Truth1 -- I've read in a farm publication that the Farm Bureau and other livestock organizations contacted members of the Legislature about the importance of the livestock industry, BEFORE HSUS had announced what they would be talking about at their lobby day. The farm groups are smart to be cautious. In other states, HSUS typically builds a relationship with legislators with low-hanging fruit like dog fighting and puppy mills. It is not until later that they try to ban livestock practices. California and its Proposition 2 is a good example.

If you like PETA then you should also like HSUS. HSUS supports laws that are responsible for killing more animals. Both PETA and HSUS work together, believe it or not. Both believe in no animal ownership by people. It looks like people would support a no kill movement such as Nathan
Winograd. http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=907
My money goes to where I know it is to support an animal's life not its death.
Alex

Could be these Ag groups are concerned about what topics will be discussed after dealing with puppy mills and animal fighting. The article says lobbying day, not just a meeting.

Deborah, I know all about puppies, and I understand what you are saying about how the owner shapes what an animal will be like.
However, breed does play a factor in what the end result can be. If you research breeds, you will see that there can be certain tendancies in the breeds for certain behaviors.

ditto superdave!

I have just one clarification, and please bear with me, it's hard to witness the abuse of the English language without commenting. Animals do not have "rights". Only people have "rights". The term "animal rights" effectively dilutes the word "rights", which has specific meaning, especially in this country. Now for the haters out there, let me be plain - I am an animal lover, I generally have at least one or three running around the house. I detest animal cruelty. It is wrong in and of itself, but it is also can escalate to violence against people - if your kid loves to torture animals, you have a major problem. I also consume meat. It is my belief that animal protein is vital to human life. I know many vegetarians, and none has ever adequately explained their position to me.

One last thing to add to my previous post. Anytime you elevate the life of an animal above the life of a person I think your priorities are really screwed up. Animals were meant to serve us and not the other way around!

PETA, what a joke! They claim to protect animals. How do they explain that 95% of the animals left in their care were killed? That is quite alot of protecting. But they are animal right activists. Yeah right! I know what the comments are going to be right now, oh the animals were sick and we ended their suffering. What a load of, well you know. Farming is not an easy living and for the most part they do their best to treat their herd the best way they know how and do a very good job. I am positive if PETA took over their operation 95% of the herd would have their suffering ended!

PETA is not an extremist group, I can speak from experience, because I am an active member. The people who do "extremist" things in the name of PETA are not good representatives. Anytime I have participated in handing out pamphlets, or picketing something, we are told specifically to act polite, dress nice, to respect people, so that our message is not muddled with the rantings of lunatics. I honestly think the reason people dislike PETA so much, is because they assume the organization is against completely radical things, and beleive me some are. But for the majority, we are simply against common practices that most people would be horrified to know took place on a regular basis. Things are allowed to happen everyday in the farming industry (not by all of them, I understand that there are a great number of responsible, caring farmers) that your average everyday person has no idea about. They happen because it is the way it has always been. The farmers, most of them just huge factory farms, have been able to save money, by cutting corners with the care of their livestock. Basically it is impossible to keep that many animals, in "nice" conditions, if you want to have a profit. Whenever I tell people the stories, or show them the videos, they hardly can beleive it's true. I understand eating animals, and having them as pets is never going to go away, but the standards for how they are kept, and treated before they are turned into nourishment for us, needs to improve drastically. It may cost the farmers more, and I understand that will hurt income for a lot of hard working people, but if you are going to ask an animal that loves the sunshine as much as we do, and can feel pain the same as we do, to give it's entire existance up so that we can eat a cheeseburger, the least you can do is give it a good life before it does so. Things like not having to stand in it's own feces from the day it's born until it dies, not having to be processed into lunch meat while still alive because the gun failed, and be able to see the sky for one day in it's entire life. Who can possibly argue with that?

I like and support the humane society, but hate peta. peta is an extremeist group

I did not know petland was selling more then purebreds....I do know crossbreeds are popular. We got a boxer/rot from our neighbor (free) and I have had numerous people stop and ask me where I got him and what kind of dog he is. And I TOTALLY agree that what kind of owner you are is what makes a good dog or not!!! Kudos to that!

I agree that the article should have been longer with much more information

rickwantsmoney -- try reading some of the other posts made. YES some farmers are also operating puppy mills because there is money in it. You also have mills being operated that are not part of a "farming" operation.

