I don’t even know what to say…. 5 years ago was our very first protest in front of Dyvig’s Pet Shoppe. It was my first protest ever. I was scared as hell and had no idea what to expect. It was chilly, it was spitting rain and we were not sure what would happen. We had a larger group join us, as we did quite often back then and we (of course) faced a lot of anger from Dale, the store owner by way of shouting and threats to sue us. ‘Bailing Out Benji‘ was only 6 months old, but our passion was truly ignited that day.

In 2011, when these protests first began, Dale Dyvig was quoted by a local newspaper saying that “We are trying to get along the best we can,”  (due to the protester’s presence) and  “I’m not sure what they want, but I get to be the victim.”. To this day, Dyvig stands by his choice to use Century Farm Puppies and New Design Kennels as their puppy supplier- even though they have a history of having hundreds of dogs on their property and a history of violations. This is the third pet store that Dyvig has owned, while buying from the same two puppy mills, and he still doesn’t see that the parent dogs are the victims– which is why we are still there.  The breeders each currently have over 150 dogs on their property (which has dropped down from over 450 dogs in recent years).

Fast forward five years and we have been in front of this particular store for over 1,000 hours in the last five years (that is 60,000 minutes!!)- not to mention the other two Iowa protests and the protests across the country we helped inspire and coach. Our organization put up the first puppy mill PSAs in Iowa (on three bus ads), we have an ongoing puppy mill billboard just blocks from Dyvig’s AND we have two big things coming to Texas soon. We have also seen the number of puppy mills in Iowa go from over 450 to just over 220 in the last 5 years. This is, in large part, due to increased public awareness about the puppy mill industry! 

Over the years our “fight” against this local pet store has moved away from the sidewalk into the courthouse, so to speak. While there has never been a lawsuit against Bailing Out Benji or its volunteers (because everything we say is 100% backed up with facts), Dale Dyvig has tried at least twice to prevent us from doing our civic duty. The first came in February of 2014, just 4 months after our first two puppy mill PSAs became live here in Ames. It turns out, Dale had been contacting the CyRide (Bus) board every month in hopes of getting our ad removed because he claimed it “directly targeted his store”. After so much harassment, the board finally voted to have the issue put on the agenda for their next meeting. A few volunteers and I stated our case as to why we chose to have our ad here in Ames and why we worded it the way we did. If you aren’t familiar with our bus ad, here it is: 

After 3 hours of debate and discussion, we were allowed to keep our bus ads up! It wasn’t because we were “right” however… It was because Dyvig let two puppy mill owners speak for him and they were less than professional. Nancy Carlson of New Design Kennels actually accused us of having invisible drones flying over her property daily (which prompted a snicker from all of the businessmen on the CyRide board) and Rob Hurd, mill owner who had his license revoked and was given a hefty fine, accused us of being political activists who want to end all animal ownership. Hurd also said he would go right down to the bus barn right then and “fix” our sign for the bus company, which caused several board members to tell him to calm down and they reminded him that vandalism is a serious crime. After that circus and all of our examples of other ads put up across the country (animal related and non), we were allowed to keep our bus ads going! And, to this day, you will see them rolling across town on two huge buses! 

The second (third and fourth…) time Dale Dyvig tried to drastically change what we do and how we do it is when he started a petition to the city council to inflict harsh regulations on protesting. He literally had a few hundred friends, family and customers sign a petition asking the city council to make us protesting his store illegal. When he presented his petition to the Ames City Council, he had insane regulations including: no out of state protesters (later changed to them needing their own permit), signs had to be small, no umbrellas, no dogs, no children under 18 (later changed it to 10), and he wanted us to have to pay for a monthly permit. This made the news, and once it was time for the city council to hear the case, they voted unanimously to uphold the first amendment and not look into this issue any further. 

So yes, a lot has happened in the last five years between us and Dyvig’s Pet Shoppe… But what he fails to see is that this issue has always been bigger than him versus us.  Our volunteers work tirelessly every single day to raise awareness about the puppy mill industry, not just this one pet store. 

Moving past the store, the last 5 years have been a whirlwind for Bailing Out Benji. Here are a few of the “highlights”. 

Perhaps the biggest thing to have happened to us over the last 5 years is being  featured in the Dog by Dog documentary, which is set to come out everywhere in early 2017. From being filmed, to being lucky enough to travel with the documentary crew and bring this film to almost 10,000 people in various screenings across the country, we have helped groups from all over the country find their voice and start peaceful protests of their own! 

If you don’t already, please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!

