happier. These people were strangers, but for that moment they shared the smile that Solomon brought to my face, and we were not so different.

As individuals, no one at NLSDR could accomplish all the tasks it takes save as many lives as the rescue does. The volunteers come from all walks of life; many of us would have never known any of the others existed. But the dogs brought us together, united us, and made each of just a little bit better. Petco is the best example I can think of to demonstrate this. It’s not always fun, but every week ten to twenty volunteers come and donate their time because at heart they are not all that different.

I feel like I am trying to sell something that most people don’t want to buy. I know from personal experience that it is easier to not look at taggers on a street corner, or avoid people raising funds for cancer, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, multiple sclerosis or many other worthy charities. Northern Lights Sled Dog Rescue’s Petco Day is one of those events that is worthy, and while it has come to an end for this weekend, it is not over. The rescue holds Petco days every first and third Saturday of the month.

Why is Petco important?

Many of NLSDR’s foster dogs are kenneled because of limited foster space. Kenneling means the difference between life and death. NLSDR strives to always have several of their boarding dogs at Petco because it gives them a short jail break and the ability to have focused interaction with a person.

It gives the dogs a chance to get out and strut their stuff. Nothing draws attention like a beautiful Siberian Husky simply being him or herself. Whether it is lying upside down, rolling over for a belly rub or simply wooing at passersby, people stop and take notice.

Many dogs actually meet their future adopters at Petco. One of my foster dogs did. Cleo was sitting in a canvas folding lawn chair. I had found a Halloween costume hat I wanted to buy for my own dog. My dog wasn’t there but she and Cleo were the same size so I was going to size the hat on Cleo. This couple walked up and the woman looked at her husband and said, “Oh, if she will actually let her put that on her head will wear it we have to adopt that dog.” Cleo wore that hat like a champ and that family did adopt her. But if Cleo had not been at Petco that day she would have never found her forever home.

Holding Petco allows the volunteers of NLSDR a chance to educate the public about dogs in general and northern breeds in particular. The vast majority of the public is unaware of the fate that faces over half of all dogs who end up in the shelter system. The lucky dogs who are not adopted or taken in by rescue are euthanized humanely. Unlucky dogs can be euthanized inhumanely in a gas chamber or sold to a lab for research. Even death by gas chamber is better than the fate that awaits them as a research subject.

Petco is an important community event because it educates the public. The dogs draw in many people who would not look or just drive by. They are interested in the dogs; they want to learn more about the dogs, and sometimes they want to learn more about how they can help. All it takes is one volunteer to do a home visit, drive a leg in a transport run, overnight a foster dog, process applications, call potential adopters, donate money to pay for one more day of boarding to save a life.

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA),“A puppy mill is a large-scale commercial dog breeding operation where profit is given priority over the well-being of the dogs. Unlike responsible breeders, who place the utmost importance on producing the healthiest puppies possible, breeding at puppy mills is performed without consideration of genetic quality. This results in generations of dogs with unchecked hereditary defects.”

One of the best definitions I have read concerning responsible breeding says, “Animal breeding is the application of the science of genetics to the improvement of the performance of domestic animals” (Land 243). While Land’s paper discusses breeding in cattle and other stock animals the basic principles remain the same. Breeding is expensive time consuming work that is driven by society’s determination of the financial value of the product animal. A good breeder must take into account genetic knowledge, technology, and direction of the improvements (traits they want in their animals).

The American Kennel Club (AKC) has set an accepted breed standard for all recognized pure breed dogs. Responsible breeders will take this standard as a base line, and through the careful application of genetic manipulation they will improve their lines. They look for the best specimens of their breed, usually these dogs have won championships, high placing in tournaments, have perfect formation, or they may excel at the specific task of the breed. For example a superior hunting dog may never show in the ring but could be the best of the breed because he can always find a scent. Breeders of this caliber have dogs who are well socialized, have no genetic or temperament issues. Their dogs receive regular vet care, exercise, and socialization time. The number of puppies produced from a mating is considered less important than the number of quality puppies that are produced.