Mikki -- it's not the fact that a dog is purebreed or a mix... The biggest determining factor of how good the dog turns out is the PERSON owning the dog. How well they treat the dog and how much work they put into training the dog. Puppies are similar to human babies in many ways. They do not come potty trained.. They chew when teething and will put anything they can get into their mouths. They do not automatically know what you want them to do. You have to teach your kids what you want them to do, be consistent with them and give them rules. The same applies to puppies.

schnckstac1... petland doesn't sell only purebreds. Designer dogs are very popular now and are crosses between two breeds. Cockapoos are a cross between cocker spaniels and poodles. Puggles, Snoodles, Peekapoos, etc are all mixed breeds and being sold at Pet Stores for outrageous amounts. These are mixed breeds and are not able to be registered through the AKC. You can have two puppies from the same litter that look nothing alike and that's because one more resembles the mother's breed and the other more resembles the father's breed. Mills are breeding these crosses as well. The Mills are out to make money and breed what is selling the best at the moment.

There are rescues for specific breeds of dogs as well as for mixed breeds. Humane Societies also frequently have pure bred dogs available for adoption. Dog's coming from these sources are much more reasonably priced and come up to date on vaccinations and already spayed or neutered.. Frequently microchipped as well.. Many are already housetrained.

Many dogs who are purchased regardless if pure or cross breed from pet stores often find themselves moving to another home, in rescue or in a shelter within a few months after they are purchased from a pet store. People buy them on impulse and frequently with plastic only soon to discover that a puppy is more work than they thought it would be so get rid of it.

This article looks like a jigsaw puzzle with a bunch of pieces gone. (Space limitation?) The Humane Society is lobbying against "puppy mills and animal fighting". (Both really, really bad things that definitely should be stopped.) What does that have to do with the Wisconsin Farm Bureau? Do the farmers have their cows fight each other at night when they're bored? Are they running puppy mills on the side to raise some extra cash? No.... Life just gets more confusing every day:)

Honestly, the best dog I have EVER had in my entire life came from the humane society. She was an awesome mixed breed.
People that I know that spend all sorts of money on purebreds? Well, some of their pooches are dumber than hair.

My wife and I sign the petition to shut down these puppy mills. Also, we had other people sign the petitions. By the time we were done we had close to 80 names for this cause. Just watch Animal Planet and see the conditions these puppy mills creat. It's just horrible.

If we could find a way to get people to understand that whether or not a dog is pure bred or not it makes them no more special then a dog who is not. Some of those dogs at Petland go for $500-$1,000. People are paying that kind of money for what? To feel special because their dog is a pure bred? It makes no sense to me! Even paying that kind of money to a private breeder who takes good care of their animals is ridiculous to me.

The problem is that some operations are licensed and do have periodic inspections perfomed. There are too few inspectors available to perform all the different places and the places know in advance that they have an upcoming inspection. They do some cleaning up just prior to the inspection and have been known to bring in semi trailers to load up many of the dogs on-site. When the inspection is over, the semi trailers are brought back and unloaded again.

Spend some time at this website http://www.petshoppuppies.org/ and be sure and check out the links called Puppy Mills and The Trip. There are Pictures of the "real" operations and conditions and videos.

Rescues and Humane Societies spend thousand of dollars trying to get these dogs as healthy as possible and then finding them loving forever homes.

It is known that at least two infected dogs HAVE BEEN sold at that auction and there are probably more.

deborah- Yes, and one of those sellers at that auction is known for selling dogs with BRUCELLOSIS..The way things are now, there is nothing to stop this person from doing this and this disease is TRANSFERRABLE TO HUMANS and each female dog that is bred by an infected male is likely to be infected too!!
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I wonder how the "Farm Bureau" feels about that.

Apparently the "Farm Bureau" doesn't know how to pay attention if they don't know the difference between legitimate farming and puppy mills.

There is a tie that exists between Amish Farmers and Puppy Mills. The Amish believe dogs to be livestock. There are Dogs from Amish Mills acutioned off twice a year in Thorp, WI. Last one was just a couple of weeks ago. Nightline had a feature on the Amish Puppy Mills just last Friday night.

Dog who have genetic problems are bred and bred everytime they come in heat. It's all about the money they can generate and regardless of what claims Pet Land makes.. the puppies they sell come from Mills.

Indys- The article says "puppy mills and animal fighting", not anything else.

I think HSUS and PETA do many good things in the name of animal neglect and abuse, but I think the article is referring to their efforts to stop abuse on "factory farms," not puppy mills. Unfortunately, these organizations are giving local small-time farmers a bad rap.

