to healthy pets healthy owners i'm your host dr missile kosky and i like to welcome two guests today we have lynne ready ask the oldies from the humane society of the united states with her or her own pet monkey and if you western pennsylvania man society where you're located in pittsburgh and you're located all over the country yeah pretty much so the western pennsylvania humane society has an actual shelter  s u s is generally doesn't but what it what it what do they do so they human society of the united states we have staff and volunteers all over the country and the u s we try to get the laws for animals stronger so you're a national advocate advocacy group correct and your  present is wayne purcell i've actually had the pleasure of meeting mr purcell several years ago at the genesis awards and he's a great spokesman for the organization absolutely you brought a scope you just don't do with dogs and cats you look at how animals are treated and so forth and the whole field is brought you look at cows you look at monkeys you look at wildlife the whole scope everything every we have we have we do have i should mention we have physical locations in the country there are six direct care facilities in texas california oregon and massachusetts in florida facilities take care of thousands of animals every year of over i think like between forty and fifty species horses there's a very large horse rescue in texas that which are dog cat right and sara the western pennsylvania humane society actually has a physical building where you bring in is a no kill shelter so we do have we have a brick and mortar building and we are wildlife and other animals like that you do have to have a special permit ng that we do not have so we do any domesticated animals you know even chickens docks things like that as well with some of the urban farming that's going on but as an open door shelter we have made the commitment to not turn away any animal in need so it doesn't matter the dogs breed or the cats breed or any animal it doesn't matter their age it doesn't matter their health status we're there for them when they need us and  that's one of our primary you're on the north side of pittsburgh we are yeah and we've actually been there for one hundred forty years and your position there i'm the program manager in training corner so i do internal programming and then all of our training classes i schedule the take her and she was a breeding dog so she was bringing bread for puppies and i fell in love with her when she was at the shelter and obviously she had a lot of medical issues going on she had some skin allergies she an autoimmune disease as well and she's also a cancer survivor so she's had quite the go around but she actually passed her certified therapy dog test within six months of me taking her home and a certified therapy dog does what so that means that i can take her into hospitals nursing her schools and we do a lot of advocacy on education you know teaching children how they should approach a dog you know teaching them about shelters adopting from shelters pit bull specifically since he is a pit bull mix teaching him how wonderful these dogs are and you know that they are just dogs like any other dogs they get their reputation because the owners that take them for things they do with them cause and to be that way not because that's the breed right and a dog can become vicious like that tactic being attacked but they are powerful dogs they are and i always tell everyone every dog has their own personality just like people we all have things we don't like and people we don't like and things we don't like to do and dogs are the same way i have so i always encourage everyone that when you're looking for a dog or a patton general you should never look oh i'm looking for a specific breed i tell people to meet that dog and learn about their personality and see if that dog meshes with yo yes and we the country is divided each state i should say divided into congressional districts and we work that way so i'm responsible for congressional district eighteen which we're  so it's sort of spread out so i part of what i do you try to get people together to learn about animal advocacy and helping to make the laws stronger your advocacy hard for me to say today is really is what is so we all care about it a lot of people care about animals i think there's a staggering amount of households that own pets and i think that people don't know that they can make a difference in their community in their state and in our country as far as strengthening the laws we just had actually last weekend at the western pennsylvania humane society some state representatives it was organized by don costa in there are a few others there paul costs there are legislators who care about animals and who care about what their constituents think and so we try to make it known that you might just be one person and think you can make a difference but you can't i met was with representative t murphy who is my congressman and who's a very nice man and it was a very easy meeting i went in with my concerns and the bills that i would love him to co sponsor he listened to difference and then you do fundraising as well as well we don't do any i mean people obviously are welcome to donate but because we do spend thousands upon thousands of dollars for example a puppy mill raid can cost of about two hundred fifty puppies can cost about five hundred thousand dollars well so we definitely need resources for that but mostly we just want people to become aware of how they can help how they can get involved sir most of the dogs come from to drop off at your facility they can ride you places someone will come as owner surrender so the owners are no longer able to keep them and then maybe because they lose their jobs they're moving them you know there's a whole variety of things sometimes they like you said they become ill and they can't continue caring for the dog strays obviously we get a great deal of strays in as well and we're always trying to reunite them with their owners and then we also actually take an