Grapes and Raisins May be Toxic to Dogs
Lancaster County, PA
Puppy Mill Raid
Do You Have Any Information That Will Help?
Grapes
and Raisins May be Toxic to Dogs
This information is included for your information. We can never be
too careful with the dogs we care for. They deserve our best care. A dog
in Maryland died of a raisin overdose. He had eaten 18 ounces of raisins
meant for a rabbit. The overdose caused renal (kidney) failure. This caused
a very high concentration of calcium in the blood. He vomited repeatedly
and by the second day he couldn't walk. This is the first documented case
of raisin/grape toxicity in Maryland. I hope it will be the last. We are
constantly warned about chocolate and anti-freeze, but your vet may not
know about raisins. If this letter helps prevent other such cases it will
be well worth the trouble. Please be aware of what your dog is eating
and get help immediately if you suspect any kind of poisoning. I hope
this sacrifice will help bring awareness to dog owners everywhere.
Lancaster
County, PA Puppy Mill Raid
Do You Have Any Information That Will Help?
In September 2000, there was a kennel raid in Mt. Joy Township in
Lancaster County, PA. A great many dogs were taken from three separate
locations used to house them and all of them were awful. No heat, no air-conditioning,
no ventilation and no light. The two small windows were boarded up. The
smell of ammonia would knock you over. The dogs were crammed in cages
and aggressive dogs made others live in terror. Some dogs were blind,
some lame and others deaf. A woman affiliated with the operation threatened
to kill the police officer. She was arrested and put in prison. Cruelty
charges were brought against her and her companion. The cases are now
making their way through court. It would be helpful to the police officer
that is pressing charges if people who purchased dogs from this pair could
be located. The names are Charles Carr, or Virginia Swayne of Crossroads
Kennel. There were many different breeds of dogs but in particular Bulldogs,
Cocker Spaniels, Chihuahuas, Pugs, Wheatens, and Dachshunds. If you know
anyone who has purchased a dog from these people please e-mail me immediately.
(Lee Wheeler - Hearts United for Animals http://www.hua.org
Follow up Letter from Lee Wheeler Attorney for the Humane League of
Lancaster County
Friends, It has become obvious in dealing with the officials in PA that
they will not make any effort to help the dogs in puppy mills because
the dogs don't vote or have money to donate to political campaigns. (Just
this week a politician told me that the only way that they were even going
to enforce the law that currently exists, much less change the law, is
if it was important to people who donated a lot of money to political
campaigns). It is critically important that we can show them that there
are an enormous number of people who care about the dogs and those people
do vote. It is important to show the officials that people will not visit
Lancaster County, PA until something is done to stop the suffering. We
have to show that if they allow the puppy mills to continue, the county
and the businesses will be hurt financially. Money is the only language
that they understand. For anyone not familiar with puppy mills in PA please
visit http://hua.org. Click on Prisoners
of Greed.
In PA the majority of puppy mills are concentrated in one single county, Lancaster County. The officials refuse to enforce the law there because they are blinded by the Pet Breeders Association and the Farm Bureau who throw around a lot of money in political campaigns. The man in charge of the state agency that is supposed to enforce the law has said that he will not enforce it in Lancaster County. The conditions of the mills are horrible. The majority of the mills are operated by people who are of Amish or Mennonite religious beliefs and therefore usually do not have electricity. The majority of the mills do not have heat or air-conditioning. There are small shorthaired dogs out in wooden boxes in below zero temperatures today. These dogs are bred over and over until they die. If they don't die, they are sold to research labs when they no longer make money for the kennel. Should you have any thoughts about Amish or Mennonite people having compassion for their animals, you only have to read the article in the local newspaper today that talks about a 13-year-old Sheltie kept in a kennel piled with feces for nine years, never one time getting out of the cage in 9 years. When he was rescued, he was lame and limped in circles because he had gone round and round in circles out of boredom for 9 years. I have personally been to the kennels in Lancaster County. I have seen and touched the dogs and can describe the conditions from my own personal observation. Any description I could give would not even begin to describe how terribly the dogs suffer.
I have set up an on line petition so that peoples' voices can be heard. It is very easy and will only take a second of your time. Just go to http://www.hua.org/Prison/millpetition1.html and fill in a few blanks. Please forward this email to every person, egroup, mailing list that you know. It is critically important that we have a huge response.
