BACKYARD BREEDERS (1)
November 11, 1997

Their cries for help were heard, now thousands of people want to adopt them.
But every day thousand of dogs suffer at the hands of unscrupulous backyard breeders.
Close to 3,000 people came forward to adopt the malnourished puppies recently found
in the back of truck in Bridgeport. That kind of response to the puppies has been
overwhelming. In part one of her special report, Wendy Cicchetti looks at the puppy
industry and its so-called backyard breeders:

We've all seen puppies in pet stores. What we don't often see is where
they come from. So we traced the trail of those puppies found in Bridgeport. Our search
lead us to Missouri. What we found might surprise you.

That doggie in the window. Almost everyone has wanted one. Their faces tug at heart
strings like little else. The truckload of puppies found in Bridgeport illustrated that.
But the incident also shed light on a not so warm and fuzzy industry.

Missouri produces more puppies than any other state in the country.
Beyond the picturesque bales of hay is a dark world.
Stop along many dirt roads and you can hear its victims.

There are over 1,000 breeders in Missouri, many of whom are very private about
their business. Posing as potential customers, we are able to get our hidden
camera beyond the barbed wire.

WENDY: "How many litters do they each have?"
BREEDER: "Well, it depends on how long they live. Ha!"

Here, breeding dogs live their lives in cages, where they jump up and down,
for there isn't enough room for them to walk back and forth. A little prisoner whose
sole purpose is to produce.

DR, JOHN HUNT / MISSOURI STATE VETERINARIAN: "Animals commercially
reared to supply the needs say, in your state, for pet shops wanting puppies for sale.
It's a big business."

The cold, filthy and malnourished puppies found in the back of this truck in Bridgeport,
began their fateful journey in Missouri.

The puppies in Connecticut came from Superior Pets here in Elkland, Missouri.
The owner of the company - Eric Mathews - says the incident has put him out
of business. Nonetheless, we asked to see the inside of his building, but he declined
our request.

Inside Superior Pets a lone dog barks.

MATHEWS: "We had to sell out to cover the breeders we owed."

Owner Eric Mathews, is, or was, a broker, the middle man between the breeder
and the pet store. Although Mathews agreed to turn over permanent custody of the
puppies to the Connecticut Humane Society, he denies mistreating the animals.

ERIC MATHEWS / SUPERIOR PETS: "The conditions weren't as bad as they were made out to be."
WENDY: "There were dead puppies that arrived in Connecticut."
MATHEWS: "The pups started dying after they went to the Bridgeport pound."

Until he was busted, Mathews says he sent out a truck load a week to pet
stores in the Northeast.

MATHEWS: "We done, like, 100 pups a week, that was all we dealt with the place.
were we worked before done 700 a week."

Superior Pets is hardly the exception.
Sit out in front of 'Show Me Family Pets' on a Monday morning. Trucks and vans
line up waiting to be loaded. The broker wont let us inside to see the puppies,
but he shows us how his puppies are delivered to pet stores across the country.

DON WOOD / SHOW ME FAMILY PETS: "In this big cage with big dogs, probably two to three."

Notice how the wire cages are stacked, allowing dogs feces and urine,
to drop on the animals bellow.

WOOD: "We're allowed for puppies per crate."

U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations do allow four puppies to a crate,
even if its as small as the one in middle.

WOOD: "It's the same with groceries in your sack they are going to put as many
in that sack as they can get with out tearing it."
WENDY: "But you damage your groceries?"
WOOD: "You damage your groceries."
WENDY: "Do your puppies get damaged?"
WOOD: "They don't get damaged. You have to clean their facilities more them normal."

Often during transit the fragile 8-10 week old puppies aren't fed and their cages
aren't cleaned. Some speculate that may have happen to the shipment found
in Bridgeport.

MATHEWS: "Maybe it's not morally right but legally it was right and they
broke us because morally it wasn't right."

Connecticut witnessed just one truckload of puppies ordeal. Yet it seems
to have some people looking differently at that doggie in the window.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture says it is looking into Superior Pets
handling of the truckload of puppies that ended up in Bridgeport. The state
veterinarian wouldn't say much except that the initial report found the shipment
met state standards.

