The Special
Investigations Unit (SIU) functions as the investigative
arm of LCA. The SIU team is focused on validating
information, detecting suspect activity, and exposing the
illegal or unethical activities and reporting them to
local, state and federal authorities for prosecution or
other disposition.
The information obtained in our investigations will be
used in developing campaigns, public education and
outreach, and in drafting legislation that would bring
lasting changes for the animals.
Last Chance For Animals is widely known for investigations that
have exposed horrible cruelty and misuse of animals everywhere.
From exposing illegal companion animal consumption, the mass
slaughter of deer by the National Parks Services at Gettysburg,
to the first ever conviction of USDA licensed B dealers leading
to maximum prison terms for three people, LCA is committed to
bringing these issues to the forefront and effecting change for
the animals.
The scope of LCA's investigations includes, but is not limited
to:
Circus
cruelty
Pet
theft / B Dealers
Pound
Seizure
Puppy
mills
Vivisection
Recent Investigations
LCA undercover
investigation into Hawaiian Puppy Mills
Updated August 31st 2010
LCA’s Investigation
Continues to Expose Conditions
for Dogs and Puppy Mills in Hawaii.
Extended Footage of LCA’s Undercover
Hawaiian Puppy Mill
Investigation.
On June 9th, 2010 LCA received a tip from a former employee that
worked at a puppy mill called Bradley Hawaiian Puppies in
Waimanalo, Hawaii, not far from Honolulu. The informant stated
the conditions for the dogs there were very bad and that the
owners of the facility also owned a pet store nearby where many
of the puppies they bred, were sold.
Beagle with advanced case of mange.
LCA’s SIU immediately swung into action and sent and undercover
investigator to Oahu, with the goal of obtaining employment at
the puppy mill. We learned the mill was owned by Vernon Luke, a
wealthy local resident and his daughter Sheryl. Sheryl also owns
a store called the “Pet Spot” in Pearl City, HI. This turned out
to be the store where puppies from the mill are sold to the
public.
Bichon with cancerous tumor
Nursing in a puppy mill
Within a couple of days, our Investigator was living on the
property and working as a kennel attendant, documenting the
cruel and dilapidated conditions there. He stated “There were
about 130 dogs, puppies and adults, all different types of
breeds. It was almost impossible to breathe at times, the smell
of feces and urine permeated the property. The sick and injured
dogs, including a dog with a cancerous tumor were caged indoors
24/7, with no special treatment given to them whatsoever.”
Documenting conditions for animals in places like this puppy
mill on hi definition footage, is almost unheard of. It was
LCA’s goal to get that footage and share it with local media and
the authorities to expose Bradley Farms and bring awareness to
the fact that even though Hawaii is a paradise to millions of
people from around the world, it is certainly not for dogs in
captivity for commercial breeding.
Puppies routinely die prematurely at this facility
Our investigator gathered footage over the next 9 days. He
documented sick and injured dogs, dogs living in filth,
isolation, bad breeding conditions, sloppy medical treatment,
and rodent infestation and for some puppies, death. Regarding
the treatment of animals that die on the premises of Bradley
Hawaiian Puppies, the investigator said, “I was told to wrap up
the dead puppies and throw them in the trash bin for pickup.”
Because LCA has a long track record of working with State,
Federal and local law enforcement, LCA returned to Honolulu to
share the footage with Keoni Vaughn, the Field Services Manager
at Hawaiian Humane Society. Hawaiian Humane enforces animal
cruelty and neglect laws in the County and City of Honolulu.
Vaughn was well aware of the situation at Bradley Farms. However, because
of lax animal cruelty laws and no laws governing the licensing
of breeders in the County or State, HH had been unable to
legally effect much change. Vaughn was grateful for the help of
LCA’s SIU in exposing the conditions at Bradley Farms, however,
even with the photographic and video evidence we provided HH
with, the chance of obtaining a warrant through the Honolulu
County District Attorney’s Office were not great. To convict a
party for animal cruelty in Hawaii, the preponderance of
evidence has to be enormous and if the puppy miller shows that
even the sickest looking dogs are being treated by a vet, that
animal can remain in the care of the owner. Vaughn told the LCA
investigator, “The laws and the courts, the way they are here
are overwhelmingly in favor of the owner of the animals, even in
cases of cockfighting.”
There was some good news. After getting on the premises of the
puppy mill for a second time, LCA and HH were able to secure the
release of two of the sickest dogs from the owner that were
taken back to HH and are being rehabilitated for adoption.
During the visit, the manager of puppy mill, Dave Becker was
confronted by the LCA for the way he treats his animals,
regardless of what the law is. The miller tried to defend
himself and his business. He had just been interviewed by local
media who had seen our footage and confronted him. His boss,
Vernon Luke, took no responsibility for the conditions at the
farm, putting it all on Becker. Becker was asked by the
investigator if he had a dog of his own. He said he did. When
asked if he would want his own dog to be treated like any of the
dogs locked up for breeding, he tried to bluster his way out of
it, but in the end, all he said was “no.”
