Puppy Mills & Green Center Spaces

I didn't want to mess up the thread about what we should do as a community... but I do want to get your opinions on this

I know that most of you don't really care about my stance on Puppy Mills and Green Spaces but these are symptoms of a bigger questions....

Puppy Mills is a symptom of lack of enforcement of the laws already on the books... as well as the BOCC putting off the writing of the stiffer penalties that would allow enforcement to do their job. Was this the BOCC's way to placate the voters into thinking they really give a **** about the needs that the voters bring to them? The BOCC asked the General Assembly for the ability to make stronger ordinances when a horse was mauled and it was in the paper everyday.... then they sat on it.....

The Green Space is a symptom of the building of strip malls in District 1 while they argued over a trailer at the Walmart for 2 hours. It's a symptom of the BOCC selling us one thing and delivering another. It's a symptom of them saying they will have monthly update meetings and then stopping them when the meetings didn't turn out to be the nice-calm-low-turn-out meetings they usually have on Tuesdays.

I bring these things up because the details are important....

I don't like government controlled by today's hot topics. If government says they are going to do something... then they should do it.... right?

[Sharon]

Catchy title!

If government says they are going to do something... then they should do it.... right?

Only if it is the will of the majority of the people.

[cattitude]

I know you have talked about puppy mills before and maybe I missed it. What do you classify as a puppy mill?

Originally Posted by Sharon

Catchy title!

Only if it is the will of the majority of the people.

Got it from you....

Originally Posted by cattitude

I know you have talked about puppy mills before and maybe I missed it. What do you classify as a puppy mill?

Puppy Mills generally have a number of dogs, the they breed over and over and over and over and over again... selling the puppies for profits with little or no regard for the animal or the breed....

If you go to this link it gives a better description.

[cattitude]

Originally Posted by residentofcre

Puppy Mills generally have a number of dogs, the they breed over and over and over and over and over again... selling the puppies for profits with little or no regard for the animal or the breed....

If you go to this link it gives a better description.

I know what a puppy mill is, I was wondering what your definition is.

We seem to have a lot of "brokers" in Southern Maryland...some advertise right here on the classifieds. They can get any kind of puppy you want. We also have breeders who aren't really puppy mills but are not responsible breeders. Another thing that should be addressed are the people selling puppies on the side of the road across from and at the market in Charlotte Hall.

I'm not sure what you can do about the above practices except educate people about buying dogs but as long as you have people willing to purchase the "designer" pups or buy on impulse or for less money, you're fighting a losing battle.

Originally Posted by cattitude

I know what a puppy mill is, I was wondering what your definition is.

We seem to have a lot of "brokers" in Southern Maryland...some advertise right here on the classifieds. They can get any kind of puppy you want. We also have breeders who aren't really puppy mills but are not responsible breeders. Another thing that should be addressed are the people selling puppies on the side of the road across from and at the market in Charlotte Hall.

I'm not sure what you can do about the above practices except educate people about buying dogs but as long as you have people willing to purchase the "designer" pups or buy on impulse or for less money, you're fighting a losing battle.

Unfortunately, that was pretty much what was said when I brought the puppy mill question up before. Unfortunately, it's true....

What I'm really disgusted about is the fact that the laws we have on the books aren't enforced by the courts and when they are enforced, the consequences are so minimal that it's a cost of doing business. Someone said that animals are property and it's extremely difficult to take someone's property. Animal Control officers see horrible things... and there is little they can do to the people that allow these horrible acts to occur.

What disgusts me is there was a reason that the General Assembly allowed the County the authority to put some real teeth in the laws concerning animals and even when a man was mauled to death by his daughter's dogs, the only action taken by the BOCC was to investigate banning one breed of dog.

Why didn't they act on the action they asked the General Assembly to clear the way for them to do? They put it on the back burner again.

I want some action.... and just because it's not in the papers today... another horse is going to mauled or another person is going to be hurt and if they follow the precedent they set, they will simply say... "Oh isn't that awful. We should ban that breed"

[czygvtwkr]

Originally Posted by residentofcre

Puppy Mills generally have a number of dogs, the they breed over and over and over and over and over again... selling the puppies for profits with little or no regard for the animal or the breed....

If you go to this link it gives a better description.

As far as regard for the animals I do care about that. Mistreatment of animals is bad.

As far as regard for the breed, I find this as a "snooty" statement made by breeders that want you to buy their dogs because they think they are superior (and charge more).

I think alot of the puppy mill talk is from breeders that don't like competition from someone else.

Originally Posted by czygvtwkr

As far as regard for the animals I do care about that. Mistreatment of animals is bad.

As far as regard for the breed, I find this as a "snooty" statement made by breeders that want you to buy their dogs because they think they are superior (and charge more).

I think alot of the puppy mill talk is from breeders that don't like competition from someone else.

Actually... there was one in my neighborhood... I didn't even know they existed until then. They're gone now... but I would like to make sure that they don't come back....

Sad really...

Personally, I think the voters should get together and stone the politicians who are stammering around ranting about "green spaces" and "puppy mills" while there are much bigger issues they should be focused on. These types of things just serve as what Ross Perot used to call "gorilla dust" (i.e., the dirt that gorillas throw at each other during a fight to blind and distract their opponent).

You want to fix puppy mills? Tell the Sheriff to enforce the laws or you'll use a part of his funding to find someone who will be more dilligent. If you're spending more than that five minute call on puppy mills you're screwing up. As for green spaces, GET OVER IT! You can spend days and weeks "blamestorming" why you didn't get your promised green space, and in the end even if you did get the developer to come through it would probably be a minimal effort that would look like crap. Plus you'ld probably have years or legal wrangling over who was suppossed to maintain it. You're better off letting it go, learning from the experience, and moving on to real issues like affordable housing and crappy schools.