Unfortunately, there are many types of breeders. The quality of dogs they produce varies as radically as their reasons for producing puppies. A short list of common terms includes hobby breeders, commercial breeders, brokers, bunchers, backyard breeders, and puppy mills.

Irresponsible breeding contributes to the animal overpopulation that is facing shelters across the United States. According to the American Humane Association it is impossible to track exactly how many animals are euthanized every year, “because animal care and control agencies are not uniformly required to keep statistics on the number of animals taken in, adopted, euthanized, or reclaimed.” However, based on a 1997 survey “roughly 64% of the total number of animals that entered shelters were euthanized — approximately 2.7 million animals in just these 1,000 shelters. These animals may have been put down due to overcrowding, but may have been sick, aggressive, injured, or suffered something else.”

Both the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the ASPCA have active campaigns to shut puppy mills down. In addition to these organizations, various state governments are starting to enact legislation that protects animals from millers who do not provide them with acceptable living conditions. Illinois has proposed Chloe’s Bill, Virgina’s  HB 583,  Indiana’s HB 1468, Minnesota ,and Ohio are just a few states moving toeard legislation.

However, some of these new laws and regulations have come under increasing protest from puppy millers and other residents who disagree with more regulation on animal treatment. Some breeders argue that puppy lemon laws protect the buyer but they fail to protect the breeder from irresponsible buyers. Others argue that limiting the number of breeding dogs an individual may own will hamper responsible breeders. While a third camp is concerned that responsible hobby breeders will simply stop breeding as regulations increase because it is too much hassle.

There is no easy solution to this problem because the legislation needed to protect animals and breeders alike has not been drafted in most states. Without legislation, prosecutors and representatives of the law cannot act to protect the animals that need it. For example, according to Indiana State Rep. Matt Pierce, “Indiana’s current definition of animal cruelty is so narrow it’s difficult to prosecute the most squalid conditions and inhumane treatment of animals, so long as owners can prove that food and water was available.” Both organizations and individuals need to make the public aware of the conditions that exist in puppy mills and the complications these places cause to animal overpopulation.

While I was growing up, I remember my Dad taking me to the local pet store. They always had puppies in the windows, and I was allowed to take them into the play rooms and play with them. I knew that I would never be allowed to take one home, but I always looked. Even if I saved my allowance for three years, I would never be able to afford one of those puppies. They ranged anywhere from $700 to $1500. Although occasionally there would be a sale and the puppies would be as low as $500.

What I did not know as a child was the high price often hid a variety of possible problems. I only saw the cute puppy I wanted to take home, but buying a puppy from a pet store is a bad idea. Many pet stores purchase their puppies from puppy brokers who originally purchased the puppies from breeders. The original breeder may have charged anywhere from $300-$500 for their puppies. As a result, the puppy broker must increase the sale of the puppy to make a profit. The same thing happens when the pet store purchases the puppy resulting in exorbitant inflation of price for what is at best a pet quality puppy.

A pet store does not have control over the quality of dog it receives and as a result they may be selling puppies with questionable genetic health. Someone who breeds exclusively to sell puppies to brokers or pet stores is generally not concerned with breed standards. Since they sell all their puppies for a set fee, they usually do not have the knowledge or the experience to recognize the difference between a show quality dog and pet quality dog. That difference simply does not matter because it will not bring in more money. They do not know who purchased their animals so they are unable to know if a certain mating produced bad or defective puppies. These puppies may suffer from genetic conditions, health conditions, temperament issues, or socialization issues.

Why would you want to pay $700-$1500 for a pet quality puppy when you could get a champion or show quality puppy for the same price? Why pay two to three times as much to get a puppy with a questionable genetic history, which may have aggression or health issues later on life?

There are other options besides pet stores if one is searching for a pure bred dog. Humane Societies and Animal Control Agencies frequently have purebred dogs who have either been found running stray or have been surrendered by their owners. Pure Breed Dog Rescues exist simply to re-home displaced dogs. There are also Responsible Breeders who focus on producing quality animals.

It has become significantly easier to locate a responsible breeder with the advent of the internet. Simply perform a web search to find a list of dog breeders, their contact information, or their websites. After the information has been located simply contact the breeder and ask questions. Quality dog breeders rely on their reputation and referrals, and past buyers are good sources reference checks. A responsible breeder has nothing to hide and will let a buyer meet the parents and see the see the conditions in which the puppies were raised.

