Chronic violators who are operating you still have any humane treatment of the animals and you still have this defiant attitude that some folks believe they can do whatever they want there are so many issues out here so many porton issues and everybody is struggling in their own way that we dont necessarily want to pick up the other guy struggle eventually i have to go back into my town and face this neighbor and face the other neighbors and i will meet them at church meet them at the Grocery Store a meeting at the restaurant at the sale barn and im responsible i am responsible. And i think this is where the buck ends we individually have to take responsibility as producers and also as consumers but i mean i think for the public very clearly you know you have a choice in the product that you buy at the store. When you hear of a problem in your own backyard if youre right were going to try to fix it i felt more like a hypocrite where you cant defend the rights of all dogs if youre going to ignore the problem down the street. Have 1st there was i wanted to educate people who had no idea like i did and so i knew about it and somehow i was educated by one story that other people would be. The protests started black friday of 2011 and the reason we did that is the has thats when people start buying christmas copies start placing orders for christmas copies and we wanted that to stop so when they 1st started we were there to close every single saturday that was a very very long and cold winter. We always protest peacefully we always hold our signs are we always have our back up i keep a folder with all the information i have handouts for people that are very exact shawl and we dont tell any lines thats the biggest thing. But few friends and i started going around to the mills in iowa experiencing it firsthand so our local store is diabetics that shop and we went in there and we saw the puppies and asked them and our 1st they were like from a breeder and they were very open about it and so we asked if we could contact them and so they gave us their card and we made an appointment and we went and we visited the mill and it was it was almost all. In general we have the negative temperatures and the very very High Temperature is that the dog. Theyre forced to live in the 21st and so our protests are every single week no matter what the weather today. To be positive temperatures when i left my house this morning with the wind chill it was negative fortys this is cold its on our coldest it is average when say iowa but usually air protests are between 2 people in 10 people every lead just depends on the weather and what we all have going on it is a priority to everybody and we have several people that travel from out of town to get here 2 years is a long time to think that weve been in front of here this is where we hang out young people hang out in front of 5 stars on saturdays. We only have to be out here for 2 hours and the dogs. Have to be out here all the time. Dogs in the shelter its easy. To dress differently. And i think its going to be in a trance people become more aware of what what a puppy mill means and what dogs in the store actually do or i like to say that its a Ripple Effect if i educate one person who knows how many other people they will and so if we can all educate our Little Corner of the earth that someday we will not have these problems because once the public really knows whats going on they will support. No matter how upset i am i know the dogs have it. So id never even consider giving up its never been an option and i will use my voice because we dont mind i will keep doing it and tell the. Until recent changes the only federal regulations governing commercial dog breeding date back to the passing of the Animal Welfare act. Or a. W. A. In 1966 the a. W. A. Defined a commercial dog breeder as one who maintains 4 or more breeding female dogs and sells the offspring into wholesale channels any breeder or Retail Pet Store in gauged in the direct sale of dogs to the public was exempt from the a. W. A. Let me clarify that a little bit the Animal Welfare act only requires that we do annual inspections on Research Facilities so there is no requirement for the other entities that we regulate. But every facility thats either licensed or registered with us is assigned a minimum inspection frequency we have a risk based Inspection System so based on the risk of finding noncompliance risk of Animal Welfare concerns the facility may be assigned a frequency of once a year twice a year 3 times a year whatever that system a science to it the way does not require yearly vet check ups access to exercise socialization or protections against extreme heat or cold and allows both wire flooring and stackable cages. For the Animal Welfare act is passed and it requires humane standards of care for dogs raised in commercial breeding establishment and they require as of the department of agriculture go out and inspect these facilities and make sure that theyre complying with these regulations i always refer to the regulations that we have today with the u. S. D. A. Is survival standards if you comply with the centers of care the dogs will probably but is it humane no right now and u. S. D. A. Regulations a dog requires 6 inches of living space bigger than the dog itself and youre talking about a dog is living in that space for its entire lives and the department of agriculture really is there promote american agriculture its not an impartial sort of entity that is neutrally overseeing the laws and for years u. S. D. A. Was allied with the very interests that it was supposed to regulate including these folks within the Agriculture Sector who you know started raising puppies and started operating puppy mills never in the state of ohio has any breeder been forced out of this. Long. Standing violations of the Animal Welfare act if they choose to no longer pay u. S. D. A. License its because they chose not to renew their license not because inspectors came out to actually revoke that license i never heard of a regulator coming to pennsylvania no one was getting shut down the feeling of the industry was very we dont have to worry about it so frankly their doors were pretty open the so often if a breeder some violation of the Animal Welfare act they get a slap on the hands and when they get a slap on the hands. Off and it is months following the violation and theyre given an opportunity to correct the violation and sometimes it may be days. Before that inspector returns to ensure that the violations been corrected on its very rare that