Ap 1st Draft
Ap 1st Draft
Ap 1st Draft
Jennifer Vazquez
Charlene Keeler
Introduction
The Horrible Hundred 2017 is a report, compiled by the Humane Society of the United
States (HSUS), of the USDA inspected puppy mills inspection reports. In the 2017 “Horrible
Hundred” report there were “45 [new] dealers [and] 55 are ‘repeat offenders’ who have appeared
in one or more of our prior puppy mill reports” (The Horrible Hundred 2017). The issue with
puppy mills is that the current laws in place as an effort to ‘oversee’ puppy mills create
complications in regulation. Consequently, many puppy mills have managed to stay clandestine
and don’t adhere to the current laws. A solution to efficiently enforcing regulation is to designate
more funds to the USDA to specifically hire more people to be able to reach all puppy mills even
though they are in remote areas. Educating the young of they can adopt pets from local animal
shelters and do their research about the breeders if buying online or adopting to make sure not to
support puppy mills; moreover, not support puppy mills whom are treating the dogs inhumanely.
Through PSA and media clips we can advocate to the public that when they are looking for pets
many can be from inhumane puppy mills and the puppy can have diseases, so it is in the owner’s
The origins of puppy mills date back to the end of the second World War. The military
men, such as the soldiers and other government officers, were coming back home to the U.S in a
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time where the economy was in decline. The economy, specifically the agriculture economy, was
collapsing and consequently there wasn’t many jobs; thus, “the U.S. Department of Agriculture
[USDA] suggested that farmers attempt to support their families by breeding pure-bred dogs”
(Towsey 161). And so inexperienced farmer and soldiers started to breed dogs with little to no
veterinary care and food since they themselves were dire circumstances where they had no
money. Here is where the breeders start to view these innocent dogs as “cash crops” instead of
considering them as pets (Towsey 159). Since breeding was done for profit, they needed to cut
corners and reduce or not even give the animals veterinary care, decent quality of sanitation, and
food. This “profit” mentality is something that has continued until this day and many current
In 1966 the Federal Government took a course of action against animal cruelty by passing
the Animal Welfare Act that would regulate the traffic and selling of animals in general. The
USDA was put in charge of enforcing the Animal Welfare Act, specifically the Animal and Plant
Health agency is the one whom directly works to “enforce” the AWA. The 1966 AWA set the
bare minimum standards for how the puppy mills could run which are still not an ideal or
humane way to keep these animals. Even the USDA has published on their website that “the
1966 act set minimum standards for the handling, sale, and transport of cats, dogs, nonhuman
primates, rabbits, hamsters, and guinea pigs held by animal dealers or pre-research in
laboratories.” The AWA of 1966 was so vague when it came to the terms in which how breeder
will be able to get their license as well to the standards the facilities for breeding must meet.
Section 3 of the AWA refers to how breeders will get licensed after the proper paperwork,
payments, and adherence to the standards addressed in section 13. Section 13 obscurely depicts
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the minimum requirements in which the breeding facility must be kept protecting the well- being
of the dogs. These standards in the 1966 AWA, section 13, included “minimum requirements
with respect to the housing, feeding, watering, sanitation, ventilation, shelter from extremes of
It is evident that the 1966 AWA shows an interest to protect animals from cruel and
inhumane conditions but wasn’t necessarily inclusive to all animals. In 1970 the AWA was
amended to redefine what the term “animal” encompassed to include “warm-blooded” animals.
This allowed the USDA to regulate research facilities much closer so that the animal testing
could be supervised. The AWA was once again amended because of its vagueness in 1976 to
regulate the transportation, handling of animals. In 1990 a “Pet Protection Act” was amended
into the AWA and this further helped protect pets. To continue increasing the specificity of the
AWA it was edited again in 2002 to exclude mice, birds, rats from being protected as animals of
research. Finally, in 2007 the Animal Welfare Act was amended, and they added the Animal
Fighting Prohibition Act that was signed by President George W. Bush (Adams).
Policies: 2010 An enhanced Animal Welfare by the APHIS of the USDA. The
enforcement process. Enforcing this to its full potential across all 50 states.
Enforcement Process: Animal Care Enforcement Action (EA) Guidance for inspection
report:
1. 90-day reinspection
3. Stipulation
Counter-argument: Well why don’t we just have a federal law that bans all puppy mills in
Rebuttal: It is nice to think that a federal law can be easily passed as it is spoken.
However, it is difficult to pass a federal law such as the one mentioned above, making puppy
mills illegal, because many congress members or politicians in general don’t want to appear as
“anti-business” (HSUS).
Educating the children in school on how they could conduct their own research and
support animal shelters and not puppy mills that are providing inadequate care to the animals is
one way in which the children learn to become responsible when looking for a pet. They will
learn about how animals should be treated with the same love and respect the they have for each
other. Educating the young on adopting pets instead of shopping they become advocates for
humane treatment.
Spreading articles that show hoe inhumane the puppy mills are and broad cast more the
Horrible hundred reports in which people can see that in their own state there are inhumane
puppy mills. Starting something like the ALS ice bucket challenge but now something so we can
raise money for societies that help pets who are rescued from inhumane puppy mills and are in
Conclusion
the USDA to specifically hire and train more people to be able to reach all puppy mills even
though they are in remote areas. Teaching the children in school that they can adopt pets from
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local animal shelters and do their research about the breeders if buying online or adopting to
make sure not to support puppy mills; moreover, not support puppy mills whom are treating the
dogs inhumanely. By creating media posts or chains we can advocate to the public that when
they are looking for pets many can be from inhumane puppy mills and the puppy can have
diseases, so it is in the owner’s interest to stop inhumane puppy mills and start donating chains in
which important people of society can set example and donate as well.
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Works Cited