Puppy Mills

The billboard welcomes visitors to Lancaster County, but it isn't meant to increase tourism. Main Line Rescue, which paid for the folksy sign, wants to warn visitors about an activity that doesn't get the same attention as shopping outlets and Amish farms. "Welcome to scenic Lancaster County, home to hundreds of puppy mills," reads the sign on the eastbound Pennsylvania Turnpike between the Lebanon/Lancaster and Reading/Ephrata exits. The animal welfare group hopes the sign raises awareness of a persistent problem in rural Lancaster County: the mass production of puppies in inhumane and sometimes illegal kennels.

Mary Panebianco cradled her new puppy, Dixie, as it coughed up blood onto the kitchen floor. The Panebiancos, of West Chester, had bought the chow/shepherd mix three days before at a Chester County kennel. That April night, Dixie died. "I thought I was strong, but that really broke me," said Panebianco, who has a 2-year-old daughter. "I hope I never have to see or hear anything like that again. " The family veterinarian said Dixie died of parvo, a viral disease often caused by poor nutrition and parasites.

What's Gov. Corbett got against puppies? After years of complaints from dog lovers and people who unknowingly purchased sick and dying pets that had been raised inside puppy-mill cages no bigger than a rabbit hutch, Pennsylvania passed a 2008 law ensuring humane treatment for tens of thousands of kennel dwellers. That law, aimed at ridding Pennsylvania of its reputation as the worst puppy-mill state in the East, has served as a model for 20 other states. But Corbett isn't interested in its enforcement.

Terra was a disaster. Her front legs were crooked, her teeth didn't bite right, and her white Maltese face was stained around the eyes from a condition that made her tear ducts work overtime. Worse, a congenital skin disorder had caused her to chew off most of the curly white hair on her rump, and she chased herself frantically in a tight, painful circle when Marlene Harris put her into her cage. "She'll be put to sleep," Harris sighed. "It's heartbreaking, because we've gotten real attached to her. " A dozen other dogs yelped and bounced against their cage doors in the small Parsons Humane Society shelter.

At the end of country lanes, behind tall fences, and inside picturesque barns lies Lancaster County's dirty little secret: thousands of purebred dogs - whose offspring sell for hundreds of dollars at pet stores in Philadelphia and elsewhere - living in Dickensian conditions: undersized wire cages; no exercise; minimal, if any, medical care. Those images - well documented by undercover video and humane officers over the last 25 years - prompted animal lover and Old City gallery director Jennifer Yaron to stage what may be the first-ever exhibition dedicated to drawing attention to the plight of dogs in commercial kennels, known across the animal-welfare community as "puppy mills.

GOV. RENDELL has taken on possibly one of the most volatile and emotional issues of his tenure: puppy mills. These despicable places, where dogs are bred and raised in unsanitary, crowded and disease-prone conditions, flourish in Pennsylvania, specifically in Lancaster County. Known for lush farms and its Amish population, the county and its more than 240 puppy mills have helped make Pennsylvania "The Puppy Mill Capitol of The East. " It's a shameful reputation. Rendell, a dog-lover himself, wants to change that.

How sick is that doggie in the window? That - rather than the melodically famous "how much?" - should probably be the first question asked by local dog buyers. As vividly documented by Inquirer staff writer Karl Stark last Sunday, chances are all too good that a puppy bought from a pet store or large-scale breeder in Pennsylvania will have health or temperament problems. Pennsylvania breeds the most dogs of any state on the East Coast, and too many of them come from "puppy mills," mass operations where dogs are carelessly bred - leading to defects or nasty dispositions - or raised in crowded, dirty conditions that promote viruses.

Recently, viewers of the Oprah Winfrey Show tuned into a widely publicized television show devoted to exposing horrific living conditions and abuses in puppy mills. Unfortunately, puppy mills in Pennsylvania played a major role in this broadcast. Several Pennsylvania puppy mills, where there was widespread neglect and deplorable conditions, were toured. Small dogs were stuffed into rabbit hutches. Kennel operators dragged dogs by their front legs. Of the 20 dogs that were rescued, nearly all were suffering from dental disease.

The raid of a Chester County kennel and the transfer of more than 30 dogs brings to light another appalling example of animal abuse. Let's hope that these events serve as the last straw for Pennsylvania lawmakers. They must pass House Bill 2525 and give the state the meaningful dog law it so desperately needs. Certainly an investigation of the state dog wardens involved in this case is warranted. But the facts also illuminate the failings of current law. Dogs with missing eyes, terrible skin conditions, abscesses, and even severed ears were discovered at the Limestone Kennel in Cochranville.