Poodle mix rescued and cared for at Hawaiian Humane
During our time in Hawaii on this case, we also learned that
Hawaiian Humane has pushed for the recent enactment of HB 147,
the Pet Confinement Act. The law, already signed will go into
effect January 1, 2011. It specifies much greater humane
treatment of dogs than already exists. An LCA investigator said,
“Had this new law been effect when we were inside this puppy
mill, we would have been able to get the owners for at least
five violations.”
Beagle with mange rescued and cared for by Hawaiian Humane
Regarding LCA’s help fighting puppy mills in Hawaii, Keoni
Vaughn said, “We’re grateful for your (LCA’s) help, because this
is an island and everybody knows everybody, so to come in here,
undercover and get this great footage is huge and it will have
impact.”
To learn more about the Hawaiian Humane Society and the work
they do, or to learn more about some of the animals mentioned in
this report, please click here
http://www.hawaiianhumane.org/
LCA undercover
investigation with the "Barkworks Insider"
Barkworks is a chain of stores in Southern California that sells puppies and
occasionally kittens to the public. They have been in business, according to
their website, since 1972. The chain now has seven stores stretching from Los
Angeles to Riverside.
In recent years, Barkworks has been the target of multiple animal rights and
welfare groups, including LCA in an effort to change their business practices
and stop selling dogs that originate from puppy mills. LCA has already
documented that when a consumer goes into a Barkworks store and asks a sales
associate whether or not their puppies originate from puppy mills, the customer
is assured that Barkworks only uses reputable “USDA” licensed breeders. This
assurance from Barkworks is echoed on their website
http://www.barkworks.com/about_us_2.html where they state the breeders
they are associated with ensure that all “pups and parents of pups” receive:
“sanitary living environments at all times, kennels large enough to allow for
running and playing, are regularly bathed and groomed and regularly exercised
and socialized with both humans and other dogs…” LCA and other groups have
documented the conditions at these facilities and under even the most liberal
definition, the breeder facilities we’ve seen fall under the definition of a
“puppy mill.”
On August 3rd, 2009 LCA’s SIU received the following email from an anonymous
source:
Hello,
I work at a store called Barkworks in Southern California. I am led to believe
that their dogs come from puppy mills in the Midwest. I do not know who to talk
to about having an investigation done on the company and i was wondering if you
could help.
thank you
LCA’s SIU immediately contacted the employee. In doing so, we found a caring,
articulate and conscientious woman who was still employed by the chain. During
our interview she made a series of allegations to our investigators regarding
what she witnessed at the Barkworks location she worked at. She told us she had
become upset and concerned with the overall treatment of the puppies and kittens
at their stores.
The heroic employee, who became known as the “Barkworks Insider,” invited LCA’s
SIU into the store where she worked, for a rare, behind the scenes look. In our
video expose’ you will see the Insider, in her experience and that of the
investigators, state the following:
“Fifty percent” of puppies that come into the chain are ill, or become ill from
their confinement and that every dog in the store receives a dose of anti
bacterial medication every day.
That routinely, puppies bought wholesale and sold retail with congenital birth
defects are returned to the store or have to undergo expensive operations to
correct the issues.
How Barkworks management, at the time, encouraged their sales associates with a
“rewards program” to overcharge consumers by as much as $400.00 above the list
price.
That puppies at the store she worked at are fed adult dog food instead of puppy
food because according to the manager of that location, dog food with a lower
fat content may help the animal grow slower and thus be more appealing to the
consumer.
That if a puppy is returned to the store with a deadly illness or birth defect,
the sales associate who sold the puppy has their commission pay docked.
How the management at the store in question encouraged the sales associates that
if they sold a sick dog “it would have a better chance of getting healthy”
because the puppy would no longer be exposed to other sick dogs in the store.
And more…
LCA, at the conclusion of our investigation with the Insider, then found three
other ex-employees that corroborated her experience and more. She was not after
all alone.
LCA joint task force with
LAPD to combat the illegal sale of animals from Santee Alley
Fashion District
In September of
2009, Last Chance for Animal’s SIU was invited to join a joint
task force with LAPD’s Central Division, The Los Angeles City
Attorney’s Office, Melya Kaplan of Voice For the Animals, Los
Angeles Animal Services and LAPD’s animal cruelty division to
attempt to combat the illegal sale of animals in the Santee
Alley Fashion District in downtown Los Angeles.