animal from other facilities so facilities that end up becoming overwhelmed with drop offs and they can't handle yet they don't have the room yet so when we have obviously we don't want to have open connell's we want to continue to help other shelters and fill those kind of and adopt those animals out so whenever  we are not we don't have as many intake as much intake as we normally have or reach out to other organizations and ask them if they need some help so we'll go and import ox mother organizations and we actually have partnered with h s us to take some dogs as well specifically right now we have one that came from a dogfighting confiscations you know that will work with and you know help the place in the appropriate home where he can you know thrive and do really well is there a particular breed  that is presented as a facility more than another one obviously we do get a lot of mix of people that probably one of our higher number of intake and they're also unfortunately the lower number of adoptions as well takes a little longer because they do because there's this this fear factor that keeps being presented to the bulls are absolutely horrible and that's why you know there's so many of us when had a pitbull as well that go out in the community and we really represent these dogs and we show people how wonderful these dogs are and how wonderful they can be in that they are just dogs right you know but you know trying to educate the public and tell them that you know they are dogs just like any other dogs and when you're coming in to adopt the pet meet the dogs personality and decide if that's what for you actually but you know you have to be careful with that because they are a lot of responsibility and they all require loving care yes absolutely so you brought up something that that i think pretty important because people don't really have an understanding of what it is and you mentioned puppy mill so would you explain to the audience please what a puppy mill is one sure a puppy mill is a large scale basically a breeding facility  and it's basically the animals aren't cared for there they live their life in a small usually wire cage often times are stacked one above the other they don't really receive veterinary care they are and there's their goal there is just to churn out as many puppies as possible so obviously the motivation is money so the least amount of money that you put in the more money you have out there and so they have dogs that they just constantly breed and breed because to grow a new breed of dog you have a waiting period before you should read again and then you see there's a certain length of time where you should stop that breeding most of the pet lands those dogs come from puppy mills and people don't realize that they just see a cute little puppy and sometimes i've even heard people say that old as will they rescued it well you bought or save its life you know like you would at a shelter or rescue organization and you're supporting it and you're supporting the mom staying in the cage for ever basically and  country concentrated were all over there are they're everywhere unfortunately and there are a lot there's a horrible hundred list you've probably heard of there's about maybe ten to fifteen in ohio there are a couple on that list in the eastern part of pennsylvania central pennsylvania centrally eastern pennsylvania in the country only about two thousand of them are licensed and that's where most of the problem is the licensed ones the animal welfare act of nineteen sixty six is very ordinary outdated and so we're trying to get the the laws of these licensed kennels to be better  pennsylvania has some laws but again they're not very strong on the problem is these other unlicensed cattle which is a whole nother breed of puppy mills so when you're licensed there is some regulation oversight although there's probably one person in the whole state that from the from the government that oversees a license with a living it's a pennsylvania department of agriculture and the u s d a is obviously the federal oversight but again lack of resources lack of people to actually go out and make sure these facilities and the dogs are being seen by a vet and that they do have access to from the elements there is outside in the hundred degree heat in the summer and the negative ten in the winter well and sara take a quick little very please stay tuned to healthy pets healthy owners and we'll be back with  which is the humane society of united states there are two independent organizations you're physically a rescue facility the h s us is more of an act the c group which i can't stronger for animals and against animal abusers and lynn has her dog monkey here and back again as another rescue so before the break when we were talking about puppy mills and what happens with vs the light of the license ones to the ones that are not licensed so anybody can go find a corner of some ground somewhere and start breeding and selling puppies pretty much yeah the laws are just not as strong as they really need to be and unfortunately you know these dogs especially the the mothers are the victims of this there are basic standards for the ones that are licensed and those commercial businesses are basically the ones that you have to license if you're selling or if you're dealing with a pet like your dogs are going to be then what a pet stores if you aren't going to be doing that you're going to sell the dogs face to face to another just to a person who wants to buy one then you don't need a license so a lot of what's happening now it's becoming kind of new or these internet sales and it's really interesting if you look at some of them in the humane society of the united states has done a lot of you know busting these  facilities but online they look like they showcased a little cute dog with you know very comfortable pretty on a couch with  and that whole look at then then people say oh you know they want to get this dog and then it gets that the living conditions in reality are absolutely horrid and they're her run but nobody's they deceive you don't