they will be given a fine that is truly impactful to their bottom line so they factor it in as a cost of doing business in the Animal Welfare it has been horrendous in the end for many many years and just 2008 of their own office of Inspector General issued a very doable report on how terrible their inspections were they documented inspectors walking by dogs and just leaving of there you know that writing up these people and putting them out of business to spend really really bad the Inspector General found several major problems with them foresman of the a. W. A. Including finding a massive loophole that allowed breeders to sell puppies over the internet without a license and delaying confiscation of suffering animals to give violators a final opportunity to take corrective action before confiscation can occur even in extreme cases where animals are dying it is called the Animal Welfare or you know its not the the kennel really well for it its the animals and yes even some of the good inspectors were there inspectors in made sure that the building was clean and they had good shelter from the extreme. Temperatures but the dogs of. The photo a lot of the focus of that. Was on inconsistency in some of the things our inspectors were citing and the length of time it took to get to enforcement so we put some an intensified training in place for our inspectors from a different oversight of our inspection process and work with our force our branch to find different ways to expedite the enforcement process since and weve also worked on some nontraditional or non Regulatory Solutions if we can help somebody come into compliance without having to resort to enforcement action and get those animals in a better welfare situation quicker and thats what were going to do. Since being elected in 1907 senator dick durbin has introduced legislation in every session that would dramatically improve the lives of dogs in commercial kennels and would close the internet loophole. The way people sold dogs changed and has it changed it was no longer going to the individual breeder oh longer just going to the store now was online sales and they were exempt from the kind of regular inspection that would protect the puppies and their mothers so we had to make sure that our bill really filled the scale up and provided the protection for those online sales and the pups that were part of it even in the midst of the hyper partisanship of the u. S. Senate on the issue of puppy mills senator durbin found willing partners on the republican side of the aisle my 1st cosponsor was Rick Santorum one of the most conservative republicans from pennsylvania he was on this but with me and then after he left the senate i had senator vitter from louisiana another very conservative senator so it turns out that when it comes to humane treatment of animals and dogs in particular this is very bipartisan if a bill like pups went to the floor of the house of the senate it would be an overwhelming yea vote for the measure it would be 9095. 00 yes votes in the senate you know be 400. 00 or so yes votes in the house out of 430. 00 but the problem is on an a wall for legislation the congress is that many of the bills you get track to the house and Senate Committees on agriculture and those committees are populated by the most rural lawmakers aligned with the biggest agribusiness interests in the United States. That is just every small cycle dont pull this. The rule in the case is found by and you can deceive you should be heard in the police. Today defended rule chefs walk next you dont. Give us an emotional safety feature and you move on to the sort of the. Throughout the years members of the Senate Agriculture committee have received enormous Campaign Contributions from agriculture giant including month sento tyson smithfield and cargill the sides these direct contributions each of these corporations spent millions of dollars each year lobbying congress. Seemingly afraid of how a theoretical slippery slope protecting dogs in puppy mills could hurt their operation and corporate agriculture sided with commercial breeders they get loads of Campaign Cash from these agribusiness groups because thats the goal for the legislation that these agribusiness groups want who doesnt want to protect dogs and yet somehow industry find a way to twist it around and make you scared into voting against those commonsense positive Public Policies they typically oppose any Animal Welfare legislation because they think theyre going to be next and they think that if you have a society that is incrementally building Animal Welfare standards its eventually going to lead society to examine their god even with strong public support for common sense changes to the Animal Welfare act none of these bills were allowed out of committee recognizing the original intentions of the a. W. A. And the advent of commercial breeders selling exclusively over the internet the u. S. D. A. Moved on their own to update the regulations. So the administration seeing the enormous number of senators and u. S. Representatives backing of legislation and getting hundreds of thousands of columns from h. S. U. S. Members and other Animal Welfare advocates they finally passed a rule to bring these internet sellers under the Regulatory Authority of us to before the change in regulations nearly 7500. 00 facilities across the United States were subject to inspection besides commercial breeding facilities this includes Research Facilities zoos circuses marine parks transport vehicles television and Film Productions involving animals state fairs camel rides petting zoos elephant right and traveling and or roadside. In 2013115 u. S. D. A. Inspectors conducted between 1011000 inspections on these various facilities approximately 3000 of those inspections were conducted on commercial dog breeding facilities since this change in policy will now also require commercial breeders selling on the internet to obtain a license the u. S. D. A. Estimates that there will be up to 4600. 