Jefferson City, MO...Missouri-based Do Bo Tri Kennels Limited, a U.S. Department of Agriculture and Missouri Department of Agriculture-licensed commercial pet business, gained notoriety this week resulting from allegations by animal control officials in Tennessee that their driver violated state animal cruelty laws.

Do Bo Tri Kennels who acquires puppies from as many as 300 puppy mill breeders for distribution to pet shops in the United States, Mexico and Spain was transporting puppies to various pet shops when the transport vehicle experienced mechanical problems. Workers at the garage where the vehicle was left for repairs discovered 147 puppies housed in the vehicle without any air-conditioning. In a desperate attempt to save the puppies, they bathed some and soaked others in wet towels to lower body temperatures; but, unfortunately, four puppies died one whom was carrying the highly infectious parvo virus.

"It is not uncommon for puppies to be shipped extremely long distances overland. I have seen puppies weak, dehydrated and soiled with their own urine, feces and vomit at the end of such long overland trips," said Marshall Smith, a former Investigator for the USDA and now serving as Director of Investigations for In Defense of Animals (IDA). "In 1992, when I worked for the USDA, I was involved in an investigation in which I interviewed another Do Bo Tri driver for a similar incident that had occurred in Pennsylvania. Despite these atrocities, thousands of puppies are still being shipped each week to distant locations usually in dark, crowded and unmarked vehicles.

"Dealers" such as Do Bo Tri Kennels and their puppy mill suppliers are licensed and inspected by the USDA's "Animal Care" unit, which is a division of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Since Animal Care is only responsible for activities pursuant to the Animal Welfare Act and corresponding regulations, it is a relatively small division. According to USDA's Animal Welfare Report for fiscal year 1998, the field force consisted of 71 employees with an operating budget of a little over 9 million dollars. The report also discloses that field inspectors conducted 13,136 inspections, or 185 inspections per inspector roughly 15.5 inspections a month. USDA officials usually attribute shortcomings to insufficient funding rather than the mismanagement and lax enforcement their data indicate.

"Many travelers may be unaware that they are sharing the road with small puppies being shipped in substandard trucks and vehicles to pet stores and foreign locations," said Gretchen Hersman of the IDA Midwest Regional Office. "With many dying enroute, it is a chilling thought to think of the plight of these puppy mill dogs.The public needs to be made aware of this horrendous and ongoing abuse!"

Background information about IDA's Puppy Mill investigations and research