see that and then actually the broker to ship the it's amazing it's it is it's the dogs and he's probably most generally don't receive any health care evaluations or anything like that if they're born with the form of these they euthanized and not  humanely they aren't fed nutrition and so that these puppies don't even have the ability to start to develop and grow properly and what happens is they go to the pet stores and they're being sold and then the people that fall in love and take these dogs home with them then have a series of events and vet bills and trauma to the dog a child one of them try to turn that situation around and i know in the past when i did a lot of research with puppy bells they shut the puppy mill down find the people if they catch them and everything they lay low for a while and then i find a new location and they start the whole process back  do is encourage people to if you're looking for a pet make your first option a shelter or rescue well that's always the first option in my opinion because there are a lot of animals that need love and care and they're great and you know all of my dogs have been rescues and i think they're the most appreciative dogs out there you know they they know you took them and love them well i want to questions we always get at the mean say is about pure bred you know if you want to purebred dog it is possible to get them f shelters it's possible to get them from rescues i mean monkey came from the humane society she's a purebred parini and i mean we have purebreds all the time that's what you're looking for sarah docks and every ducks and rescue has been a purebred and  come from a rescue group so it's absolutely the case you know and it's surprising how many people take home they pay a lot of money for these dogs and they take them home and they never investigated the fit for their family or  their work situation or their housing situation they bring this dog home and it suddenly doesn't work and they just take the dogs some of them let him go you know my sister's rescue the number of dogs who lives out in the country and find them abandoned on the innocent and can't defend themselves now and it's so sad you get a lot of puppy mill dogs at your place so we haven't directly taken in dogs from ca any light confiscations or anything that have been directly known as a puppy mill we do unfortunately get dogs we actually had three dogs that were surrendered to us that all came from that land you know there was and all three dogs had health issues coming in and one was of the young as eight weeks old healthy or behavioral issues so it absolutely happens they do walk in our doors and unfortunately it's  it's staggering how real it is and people don't realize you know they're like oh well my dog can come from there like lynn said they're very good about flossing it you know giving it a beautiful name and giving it beautiful photos and making it like it's this wonderful thing but then you go there and you see where these animals are living and it's sad and it's it's absolutely unbearable and you know i run the training classes the obedience training classes and i actually do that because tony i do yeah we i mean we do the whole the whole kit and caboodle you know we have a vax we have a while this clinic for people that is a lower cost of the people can afford to get their animals with the care that they need we offer resources as far as dog training and as far as other classes that you can do you know we do like cat massage different things like that but dog training so you know helping to keep pets in the home is what our mission is we don't want the pets to have to come back to us so we can help them keep their dog in the home instead of surrendering and i think that's our end we want every animal to have a home but you know we do see i get calls all the time all the time about dogs that come from pet stores or questionable breeders and they're having all sorts of behavioral issues with the dogs and genetics says play a huge portion that obviously it's nurture versus nature and you can do so much for the dog in the home but genetics still plays that some part of a part in th and these dogs are not putting all dogs are not bred for their personalities you know they're bred for the way they look and how much money they can and they never really get integrated in and to people because they don't see people and they're they're in competition with the other dogs at their around so that they really don't adjust well initially with other animals and i think you see that all the time with these possible when they throw food they don't go to individuate the dogs in the experience that i've had with puppy mill dogs a lot of the times are great with other dogs because that's their sense of security they may argue over food and stuff like that with other dogs but they that's that's like their security blanket whereas people set off a red  them because they aren't around people and are being smacked when they are around people pushed and corralled and so forth so that a lot of the times that's what they really need to work with is learning that people are ok and it's ok to trust people monkey even though she came from the western pennsylvania humane society she had a lot of behaviors consistent with that of a puppy mill dogs behaviors which would be things like undersocialized very afraid of people and like sarah said she warmed up to my other dogs mostly my pitiful walter he kind of made the transition easier for her i think and you know what she had though for about two months in a in our bathroom that was her little safe place so you have to be patient with these dogs we put a little blanket and little bed in there for her so that she eventually you know would feel safe she didn't walk on a leash for about a year the puppy mill dogs are very afraid humane society of the u s and the western pennsylvania society doing great work keep it up thank you thank you thank you so much for watching healthy pets healthy owners remember a healthy pet is a happy pad and when your pets are happy you will be also have a