Quality dog breeding is not an impersonal business. They know their breed, the breed standards, and what to look for in their puppies because prices are based on quality. For example some show quality puppies can sell for anywhere from $1500-$3200. Breeders keep track of their puppies and their lines, particularly if the puppies are show quality. Championships and high placings on the show circuit bring prestige to a breeder’s line, and the demand for their line will increase.

On the bright side a pet class puppy could be priced as low as $300, sometimes less depending on the breed and the age of the puppy. A flop ear, wrong colored eyes, wrong fur texture, rough gait are all things that would disqualify a puppy from show standards. However, that does not mean these puppies are defective they are just not what someone wanting to show would purchase.

Purchasing a puppy from a pet store is a bad idea. It is financially unsound and opens the buyer up to a variety of possible problems. It simply does not make sense to pay more for something when it could be purchased at a higher quality and for a lower price.

Grandpa wheeled up to me and said, “Annie, come here, I want to tell you something. Lean in real close because I don’t want you to miss any of it.” Grandpa had that intense look on his face he wore when he had something important to say. He looked over at me as I leaned in toward him and said, “You know I was at Pearl Harbor. Not the day of the bombing but the day after. I was part of the group that was deployed to clean it up.”

After he left the service, my grandfather owned and operated a funeral home. In addition to his mortician duties, he ran emergency ambulance runs for North West Indiana. I can remember him telling stories at Thanksgiving dinner about reconstructing the skull of a motorcycle accident victim or repairing wounds so that a body looked like it was asleep. It was very important to him that the dead left in his care did not look dead at their funerals. It remained important to him after he retired, and he would often critique the handiwork of other morticians at funerals he attended, usually they were not up to his high standards.

I can still close my eyes and see him sitting in his wheel chair, wearing his blue jump suit with his tan fishing hat sitting crookedly on his head. He loved that hat and always wore it to keep the sun off his head. He looked so serious, so solemn. It was not an expression he wore often.

“We arrived at the Harbor and there was nothing there but ruin. The air was heavy, full of smoke and stank like death. There were no buildings standing, there was nothing…nothing left. There were no walkways; there was no way to get to the wounded. We had to take sheets of corrugated metal that use to be the walls of the buildings and lay them over the ruble, to make someplace to walk.

“We hauled rubble over and made paths out of it. You had to be careful because it would shift under your weight. Then we began searching for the survivors. There were body parts everywhere, hands, legs some things that you couldn’t even make out and it smelled like burnt flesh. The smell clung to you even after you’d left the area.

“But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst of it was the wounded. They were everywhere, lying there moaning. There were three buildings. More like lean-tos actually. Large bits of metal that were big enough to make some sort of shelter. That’s where we took the wounded.

“You had to make the call. If they were dead that was easy, we put them in the farthest one away from the living. They just piled up there until we had time to identify them, so we could return their remains to their loved ones back home. If they were wounded, you had to decide how wounded they were and whether they were too wounded to treat. You have to understand, we didn’t have enough of anything. We had to save what precious little Penicillin we had to give to the ones who were wounded but not bad enough that we couldn’t save them.

“If they were too wounded, we took them off to the other tent. There were a few nurses there, but we were really just taking them there to die. We didn’t have the manpower we needed to take care of them. They were hurt too bad, maybe if we’d had more Penicillin, more places to treat them we could have saved them. After they died, we took them off and put them with the other dead.”

I learned later, after his death that Grandpa had never spoken about Pearl Harbor to anyone else. He had refused to tell his children about it or even talk about it. It was something he kept private. Something compelled my grandfather to share it with me that day, but I do not know what that something was.

