Puppy Mills - a Sad Tail

What are puppy mills? They are a business, normally established and ran by an individual or a couple. The purpose? To breed puppies for sale. All too often people get caught up in greed. Maybe it started with a household pet that pulled a thousand bucks from a litter then it expands to more breeding females until space and control require caging the animals. It is nothing less than imprisonment, all too often the sentence is for life, and what crime do this adorable canines commit for such a severe punishment? Love... They want to love and be loved by their human family.

Meet Maddie. Rescued by S.A.I.N.T. , (Saving Animals In Need Together), from a puppy mill located in the basement of an older couple. Maddie was 11 years old and spent her life in a small cage and living for the sole purpose of pumping out babies so her owners could make more money. Maddie was rescued recently by SAINT from the puppy mill in Salida Colorado and given to a foster home where she would learn not to fear the human hand and to feel something her long life had been missing, ... love. The goal was that she could be adopted into a loving family and spend the rest of her life in a peaceful and loving environment.

Maddie was not alone, according to Jerry and Diane Rineck, founders and directors of SAINT, Maddie along with 5 other females were breeders and spent their entire lives making puppies. Ark-Valley Humane Society who found out about the puppy mill told Jerry and Diane that these females were kept in small cages. When first rescued they could not walk as the muscles in their hind legs had atrophied and it took several weeks for them to be able to walk normally and some have still not fully recovered and stumble as they try to turn or walk fast. One of her breeder mates, Gracie, was 14 years old and died within 6 weeks of rescue.

Maddie was a beautiful Pomeranian and would have made someone a wonderful pet. On July 7 of this year, (2008) she was put up for adoption on the Saint Animal Rescue organizations website in hopes of finding her a home, but sadly this was not to be. On July 19, 2008 while at the veterinarians office to be spayed, they found cancer that had spread and she did not have long to live, so she was relieved of her misery.

During Maddie's 11 years of life, she had a few short weeks of kindness and love she never knew in the puppy mills. She was beginning to trust the human hand offered by her loving foster family where she learned that the human hand could be soft, warm, and loving. Something she should have had for her entire life.

Maddie's story touched the hearts and lives of many people who are involved with SAINT, and it is stories like hers that drives it's members and contributors to reach out and offer a loving hand to these poor animals whose only desire is to be loved and to give love in return. She was and is a beautiful Pomeranian and maybe her story will make a difference to some other animal thanks to organizations like SAINT and people like Jerry and Diane Rineck.