Heartbroken

This morning while getting ready for work I heard something on the radio that disturbed me. Hickman County authorities are treating and evaluating close to 700 animals from what appeared to a puppy mill. This is the largest bust ever in Tennessee. I was so sad to hear this news, but didn't really think anything of it. That was until I heard another reporter state that it was in Lyles, TN. I immediately dropped my mascara and ran to find Chloe's papers. I found the name of the lady who sold her to us on her papers and typed it into Google. I almost threw up when I saw her name attached to the headline. What's even worse, she had been arrested before for the same thing. Not only did this lady run one huge puppy mill, but authorities also found horses, birds, cats, you name it. As I continue to investigate, I also found that she was featured on Dateline! I am still so heartbroken. I looked over at our little Chloe playing in the floor and tried to imagine what she had gone through before we got her.

I want to let you know that I am also furious! We paid money to this spineless lady which keep her inhumane "business" going. Clint and I tried so hard to avoid this very thing. We searched the papers looking for the dog we wanted and called numerous places. If we got a bad vibe on the phone, we just said we weren't interested. We even met someone in a parking lot to "look" at their dogs. We both felt these dogs were from puppy mills, so we left. From our research, we learned that most dogs that were sold to pet stores were from puppy mills. So, we didn't purchase from there either.

We found Patricia's ad in the Tennessean. She led us to believe we would be picking up the dog from her house. We drove all the way to Dickson and waited around the town until she called us back. She gave us some excuse like she had to clean up the puppies and she lived far out, so it would be easier if we met her right off the exit. We discussed it and since we had already made the trip down there and pretty much had our hearts set on a puppy, we decided to go ahead and meet her...without seeing the parents. Yes, that was our huge mistake. However, she had papers, food supply, and medicine for us. We felt reassured by that. She even had the nerve to say that we should call her if we had any problems because she really "cares about the health of her puppies!" What a lie! She totally had us snowed.

We found in our research that it is often hard to know whether or not you are buying from a puppy mill, but it did give some clues. We learned that money is the sole reason people practice this illegal act. Thinking about the poor female dogs who stay pregnant for most of their life makes me sick!

I guess the only thing that consoles me is that we saved Chloe from a bad situation. Even though, I cannot help but feel we also contributed to the mill. I wouldn't trade Chloe for anything because we really do love her. I just pray for all those other animals that were left in the horrible conditions. I really hope Patricia finally gets what is coming to her!

http://www.wkrn.com/global/story.asp?s=8553504
Click on the video to the right of the story to see pictures of their conditions.