Busting 'puppy mill' presented challenges

Closing down the illegal West Plains kennel that animal control officers raided and rescued dozens of dogs on April 26 presented a challenge from the get-go.

Perhaps the biggest was just confirming that a still as yet unidentified property owner on the 21000 block of West Bowie Road was selling dogs illegally.

The “puppy mill” was quite isolated and “It’s fairly rural,” Ashley Proszek, Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service (SCRAPS) field operations manager said. The area is mostly fields so there are not places neighbors might even notice.

SCRAPS had contemplated an undercover operation but it was too hard to get in touch with the owner. Officials began to put the investigation into motion in early April.

“Our warrant was obtained off of statements from the people who had purchased the puppies and witnessed the conditions,” Proszek said. The animals were sick, underweight and dirty, she added.

All SCRAPS officers hold a “limited police commission,” Proszek said. “We write all of our own warrants.”

While not exactly sure of the length of time the puppy mill operated, Proszek guessed, “It was probably some time.”

The owner faces a variety of charges. “The majority of the charges are misdemeanors,” Proszek said. “If we can find any first-degrees, that’s a felony.” The second-degree charges, unsafe confinement and the illegal kennel, are misdemeanors. Combined, the owner faces potential jail confinement and monetary penalties.

Discovering operations like this is a relatively rare occurrence, Proszek said. “Every few years we may get one that pops up.”

The Bowie Road location is also not the biggest, she said. “We’ve had some pretty big kennels out there,” Proszek said. There was once even a licensed kennel that was busted which housed a large number of dogs.

In trying to find a typical profile of operators of puppy mills, hoarding disorders sometimes plays into the situation. Indications are that the property housing the kennel was certainly not in spic and span condition.

Lindsey Soffes, executive director of SCRAPS, most recently worked as an investigator on the West side of the state prior to coming to Spokane and said she had seen similar situations.

A lot of puppy mills try to pass themselves off as reputable breeders and will market the same way as other breeders with up-front appearing ads and websites.

“One of the differences we tend to see — and one of the aspects of these investigations that make these so difficult — is that puppy mills will rigidly and intentionally close themselves off to the public,” Soffes said.

A legitimate breeder is likely to say, “Come to my property and meet the (puppy’s) parents,” where illegal operations will counter with, “I’ll come and meet you (outside my property) in a shopping center,” Soffes explained.

Because of this, the Bowie Road case took a great deal of time just to identify the address.

All the breeder-customer contact took place in a public place and there was no way to tie them to a particular address or person. That’s one of the ways operations like this can exist and stay ahead of the law.

Customers think they are buying a quality breed but do not understand, or see, exactly where the animals are coming from, Soffes said.

The other side of the coin is that buyers will sense animals are not being cared for in a proper way and will buy a less-than-ideal pet just to extract them from that environment.

“We had these complaints but we didn’t have a person attached, we didn’t have an address,” Soffes said. But one of the tipsters did provide officers with an address. “We were able to connect the dots.”

There were prior complaints at the address, but had there not been that final crucial bit of information, the case might still have not been solved. “Operators can obviously keep things very quiet,” Soffes said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].