]]> http://shionsann.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/exercise-1-revised/feed/ 0 shionsann pearl-harbor-14 pearl-harbor-3 pearl-harbor-22 http://shionsann.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/thoughts-on-marley-me/ http://shionsann.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/thoughts-on-marley-me/#comments Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:01:58 +0000 shionsann http://shionsann.wordpress.com/?p=271 ]]>

I just finished watching the movie Marley & Me, and it spoke to me on many levels. I watched as Marley destroyed his owner’s house. The part of the movie where Marley jumped out of the car resonated with me because my own dog child, Hilel, can’t be trusted in the back of the car with out the child lock windows engaged. She knows how to roll the windows down  and has actually jumped out of a moving car. I can remember having the conversation that Grogan had with Marley about letting Grogan know when it was time to let Marley go.

The only foster dog I was never able to place in a forever home of his own was named Gus. Gus came into rescue with an undiagnosed spinal tumor. It was inoperable and as the tumor grew Gus lost the use of his back legs and his bodily functions. I remember asking Gus to tell me when it was time because I didn’t want to have to decide for him. That was one of the hardest and perhaps the saddest thing I have ever had to do in my ten years of rescue work. In some dark part of my soul, I feel like I failed Gus because I could not make him whole and give him a happily ever after. And yet, Gus died in my arms, he was loved, and he had a home for the last six months of his life, so perhaps I did not fail him but that does not ease the hole he left in my life.

The real message in Marley & Me exemplifies the value a dog can add to a person’s life. I have read a lot of material about puppy mills and the things that can happen in them. I have fostered dogs who have been starved, beaten, and broken on the inside. I am fostering two female dogs who have spent their lives producing puppies with little to no human contact. As I type this, Microsoft Word tells me that using who for a dog is incorrect. I should use “that” because a dog is not a person…it is a thing.

Can we label another life that has the power to effect/change someone’s life, simply a thing? Marley made his family better. He was the inspiration for the columns that Grogan wrote in Florida. Because of those experiences with Marley, Grogan found his true passion in writing. There are studies that show contact with animals is good for people. It reduces stress and blood pressure. Dogs have been used to aid humans in many ways like Seeing Eye Dogs, Service Dogs, Seizure Dogs, Mental Health Dogs, reading tutors, etc. They add value to our lives and should be treated with value. Mohandas Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Perhaps that is because a great nation recognizes the value animals add to their everyday lives and does not take that for granted.

Indiana has recently proposed new animal legislation, House Bill 1468. While I support HB 1468, there are many people and organizations that do not. In response to my blog entry Indiana HB 1468 Yes. . . or No? a breeder named Kim has raised several good points in opposition to my view point. I feel that people need to be aware of both side of the argument because there are valid concerns that need to be examined before any new legislation is passed.

HB 1468 has been billed as a puppy mill bill. As Kim states, “This is supposed to be a ‘Puppy Mill Bill’ so I do not like that they have included ANYONE who as even one litter in this bill.” A point of contention and concern is the clause:

“Sec. 7. “Pet dealer” means any person, or the employee of a person, who:
(1) engages in the sale of dogs to the public for profit; or
(2) sells or offers for sale more than five (5) dogs in one (1) year.”

There is a valid fear that this legislation will be misused. That responsible breeders will be targeted or harassed by law enforcement officials in an attempt to eradicate breeding all together. John Yates of the American Sporting Dog Alliance shares Kim’s concerns. He points out that some of the requirements in HB 1468 could be dangerous for certain types of dogs. Being kept in a building between 65 and 78 degrees at all times would be detrimental to sled dogs who need to be acclimated to the cold. Being kept at warmer temperatures causes sled dogs to grow lighter coats that will not protect them as well as a thicker coat. This would increase the danger of frost bite or hypothermia if exposed to cold temperature for an extended period of time.

Mr. Yates points out that “Many serious breeders keep all of their retired dogs for the rest of their lives, and also are working with and evaluating several young dogs. Limiting a hobbyist breeder to 30 unaltered dogs could seriously hamper their ability to continue their passion for hobbyist breeding. Kim verifies Mr. Yates’ observation through her statement, “I show my dogs. I have 5 intact females. 3 of which are geriatric and have not had a litter for a couple of years and won’t have another.”

My question is why not simply spay or neuter the retired dogs? Medically it is healthier for dogs to be altered. Unaltered females have an increased chance of cervical cancer and mammary tumors. Retired breeders also run the risk of developing pyometra, a life threatening infection in the uterus. The only cure for it is a complete hysterectomy. Unaltered males run a higher risk of developing prostate cancer. If retired dogs were altered then they would not count toward the 30 unaltered dogs permitted under the bill.

