Dealing Dogs Hitler Style
In the graphic and disturbing HBO documentary "Dealing Dogs," an undercover investigation conducted by a small animal rights organization, Last Chance for Animals, discovers that there are thousands of dogs stuffed inhumanely in kennels resembling concentration camps, waiting to die.
Every year, research labs and veterinary schools purchase 65,000 dogs a year from pounds, shelters and breeders - rounded up and sold by what are called Class B dealers. When Last Chance for Animals sent "Pete" into one of these kennels, located in Willford, Ark, what is caught on tape will terrify you.
Starvation is only the beginning of the torturous acts cast on these trusting animals, many of which are pure bred and upon arrival, as they look to humans for love and kindness it is apparent that at least some of them are stolen pets.
When Pete arrives to owner AKA ("Hitler of animals,") C.C Baird's Martin Creek Kennel, it is the cold winter months where part of his job is to hose down the pens, spraying ice-cold water and filth all over the dogs and their food, leaving them shivering all day as they slowly dry off.
"They have nothing to do but sit in the same pen with three other dogs, fight over food and live in (bleep.)," says Pete. "I mean, they're going cage-crazy."
According to staff writer, Chip Crews of the Washington Post, "some of the footage straddles the line between painful and sickening. Dead dogs, dying dogs, dogs in various stages of starvation, dogs covered with hideous bite wounds, dogs with their ears half-chewed off."
"We knew there were horrific things that go on at the experimentation labs where these dogs go to, but we didn't expect to see that right here at the kennel," states Pete.
The good news from all of this is that after four and a half months working at the facility and 70 hours of undercover video, Last Chance for Animals took its evidence to the U.S. Attorney's office in Little Rock, which launched an inquiry. Fifteen months later, the owner of Martin Creek Kennel, Mr. Baird (who is also a minister at the local church, by the way) was banned from the dog business and his kennel has been shut down.
However, there are many more of these concentration camps referred to as "Puppy Mills" all over the states. Missouri holds the most of them, Arkansas is at second and Kansas is the third largest state to imprison innocent animals.
Please try and watch tonight's HBO documentary, "Dealing Dogs" at 10pm. And even if you cannot bring yourself to witness the actual program (which I totally understand), you can help make a difference. Although animals do not have a voice, we can have one for them. For more information and ways to help, please log onto http://www.lcanimal.org/.