As you know, we are a small nonprofit based primarily out of the Midwest. So how, might you ask, did a pet store all the way in Sayville, New York catch our attention enough to merit an article?

Well, this Little Wonders Puppy Emporium made the grave mistake of not only buying puppies from horrible puppy mills here in the Midwest, but they actually accused our nonprofit organization of paying people to protest outside of their store. Every weekend… 1,179 miles away. Since we are so interesting to them, we thought we would look a little deeper into the puppy mills they proudly support. Unsurprisingly, we were appalled at the lies the store owners tell their customers just to make a profit. We hope to expose the store and its puppy mill suppliers, while educating their future customers about where to humanely obtain their next pet. If you are in the Sayville area, please reach out to the wonderful ladies at Puppy Mill Free Long Island NY and they can help you find a pet to adopt! 

When it comes to exposing puppy mills and the pet stores they sell to, Suffolk County NY  made our jobs awfully easy by requiring all pet stores to prominently display which USDA licensed breeders pet stores are buying from. So our goal with this article is to help potential customers do their research BEFORE buying a puppy mill puppy.  Since Little Wonders Puppy Emporium isn’t picky and buys from A LOT of puppy mills, we thought it was best to organize them by state. 

What would drive a pet store to buy from puppy mills that are over 1,300 miles away? What would make them think that puppies sitting in a cramped, dark van for over 21 hours is a good idea? The only answer is cost. LWPE is getting a heck of a deal by buying puppies from so far away. Pet stores generally buy puppies for $25-$50 a piece and sell them for thousands. Please keep in mind that these puppies are taken away from their mothers and siblings too early, thrown into kennels and driven thousands of miles just to be sold in a pet store. Sadly, many of these puppies come to Little Wonders (and other out of state pet stores) very ill because of those very reasons.

Here are the *known* puppy mills that Little Wonders Puppy Emporium has purchased from in the past. 

OKLAHOMA — From here it takes the puppies between 21 and 23 hours to leave each breeder just to sit in a pet store cage. 

Jeff Adams/Adams Kennel  Durant, OK 74701 USDA 73-A- 2670 … 35 adult dogs. Time it takes for puppies to get to the store:  23 hours, 47 minutes . 

Karen Buffalohead KCZ Amazing Pets Langley OK 74350 USDA 73-B- 1843 …. 12 adult dogs. 21 hours, 30 minutes to the store. 

Cindy Johnson Purple Rose Kennel  Jay OK 74346 USDA 73-A- 2169… 17 adult dogs. 21 hours, 33 minutes from breeder to store. 

SOUTH DAKOTA — It takes 21 hours, 56 minutes from this breeder to the pet store. 

Calvin Kroger/Kroger Kennel Hudson, SD 57034 USDA 46-A- 0420… 23 adult dogs. pet store. 

MINNESOTA— These puppies ride over 21 hours to get to the pet store.

Angeline Mc Duffee AJ’s Angels Cushing MN 56443 USDA 41-A- 0484 *Formerly known as Wanda Kretzman of Clearwater Kennel 3/9/2016 she cancelled license. Same day daughter-in-law obtained license for the very same kennel… 594 adult dogs, 402 puppies .  This is one of the worst puppy mills in the entire country. 

Justin Sawyer Backus MN 56435 USDA 41-A- 0482 … 70 adult dogs, 61 puppies

ARKANSAS—  It takes the puppies over 21 hours to get to the store. 

Judy Willis  Jasper, AR 72641 USDA 71-A- 0992… 33 adult dogs.

Jonathan Miller Huntsville, AR 72740 USDA 71-A- 1257… 28 adult dogs. 

Charles & Susan Delozier C&T Kennels  Green Forest, AR 72638 USDA 71-A- 0995… 24 adults dogs.

IOWA— It takes 21 hours for these puppies to travel from Iowa puppy mills to Little Wonders Puppy Emporium

Colleen Ries/Wishbone Kennels Ryan, IA 52330 USDA 42-A- 0950… 36 adult dogs. Noteworthy violations: Dogs with open and untreated wounds on legs

J.A.K.S Puppies  Britt IA 50423 USDA 42-B- 0271 (Broker). 97 puppies. 

MISSOURI— It takes 19 hours from puppy mill to pet store. 

Carol Hyatt /Shangrila Kennel LLC Fredericktown, MO 63645 USDA 43-A- 5630… 10 adult dogs. 

Alisa Breedlove/Breedloves Unique Kennel Waynesville, MO 65583 USDA 43-A- 4023 … 80 adult dogs. To see more footage of her kennel click here. 