In Part Two, we catch up with a former federal investigator in charge of monitoring
the breeders and brokers in Missouri. He claims he was fired for drawing too much
attention to conditions at puppy mills. He brings us to some of the worst offenders.
And we'll show you how puppies from those places end up here in Connecticut.

*********************************************************************************

WTNH News Channel 8 / News

BACKYARD BREEDERS (2)
November 12, 1997

Some puppy mills in the Midwest are supplying pet shops throughout the Northeast.
That in itself may not seem bad, but what we found in Missouri will disgust you.
The animals there are suffering. News Channel 8's Wendy Cicchetti got the first hand look.

There is a side to those cute pet store puppies we don't often get
to see -- where they come from. We went undercover into the backyards of some
unscrupulous breeders. What we saw in Missouri will disgust you. Regulators
response to our finds might surprise you.

On a good week, World Wide Pet in Naugatuck sends 25 of these cuties
home with families. Each puppy fetching a hefty price. Pet store puppies is a big
business, but it can also be a dirty business.

The majority of puppies in this country come from the state of Missouri, where breeders liter
the landscape from the small scale to the big time.

WENDY: "These are the puppies you see in pet stores?"
BREEDER: "Yes but they are jacked up. $800 in a pet store."

Getting breeders to talk on camera is tough, but with a hidden camera
the dark world of puppy mills comes to light.
At Suritte Kennels in West Plains, Missouri, 5 to 6 adult dogs are crammed into cages.
Their only escape? Pregnancy.

WENDY: "Those dogs out there are full grown?"
BREEDER: "Yeah."
WENDY: "What do they do?"
BREEDER: "They just have babies."

Hundreds of dogs lined up, starving for attention, and food. Their bony bodies
attest to that. Some of the dogs can barely open their eyes. Filthy, their hair is
matted and even falling out. These dogs are past the point of cleaning themselves,
but their puppies show little physical signs of their horrendous beginnings.

This dog didn't make it to another litter. Its lifeless body remains in among the other dogs,
slowly rotting away.

WENDY: "There is a dead dog out there??"
BREEDER: "There is? I'll have to tell my mother."

MARSHALL SMITH / "IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS": "Just another example of gross
mismanagement of the facility."

Marshall Smith was a federal investigator with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture in Missouri for 10 years.

SMITH: "I was an outspoken critic it angered me tax payers were funding a program not
functioning."

Smith says he was fired for making too much noise. He now works for the animal rights
group 'In Defense of Animals.'

SMITH: "I'm charging inspectors turned their heads."
WENDY: "Do you think they are doing that now?"
SMITH: "I know they are doing that now!"

Both the USDA and the State of Missouri have watch over breeders and brokers.

DR. JOHN HUNT / MISSOURI STATE VETERINARIAN: "It's a facilities program one that
gets minimum standards for animal care. So we're actually inspecting the facilities."

Missouri state law requires brokers and breeders to be licensed annually.
There are close to 1200 such facilities in this state, and only seven
inspectors. So as you might imagine, keeping tabs on the industry is an uphill battle.

DR HUNT: "Last year we were at everyone. This year we probably won't be in every one."

Believe it or not, Suritte Kennel is licensed.

BREEDER: "She has a license by the state and feds. They come inspect a lot."

Here's what happened when we showed our video to the state
veterinarian in charge of inspections.

WENDY: "In these little cages are 5-6 dogs? Is that a puppy mill?"
DR HUNT: "Well, I told you I cant see it and I'm not going to look at it."

We also tried to show him video of the truck load of puppies found in
Bridgeport. He had little interest.

That truck load of puppies was from Superior Pets in Elkland, Missouri.
But a shipment from Suritte could be coming to a pet store near
you, thanks to this guy the owner of Thunder River. He's the broker -- the middleman.

JAMES RAGLAND / "THUNDER RIVER": "Suritte's Kennel? I don't sell to pet stores in CT."
WENDY: "You do buy from Suritte's?
RAGLAND: "I don't recall. I don't want my picture taken excuse me..."

Suritte does sell to Thunder River, and owner James Ragland does sell to
pet stores in Connecticut. Documents show the Puppy Palace in Danbury received
two shipment from Thunder River just last month.
The owner of Puppy Palace wouldn't talk on camera, but did look at our
video. He says he will probably no longer buy from that broker.