I have known and grown up with area farmers that are very compassionate and really do care for their animals because they are valuable assets.

Factory farms, on the other hand, are notorious for animal abuse and pollution. They mechanically and methodically raise and mass-slaughter animals to turn a profit as quickly as possible, sometimes with and utter disregard for the well-being of the animal itself. In my opinion, this is mass-exploitation of life.

Unfortunately people don't always know or think about where their food is actually coming from. As an animal lover, I was shocked to find out how poorly factory farms treat both their animals AND their workers when I did a research project recently for school.

In my opinion, the best solution is to support local farmers/economy, and buy organically when possible to sustain the environment!

If people that don't like PETA or HSUS would jump in and help get rid of puppy mills, they could probably get rid of a lot of PETA and HSUS activity around here too.

I think the definition of "humane" demonstrates why all treatment of animals - whether related to puppy mills, fighting, on farms, or even consuming - applies to the article no matter which organizations are promoting greater concern and better care. "Humane: A. adjective: 1. humane -showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement; 2. humane - marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering; 3. humanist, humanistic, humane- pertaining to or concerned with the humanities; "humanistic studies"; "a humane education"

I can see why some mey get worried. There has been many cases about the cruelty to horses on farms. I think there was a big one here a few years back where the horses were starved to death. Maybe this has something to do with it. It might also have something to do with how animals are treated on farms before they get to our plate. I know that shouldn't matter to some, but not all farms are clean in what they do to our food.
As for the puppy mills.....that is awful and deserves to be protested! Anyone who has bought a dog from Petland has helped them stay alive. I know about 10 people who have done this, and every one of the dogs have ended up getting sick soon after they bought them (for a very high price). One of them died. I am sure this has a lot to do with the conditions the dogs were born into. It is a very cruel and sad thing.

mespl, the Human Society of the United States is not connected to local humane societies such as the Rock County Humane Society. It's a relatively new organization with an explicit animal-rights agenda that is close to PETA. This puts it in conflict with animal farmers.
http://www.hsus.org/
http://www.hsus.org/farm/
(Read their site, make up your own mind.)
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Most local humane societies focus on deliberate cruelty rather than the entire concept of farm animals. Not all of them are happy with being associated with the broader agenda of the HSUS.

mespl- I don't know why you would get "negative comments" to that, its the truth and quite clear to see for anyone that wants to.

mespl - EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!

I am sure that I will get negative responses to this comment but I am a little confused about how the two sides that the story discusses are related. The Humane Society is trying to stop puppy mills and dog fighting. ” The Humane Society's Jill Fritz says her group will talk to lawmakers about puppy mills and animal fighting.” What in the world dose that have to do with the farming community. Last I checked we did not farm puppies for milk or meat. If anyone can clarify this please let me know. Just to clarify I do eat meat and I do believe in farming so please don’t attack me for the comment I just don’t understand the correlation between these two.

Mixing "animal rights" with attempts to stop puppy mills and animal fighting is just ridiculous.

There is a HUGE HUGE difference between "animal rights" people and people that just want to stop puppy mills and animal fighting.

Criticize PETA for being a NONPROFIT business with promoters? The meat industry is a gigantic FOR PROFIT business making its profit off of living beings, the limited resources of our planet, and your health. The meat producers have far more paid lobbyists and others financially invested in continuing inhumane treatment of livestock wreaking havoc on the environment through "industrial farming" and people seeking to influence governmental decisions promoting American over-consumption of meat than PETA could ever dream of. There are many hidden costs to factory farming whose issues continue to be debated including the efficiency of food production; animal welfare; biodiversity, feeding the growing global human population; the adverse environmental impact and the health risks not only upon animals but upon the consuming public as well.

PETA is a business. Some of those people you see on the front pages of newspapers are paid protesters. A few months ago in Davenport Ia was a PETA protester from Louisville Ky. Her myspace page listed some of the cities she traveled for protest, and listed in her past work experience was ACORN.

wow, that's fresh Rocky. Never heard that one before. especially not on any bumpers in Rock County.

I belong to PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals).

I'm not sure that using Pajamas Media as a source is very credible. It leans farther right than Fox News. "Joe the Plumber" works as a correspondent for them. (Fact....no joke) Now there's a respected journalist!

PETA, nothing more than an organization that uses animals to raise money, read all about it
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/petas-pet-s...