Seeking to end the inhumane treatment of dogs in commercial breeding operations, Gov. Rendell is expected to announce today the appointment a career state prosecutor to lead the embattled office charged with regulating 2,500 kennels across the state. Jessie Smith, a 20-year veteran of the Office of Attorney General and a former board member of the Harrisburg Humane Society, has been named special deputy secretary of the Bureau of Dog Law, according to administration sources. Rendell, who pledged in March to take action to improve conditions in the state's "puppy mills," also is expected to announce the appointment of Jeffrey Paladina, a former assistant district attorney, as special prosecutor for dog law enforcement and the establishment of a four-member enforcement team that will be dispatched to problem kennels.

Jesse Smith did her job when she was Pennsylvania's special deputy secretary for dog-law enforcement. In return, she was relentlessly criticized in anonymous blogs whose writers went so far as to accuse her of marital infidelity as they questioned her ethics. How Smith was treated reflects the lack of civility too often found in today's public discourse, and it's even worse in cyberspace. It's not that the behavior of officials who implement public policy should be excluded from a robust discussion, but the personal attacks Smith endured step over the line.

What's Gov. Corbett got against puppies? After years of complaints from dog lovers and people who unknowingly purchased sick and dying pets that had been raised inside puppy-mill cages no bigger than a rabbit hutch, Pennsylvania passed a 2008 law ensuring humane treatment for tens of thousands of kennel dwellers. That law, aimed at ridding Pennsylvania of its reputation as the worst puppy-mill state in the East, has served as a model for 20 other states. But Corbett isn't interested in its enforcement.

With the federal debt crisis resolved, two area congressmen visited an animal shelter to call attention to legislation aimed at what some Americans might feel more passionate about - their pets. The bill would require breeders that sell more than 50 dogs a year directly to the public be federally licensed and inspected, said Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, with Patrick Meehan by his side. The legislators were upstaged for a time by the furry residents of Francisvale Home for Smaller Animals on Upper Gulph Road in Radnor, where their news conference took place.

Lizzie Penna was only 7 when she saw an Oprah episode three years ago about puppy mills, so she just wasn't old enough to volunteer with the dogs and cats at the Pennsylvania SPCA or Main Line Animal Rescue. But she had to figure out another way to help abused animals. The owner of a dog and cat herself, Lizzie, of Wynnewood, formed Peace for Puppies, and with the help of her mother, Ali Roberts, she began holding cake sales at her school, Penn Valley Elementary, and setting up lemonade stands, car washes, T-shirt sales and bowling events to raise money to help animals.

Ex-Detroit mayor gets prison term DETROIT - Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced Tuesday to up to five years in prison for violating the terms of his probation stemming from his conviction for lying under oath about an extramarital affair with his chief of staff. Kilpatrick, 39, asked Judge David Groner to show him compassion, but Groner said, "That ship has sailed. " At issue is $1 million that Kilpatrick, a Democrat, was ordered to pay the city after pleading guilty in 2008 to obstruction of justice.

Jennifer Muller is an award-winning veterinarian who makes house calls and legislative policy. A kind of house-pet ambassador without portfolio, waiting room, or office staff, but well equipped with flea preventive and powerful friends in Harrisburg and Washington. Her career was not inevitable. The daughter of a math teacher and a stockbroker, Muller grew up in a bedroom suburb of New York City. She studied hard, got into Brown, majored in American civilization, and spent a semester in Botswana studying wildlife.

When a Philadelphia animal-welfare activist heard that nearly 400 Lancaster County dogs had been trucked to an auction in Ohio last month, he saw it as a chance to call attention to animal abuse in Pennsylvania. But because the dogs had crossed state lines, time was working against efforts to file cruelty charges. So Bill Smith rounded up a private jet and flew off to the Farmerstown Sale Barn in Baltic, a rural village in eastern Ohio. After combing the auction on Oct. 7, Smith and his group, including Pennsylvania SPCA agents and veterinarians, bought 12 Lancaster County dogs that they plan to use to show that abuse still existed at some kennels a year after passage of a tougher dog law. When the group returned to Pennsylvania hours after the purchase, state SPCA officials prepared charges against six of the 12 Lancaster County breeders who sent dogs to the auction.

Animal-welfare advocates and private citizens voiced their anger last night after learning that the Eagles had signed Michael Vick to a 1-year contract plus an option year. Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, served 18 months in federal prison for bankrolling a pit-bull dogfighting operation at a property he owned in Virginia. "Philadelphia is a city of dog lovers and, most particularly, pit-bull lovers," said Sue Cosby, who heads the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Five years ago last week, I took the helm of the Humane Society of the United States, an organization founded in 1954 with the goal of confronting cruelty to animals on a national scale. Inhumane slaughter, animal fighting, puppy mills, wildlife abuse, and other forms of mistreatment were too entrenched and widespread for local humane organizations, with their limited resources, to fight effectively. Pennsylvania, with 671,000 Humane Society members, has long been one of our battleground states.