In early February, Grosenbacher’s auction brought in $132,000, while Hughes notched his biggest sales revenue ever, taking in more than $600,000. “And I think there are malicious, lying, cheating rescues that are in it for the money and the glory and the funding.” “I honestly think there are very good, responsible rescues that just love the dogs and want to get them out of the breeding industry,” Hughes says. Hughes says he sees those types of rescuers at Southwest, too, but also those who use auction purchases to rake in huge online donations. Jolene Roper takes two German shepherds for a walk at National Mill Dog Rescue in Peyton, Colo., on March 9. and Missouri Departments of Agriculture and open to the public. As the last remaining government-licensed auctions, they let buyers and sellers see hundreds of dogs at a time and are a legal part of the country’s puppy supply chain. Southwest originated in Wheaton, Mo., in 1988, and Heartland was founded in Cabool, Mo., in 2003, as a marketplace for breeders. The majority of the $2.68 million The Post documented was spent since 2013 at Southwest Auction Service, the biggest commercial dog auction in the country, with some additional spending at its smaller, only remaining competitor, Heartland Sales. “That breeder is going to make thousands of dollars off that if he breeds her every cycle,” Dimon said. JoAnn Dimon, director of Big East Akita Rescue in New Jersey, says that buying breeding-age dogs not only cuts into overbreeding but also makes it harder for commercial breeders to profit in the long run. “There are very good, responsible rescues that just love the dogs … and I think there are malicious, lying, cheating rescues that are in it for the money.”īob Hughes, owner of Southwest Auction Service, the biggest commercial dog auction in the country My opinion is that if people are willing to donate and it doesn’t take money out of my regular rescue, I will do it.” Others say you’re saving the dogs from a life of breeding. “Some are of the opinion that you’re putting money in the breeders’ pockets. “It’s a very controversial thing, for rescuers to buy dogs at auction,” says Jeanette DeMars, founder of Corgi Connection of Kansas, who discloses to donors that she buys auction dogs. They say donors ranging from average dog lovers to show-dog breeders understand, and financially support, their efforts. Rescuers at the auctions say their purchases save individual dogs and weaken the commercial breeding chain by removing, spaying and neutering dogs that would otherwise be bred again and again. “Although they may be doing good things for individual dogs purchased at auctions, it perpetuates the problem and tends to create a seller’s market,” says Brandi Hunter, the AKC’s spokeswoman. At the auctions, such rescuers describe buying purebreds and popular crossbreeds like goldendoodles and maltipoos as “puppy mill rescue.”Ībigail Anderson, who owns Sugarfork, checks on huskies. One golden retriever rescue group turned to the auctions after seeing 40 percent fewer dogs coming in as of 2016. The smaller populations of shelter dogs make it harder for some rescue groups, especially those dedicated to specialty breeds, to find what adopters want. As the number of commercial kennels has decreased, so has the number of shelter animals killed in the United States: A February 2017 estimate put the total for dogs alone at 780,000, a steep drop from estimates for all shelter animals that were as high as 20 million in the 1970s. But the success of the rescue movement in reducing shelter populations, some rescuers say, has been driving rescuers to the auction market. Years ago, when more commercial breeders existed, rescuers attended auctions to buy surplus dogs that seemed to be everywhere, longtime auction participants say. Most of the breeders who sell dogs at auction are commercial, which means they have at least four breeding females, sell to intermediaries and are federally regulated. Most rescuers then offered the dogs for adoption as “rescued” or “saved.” At the auctions, rescuers have purchased dogs from some of the same breeders who face activist protests, including some on the Humane Society of the United States’ “Horrible Hundred” list or the “No Pet Store Puppies” database of breeders to avoid, maintained by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.Īfter the investigation: USDA says individuals and groups may need license if buying dogs for rescue at auction Bidders affiliated with 86 rescue and advocacy groups and shelters throughout the United States and Canada have spent $2.68 million buying 5,761 dogs and puppies from breeders since 2009 at the nation’s two government-regulated dog auctions, both in Missouri, according to invoices, checks and other documents The Washington Post obtained from an industry insider.
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