Sherri GillumUnionville, MO 63565 USDA 43-B- 3701… 54 adult dogs, 30 puppies

Randall & Sheree Bonnette Chillicothe, MO 64601 USDA 43-A- 2151… 80 adult dogs

Josie & Paul Swartzentruber Buffalo, MO 65622 USDA 43-A- 4184… 13 adults dogs.

Allison Hedgpeth/Lonewolf Kennel Iberia, MO 65486 USDA 43-B- 3435… 47 adult dogs.

Bill & Mona Paulson Prairieview Kennel  Washburn, MO 65772 USDA 43-A- 2974 … 102 adult dogs, 41 puppies

David Miller  Oronogo, MO 64855 USDA 43-A- 5221… 149 adult dogs, 58 puppies. 

SOBRAD LLC/Pinnacle Pet Neosho, MO 64850 USDA 43-B- 3750 & 43-T- 0063 (Broker) … 353 puppies

Hunte Corporation Goodman, MO 64843 USDA 43-B- 0123 (Broker)… Upwards of 1000 puppies. Here is a video exposing where the Hunte Corporation gets their puppies. 

But after all of this, Little Wonders Puppy Emporium not only stands proudly by their breeders, but they claim they only use breeders with no violations (which is very untrue and easily fact checked).

Because of this, a group of concerned Sayville citizens have been protesting outside of Little Wonders Puppy Emporium every weekend since March of 2015. The protests started before the store officially opened, to raise awareness about the issue. After, two of the women chose to have a sit-down meeting with the owner, Frank DiStefano and tried to educate him about the puppy mill issue. After asking him to consider going humane and ending the sale of puppies in his store, Frank said, “It would never happen” and the two groups went on their separate ways.  Since the protests started in Sayville NY outside Little Wonders Puppy Emporium, the protesters have assisted over a dozen consumers with the adoption process instead of them purchasing puppies. They’ve shared with consumers: petfinder.com, breed specific rescues and for those that insisted upon buying, they’ve even taken the time to research true, responsible breeders. 

While it is so hard for pet store owners to stop asking “why me” and see the bigger picture, this is about putting an end to puppy mills; not ending all breeding and not ending pet ownership. And while DiStefano and other pet store owners insist on profiting off of the suffering of thousands of adult dogs, groups like Bailing Out Benji and Puppy Mill Free Long Island NY will be out there educating current, past and future customers. 

How can you help?

Call Little Wonders Puppy Emporium 

(631) 244-7877 …  If you feel strongly enough (and are brave enough), contact the owner this way. Ask him directly about the puppies and the welfare of the  parent dogs.  We do not want to see a local business close down, instead we want the owner to choose a more humane business model by  either not selling puppies at all, or choosing to help shelter dogs instead! 

Contact Little Wonders on Facebook

Share this article on their wall, tag their store, do whatever you can to raise awareness about this store and their connection to known puppy mills. Here is their page. 

Visit the protesters on the weekend! 

Whether you join them and hold a sign, or just drive by to honk- your support means the world to the girls who are giving their voices to the dogs that have none. 

THIS NEXT PART GOES FOR EVERYONE, IN EVERY CITY, IN EVERY STATE

Don’t give your business to pet stores that sell puppies and kitties. Pet overpopulation is a terrible problem in our country and only the consumers can help change that. If you are looking for a new pet PLEASE visit your local shelter. Over 35% of dogs in shelters are purebred, they are just overlooked. If you can’t find what you are looking for at your local shelter, please try Petfinder It is a tremendously helpful site! You can search for ANY BREED, anywhere. And don’t forget, if you are looking to buy a puppy, ALWAYS demand to #ShowMeTheMommy! 

— Mindi 

Founder/President of Bailing Out Benji

Editors Note: Little Wonders Puppy Emporium is nothing special. Pet stores across the country are buying puppies from out of state mills and passing them off as “local, respectable breeders”. Iowa alone exports over 100,000 puppies annually to pet stores across the country. This is a very inhumane business model that pet stores have adopted to make a quick buck. Help us put an end to this industry! If you see puppies in the store, WALK OUT THE DOOR! And always shop at humane pet stores that don’t sell animals! Together, we will put an end to this industry. 

There are over 10,000 puppy mills across the United States. Some of them are licensed, some of them aren’t; but almost all of them sell site unseen through websites, forums and Craigslist.

Translation: The internet is full of puppy mills…. Don’t believe me? Google “puppies for sale near me”. Go ahead. I will wait….

What websites popped up?

Various Breeders? PuppyFind.com ? Oodle.com? Hoobly.com? NextDayPets.com?

