PICTURES FROM A PUPPYMILL

WARNING - The pictures below are NOT for the faint of heart, nor those with a weak stomach...

The pictures below were taken the week of March 11th to March 15, 2009, of the infamous "Snugglebunnies" Puppy Mill in Oregon, right before the majority of the dogs were removed. However, the owner has been allowed to keep possibly 20 to 30 of the dogs, and we suspect that many of these are Shibas.

This person would place ads in newspapers, including the Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Area papers, and then meet puppy buyers in parking lots to drop off the pups. MANY times, these pups were underage and extremely sickly. But before the buyers realized this, the puppy miller was long-gone, with cash in hand.

I am posting these pictures in the hope of stopping Mills like this. PLEASE, do NOT buy ANY puppy through a newspaper or internet ad, nor from a pet store (pet stores DO get thier "stock" from Puppy Mills...) Be very careful of "breeders websites" on the internet as well, and look for any "red flags": breeders selling multiple (4 or more) breeds, breeding stock that is not AKC registered (AKC is the "real deal" in America), breeders that will take credit cards (looking for a quick sale, without regard to the dogs), etc - the list goes on and on. Ask to see the health clearances (eye, hip and knees) on BOTH parents... If in question, ask another breeder (or me) to look at the site and offer thier opinion.

You can see how skinny some of these dogs are...

Below are the "Shibas" that have been recovered, with a little bit about them. As these dogs were pooping hay for the first few days, we believe that hay is all they had eaten for some time... (As you can see, these are NOT the only shibas that were at this Puppy Mill - where are the rest of them?)

Sugar is a cream female.  She has a severe skin problem going on and is skinny.  She is scared and hides behind Honey

Honey is a light red female.  She is in poor health with her ribs showing, scars on her, and what appears to be a severe skin allergy.

Update 3-16: Honey has every parasite.  Hook, whip, round worms, shells of tape, demodex and is anemic.  The rest of the blood work will be back tomorrow.  The vet thinks she's between 1 to 1 1/2 year old.. 

Half and Half (we couldn't help it after Honey and Sugar) is a Shiba mix, female.  She appears to be okay health wise but sleeps a lot more then the others. I'm not ruling out that she's pregnant until vetted.  She is scared and hides behind the others in a group.

Pinto is our very special boy, Shiba mix that we are worried about.  He is very traumatized and depressed because of all this change of the only life he knew. I ended up crating him because he was jumping into the window numerous times.  In addition he is so scared he tried to escape our yard.  When crated he is comfortable.  This morning he ate and drank for the first time.  He hadn't eaten since Thursday night (if even then)

Will (The Power of Choosing) is the largest red male mix. He is the alpha in the pack.  He has a healed but dented gash on his front, cut on nose, and one ear is missing about 1/4 of it and the other the tip.  He stays close to watch us lead his pack but we also have been blessed getting a smile or two out of him. 

Trust/Puppy is a red male Shiba mix puppy who wants love and trusts us.  He seems okay by appearance and I'm sure he can make a recovery.