800 Dogs in a Mobile Home

I'm sure many of you have read the stories about the 800 small dogs seized from a mobile home in Arizona. If you've seen the pictures, you might have had the same reaction to them that I did, "Wow, they look really good!"

However, I'm confused by the way this story has been told in the media. There seems to be a lot of sympathy for the elderly couple who were breeding these dogs. The stories have mentioned a hoarding problem and that the couple "meant well but became overwhelmed".

While I do have great sympathy for those who suffer from the condition of hoarding, I don't believe that it applies to this case. Hoarders usually have an underlying belief that no one else can care for the animals they have and that they have no choice but to hold on to them. Hoarding is all about holding on, sometimes even after the animal has died.

These people were breeding puppies on purpose for profit. They were not overwhelmed by increasing puppy populations due to a lack of resources to have the dogs spayed and neutered. They had the resources to maintain a website and ship puppies to buyers. They were choosing to have more puppies in order to sell them. Where in this story does anyone find that the couple "meant well"?

I'm stunned by the lack of outrage that dogs were found a dozen to a crate with paws missing due to attacks and getting them stuck in outside fences. Several of the dogs died on the way to the shelter, others had to be euthanized immediately. The fact that these dogs looked okay, were not emaciated or excessively filthy, doesn't excuse the way in which these dogs had to live so that their owners could make money.

Why was this story presented as that of overwhelmed hoarders instead of a puppy mill? Is it simply because the people involved were elderly?

I don't buy it. The intention was profit at the expense of the well-being of not a few, but a massive number of dogs. Overwhelmed? Out of hand? Perhaps at 25, 50 or even 100 dogs who were being kept because the owners believed they were the only ones who could care for them. But 800 dogs with many giving birth as they were being siezed and a website for selling the puppies? Nope, uh-uh, no way.

Charges have not yet been filed as the investigation continues. I sincerely hope that the investigation will be treated as that of a for-profit puppy mill, not that of a couple of overwhelmed do-gooders who couldn't help themselves.