00 additional new facilities under their inspection umbrella based on their own projections a total of between 1012000 facilities will now fall under the inspection provisions of the Animal Welfare act this change will increase the workload of their 115 inspectors by newly a 3rd. The u. S. D. A. Has no plans to add additional inspectors i think since the real big came into effect the number one way that weve gotten contacts are peoples names as people suffer porting we do we have looked at breeder registries to get i did get numbers we watch the internet a look at. Marketing promotional things from folks that sell over the internet so this is a good move for dogs that its now part of the Animal Welfare act but again our questions going to be how are you going to enforce that because youre having a very difficult time in forcing a law that was already in place and now weve just added a new dimension to it weve got 115 people. Stationed across the country to do our inspections. There workload is prioritized by risk based systems so we get them to those places where theyre most needed and at this point in time we do feel like we have resources to be successful in doing this you know i worry about that were the time were coming back and spending appropriations in every direction and they say they have enough to get started but i want to keep an eye on it even documented us yea inspectors who had their old puppy mill themselves documented supervisors of inspectors who were out working as roofers during the day and theyre supposed to be out check you know their inspectors i mean enforcement was absolutely atrocious and has bad since the inception of the act and it was just recently in the last couple years that u. S. D. A. Has really turned around and started to enforce the laws but on the books since 1007. 100 at sellers and we just have to continue now with our effort to educate the public that the best place to get an old is a shelter or rescue group or a responsible breeder who is really treating the other dog like a pet and not a breed. Machine. Usually have a number so he actually has a tattoo on his ear as he was optioned and thats my word its not that my business name once we got in he was shaking a lot because he didnt know what to do he was trapped in this tiny little wired cage. We dont need the crate with him he will just stir freaking out and he wont let us read even anywhere near an. Hour of email. Let me ask me a little and i dont know now camarines ill be known as i guess thats me as i see why no one out there let me know. But i swear hes really really cute. Hes really cute in the your body your skull and these 2 in here came from a hoarding situation in philadelphia we took in 39 little blue show while dr makes this. Guy. Our our. Dog was probably about 9 months old even months old and the dog was so full of joy and just wanted to get out run around and the dog was down and sell those playing and it was in a rabbit hutch standing on wire but it desperately wanted to get out and i can we take this dog no i just got the dog were breeding the dog im just starting to breed or so this was years ago and then every time we went back i would see this dog and the dog was getting older and older and he didnt want to anymore because she wasnt a good breeder and i was looking at her and her eyes were dead and within i was about a month beast she started to come around and i could see the dog that i remembered from before its a shame that she had to go through all that you know her entire life just consisted of this misery. And we need people to start realizing that these poppy mills exist these puppies and pet stores come from puppy mills whether you believe it or not thats where your dog came from a puppy. Thing that needs to be to trust because theyre not rescuing are saving a puppy by by buying that dog what theyre doing is theyre sentencing the mother that dog to a lifetime of misery you know you know the general public doesnt stop buying poppies a stock or a change its just its not going to stop ill be down as the day i die and i owe a lot and i hope i hope i dont have to spend my days to save dogs we americans are treating dogs like members of the family we all love them in their beds to sleep at night we spend money on them we give them life saving better a care a society that values dogs is not an aside its going to tolerate this abuse of dogs on puppy mills. Until the public is willing to forgo the purchase of a puppy on the internet or in pet stores no regulation will end the suffering of thousands of breeding dogs trapped in commercial mills across the United States and humane societies rescues impounds millions of dogs are awaiting the chance to join a family if the general public decides to adopt and not shop the factory farming of puppies would and. The power really does lie in the people what we have as a movement is a 1000000 households who care about animals and who are willing to pick up the phone and being able to tap that power that is what should make any puppy miller terrified the other side has a much more difficult. Theyve got to convince people that keeping dogs in confinement for their entire law is. Denying the vector exposing them to a truth of even cold is an acceptable way to treat go these are elected officials and they work for us and were going to make sure they work for us we know were up against a lot of corruption and Consumer Fraud and animal cruelty but i think its every time you educate that one person that could be the next person who makes a difference at the state house or at the local level or even at the federal level such a case may gone. Home i do think its really important people they see something going on especially i mean i mean just as they should bring it to peoples attention you know people to know whats going on out there and. They just feel otherwise change is not possible. 20 years from now wed all like to look back and we know whats going to happen were going to what back and were going to say thank god we dont have anymore i cant believe the way we allow people to treat these dogs. And. God. God. God. My god. I have. My. My. Little own little or are. All. Alert bertman. Humanity is on the edge of the precipice thanks to continuing destruction of the natural world. We just seem laid out a lot of good results a cool losing myself and a later period. That the people who. Left the meeting you didnt hold up. The phone you. Got over the war. Or the. Dealing in the muslim world as a little boy can sit around and stuff it and ship them through that disables the. Human activity has brought us to the brink of the worlds 6th major extinction of it and the people in this film just come take it anymore. Ill be doing this show the day i die and i hope not i hope i dont have to spend my days going to save dogs and you know you cant save mall and then you drive by barnes and you look who on earth has a dogs owner. Said its legal or allowed to do this to these dogs. I mean 67 years you know theyve been locked up in a cage outside you see no protection from the weather the heat you know the cold air the rain the snow the thunder not