These are all forums for puppy mills to hock their products. By products, I really mean puppies… But puppy mills don’t view puppies (or dogs for that matter) as living, breathing souls. They see them as money, as a cash crop. We are starting a new educational series “Buyer Beware”, where we focus on exposing online puppy mills as just that. Fancy websites that are a front for a very cruel and inhumane industry. Not only will this educate a few people about how easy it is for puppy mills to lie, BUT anytime anyone searches for these breeders in particular, our articles will pop up 🙂 And hopefully catch a few more potential puppy buyers. 

(*cough*… Puppy Mills…. *cough*….)

For our first edition of “Buyer Beware” we wanted to start close to home and we wanted to start by showing how easy it is to get wrapped up in the puppy mill world when trying to add a new furry friend to your family. In this day and age, the internet is where we go to for everything. Movie times, restaurants, news, weather…. So why not use it to find an adorable new puppy? The general public doesn’t know the rules of buying from a reputable breeder; getting on a list, visiting the parents, contracts, etc. What they do know is that it is easy to click, buy and ship. So I started from the beginning. 

In less than a minute I was given 465,000 results. That is a lot of information to click through, especially for someone who just really wants to buy a puppy. So, for good measure, I clicked on a few breeders that appeared on the first two pages. 

I found Century Farm Puppies, Coldwater Kennel and Cuddles and Snuggles Place…. Let’s start by talking about what these pages have in common. 

√  Pictures of cute puppies (in front of blankets/tarps) 

√ Health guarantee

√ Offer to ship 

√ USDA License

√ Far away photos/Descriptions of their perfect farms 

It sounds perfect! Those puppies all looks so adorable AND the breeders take all major credit cards. What more could a person want? 

Well… Here is what they aren’t showing you. 

You see. Legally, these puppy mills don’t have to disclose their actual number of dogs to potential buyers. In fact, they can keep you as far away from the property as they want (which is why they offer to ship or meet you halfway!) Now think back to those fancy websites… What didn’t they show you? Photos of the actual parents!! You get so swept up in seeing the pictures of adorable puppies, that you don’t give a second thought to the parent dogs! 

Actual photos of dogs from Coldwater Kennel. In the metal kennel to the right are actual boxes the mothers are kept in.  Follow this link to see a video from inside Coldwater Kennel.

Now lets look at some of the red flags on those websites. 

√ Offer to ship/meet off site

√ Breeder sells lots of different breeds

√ Cuddles and Snuggles says right on their site that they are “not responsible for any Bills including Medical Bills  and Vet. Bills incurred by the purchaser of the dog”. 

√ Always has puppies available for sale

√ Accepts all major credit cards 

√ Century Farm Puppies admittedly sells their “cheap” dogs to a pet store in Ames. We have also exposed their puppy mill before.

√ Inspected and in good standing with the state/USDA

On top of the things they aren’t showing you and the numerous red flags, lets not forget the very lax rules that USDA inspected kennels are required to follow: 

-Inspections are “Risk-based,” meaning that facilities that meet a certain criteria are inspected “as seldom as once every 2 to 3 years.”
-Cage size: must be 6 inches larger than the size of the dog, on all sides
-Up to 12 dogs can be housed in one cage
-Dogs never have to be let out of their cages. Breeders only need to have an exercise plan
-There is no limit to the number dogs a breeder can have—many have over 1,000
-There is no age limit for breeding dogs. If a dog is able to produce puppies for ten years, that’s how long they could be in the facility.

For more information, click here.

So how can you avoid a puppy mill? 

1. Consider adoption first.There are thousands of puppies and adult dogs who are waiting their forever home in your local shelter or rescue! Petfinder.com is a fantastic resource. 
2. Find a responsible breeder and visit the premises. #ShowMeTheMommy is our rule! Always always always demand to see the parent dogs. 
3. Absolutely DO NOT “rescue” a puppy mill puppy by buying him.If you are visiting a breeder and you disagree with anything that you see, RUN don’t WALK away and make sure to contact us! 
4. Don’t get a puppy from a pet store. Ever. Pet store Puppies ARE puppy mill puppies! 
5. Don’t fall for “USDA” licensed or “AKC” registered. Those aren’t safety blankets and those breeders can absolutely be puppy mills. 
6. Do your part: Help us educate about puppy mills! Share our mission and educate your friends, family and coworkers! 

Stay tuned for the next edition in our Buyer Beware chronicles! Until then, don’t forget to check out our facebook page and stay update on all that we do to help the dogs trapped in puppy mills. 

And don’t forget… A little bit of investigation can go a long way.