According to Kim, “Education is the key to stopping puppy mills. Not new laws that harm everyone and lump anyone who ever breeds a dog all into the same twisted category.” I am intrigued by this idea. I remember one night sitting at home and a friend of mine called me and asked what a puppy mill was. I was shocked to discover that he did not know about puppy mills.

Kim suggests taking all the money it will cost to try and enforce HB 1468 and put it into education instead. We should fund pet campaigns with billboards, educational newspaper ads, and visits to schools to talk to kids about the importance of responsible pet ownership. It was only in retrospect and after that conversation that I began to seriously consider her argument. If people are ignorant of the existence of puppy mills, what they are and what allows them to continue, then legislation will not help because people will not know what to look for and this ignorance could and probably will lead to a misuse of laws designed to protect companion animals. I do not believe that education alone will solve the puppy mill problem. Breeders could still breed and simply sell to labs that do not care where their test subjects originated. However, an ignorant public is a dangerous thing and an educated public would be more proactive in eliminating something most Hoosiers feel is an awful practice.

I still believe Indiana needs stronger legislation to protect companion animals. Current legislation has the maximum fine at $5000-10,000 and 1-1.5 years in jail, but a judge is not required to assign the maximum and may assign a lesser fine if he/she feels the maximum is too harsh.. It does not matter if a person tortures, kills or mains an animal, they only face a year to a year and half. Perhaps legislation that targets abuse and unacceptable living conditions with higher fines and jail time would be more effective than legislation that targets how many puppies a breeder produces in a year. There has to be a balance that protects both responsible breeders and the voiceless animals who need our help.

The largest complaint about Indiana HB 1468 is that places unfair regulations on responsible breeders. Breeders are the only animal dealers in the state that are unregulated. 501(C)3 not-for-profits rescues are regulated, shelters and humane societies are regulated, pet store are suppose to be regulated. Why not breeders as well?

Pet dealer simply means anyone who sells more than five dogs a year or sells them for profit must maintain a log book with the vet records and breeder information for every dog sold. They only need to keep this information for two years, since congenital defects may not occur until a year or two into a dog’s life.

Why limit it to five? That’s not fair to larger breed dogs, but five is a safe middle number because small dogs often only have one maybe two puppies in a litter. The legislation is not asking for a fee or for breeders to pay extra money to breed. It simply wants people who have puppies and plan to sell them to keep track of vet records for two years. Is that really unreasonable?

I met with Rosanne M. Cordell of IUSB’s Franklin D. Schurz Library to discuss my research topic, puppy mills. Rosanne was very helpful with my search in academic resources. She told me when we met that puppy mills would not be documented much in scholarly research, and it could be difficult to find information pertaining to my topic.

Rosanne suggested that I look in the Philosopher’s Index using the search terms animal breeding or genetic engineering and animals. Much to my surprise this search pulled up several interesting articles. While many of them discussed issues that had been raised in cattle breeding or commercial farm animal breeding the issues are the same. A puppy mill keeps large numbers of dogs in areas that are too small for them for the purposes of making money. In chickens, these conditions are similar because sixteen chickens may be kept for their entire lives in one square meter. Correlations between these two industries can easily be made.

There were also articles on the ethics of animal welfare, experimentation, and breeding practices. If legislation exists to ensure animals used for experimentation are given a basic level (very basic) of care, then why not legislation to provide safe environments for animals used for breeding?

I also searched in the biological sciences using the search terms dog breeding and dog* and inbreeding. This search was not as helpful but it did provide a base definition of breeding. “Animal breeding is the application of the science of genetics to the improvement of performance of domestic animals” (Land 1).

Rosanne also suggested I follow citation trails. While I may not find much on my subject, as long as I find one or two things, I can follow their research backwards. The articles they used to write their research might have some information for my topic that was not covered in the article I found.

This was a useful exercise because I had not thought to examine the ethical issue of animal breeding. The philosophy articles will provide much needed academic language to help define the issues at the heart of puppy mills.