Animals in small cages and plastic containers are sold on
crowded street corners with about as much concern for their well
being as a vendor with bootleg DVD’s. Typically the animals are
infant rabbits and small turtles. In general, the rabbits are
immaturely weaned and should still be receiving formula instead
of carrots or celery that they are caged with. The “rings”
involved also include illegal fruit and food vendors which can
also be interconnected with street gang activities. LCA has
witnessed some vendors also selling puppies in and around the
crowded alley. These vendors are protected by multiple,
sophisticated lookouts, including children on “razor” scooters
and others armed with cell phones directing them to
sophisticated escape routes. Because of the existing laws, it is
a misdemeanor offense to sell animals in this way. At this time,
even when arrests are made by LAPD, because of crowded jails and
the surprisingly deep pockets of the vendors, they’re out on
bail and back in business.
LCA’s SIU, working with the LAPD, set out to attempt to locate
the distributors of the animals and the heads of the families
supplying and selling the animals. The SIU team conducted
extensive surveillance around 12th Street and Maple Avenue, the
heart of illegal animal sales in Los Angeles.
After identifying multiple teams of animal vendors and
ascertaining their residences, the SIU conducted rolling
surveillance from their vehicles. This was successful in
determining how the vendors supply themselves with animals from
residences, travel to locations in downtown Los Angeles and then
distribute animals to their street vendors. On multiple
occasions, the SIU team coordinated the investigation with LAPD
in an attempt to establish the escape routes of vendors and try
to track down how they evade arrest. One LCA investigator noted,
“It’s not much different than selling drugs on street corners.
They have suppliers, distributors, salespeople and lookouts that
enable them to easily blend into the downtown crowds, at times
using juveniles to sell the animals who will not get
prosecuted.”
In March of 2010, after a lengthy investigation, LCA’s SIU then
turned this information over to LAPD Commander Andrew Smith.
Commander Smith, using the information, then made their presence
known directly to the vendor suppliers. The LAPD also stepped up
their arrests of street vendors, seizing and rescuing animals
that would otherwise perish.
LCA would like to thank the LAPD, Melya Kaplan of Voice For the
Animals and other city officials for the opportunity to help put
a dent in this cruel business. We will continue to work to
correct it. Meanwhile, the City of Los Angeles and VFA are
working to make it illegal to purchase animals under these
conditions and create signage throughout the city to raise
awareness of the dangers and cruelty involved in purchasing
animals from these vendors.
LCA and THE COVE
investigates the sale of Whale Meat in Los Angeles - THE HUMP
shuts down
In October of 2009 a friend and member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
called LCA’s Special Investigations Unit and informed them that he had heard a
sushi restaurant called “The Hump” in Santa Monica, CA was allegedly selling
whale meat sashimi. They wanted to do an undercover sting with the Oceanic
Preservation Society (OPS), the crew behind the Oscar Award winning documentary
“The Cove” which exposed the Taiji dolphin slaughter in Japan. The SIU met with
Louie Psihoyos and Charles Hambleton in the LCA offices and discussed strategies
and types of equipment that would be needed to capture enough evidence and find
out if this rumor was true. The SIU team provided Louie and Charles, who had
already made a huge name for themselves with “The Cove,” undercover cameras and
some of the technical support they needed for the operation. The plan was to use
LCA’s cameras to capture the event on tape, as two OPS operatives attempted to
gain the trust of the staff at the restaurant and verify if whale was “on the
menu” and if possible obtain some of the illegal meat for DNA testing.
The day after their investigation of the restaurant, the SIU met with Charles
Hambleton. When they viewed the tape on their computer screens, they were all
blown away. There on table in front of the two female operatives was a plate of
thinly sliced, red meat. They were told by the Hump staff that it was whale. In
fact, when the operatives received the bill, the waitress had written on their
order sheet, “whale… 85 dollars.” The operatives had managed, while dining to
slip some of the meat into Ziploc bags as evidence. What is not as widely known
is that the operatives were also able to order horse meat, which also appeared
on the bill. One of the original operatives, working with OPS, who is a vegan
stated, "It was heartbreaking to eat an endangered animal, but I knew that I was
doing it to save whales.” She added, "We were there eating for four hours. I
felt so full and sick."
The samples of tender whale meat served in a costly omakase — or chef’s choice
dinner — were to a scientist in Oregon, who determined the meat to be Sei whale,
an endangered species.
Over the next few months, OPS and LCA continued to work together to gather more
video and physical evidence.
Eventually OPS turned over their findings to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service the
California Department of Fish and Game, and the federal Customs and Border
Protection agency, which all concluded that the restaurant was serving
endangered Sei whale as sushi.
Federal Investigators then visited the restaurant themselves. Agents from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sat at the sushi bar and watched
the suspected sushi chef at work. During the visit, another agent watched the
chef go to his car and retrieve a package wrapped in clear plastic. They
suspected this was whale meat.
On March 10, 2010 Federal law enforcement officials brought charges against
Typhoon Restaurant Inc., which owns The Hump restaurant and sushi chef Kiyoshiro
Yamamoto, 45. They were charged with illegally selling the meat of an endangered
animal.
The Sei whale is a baleen whale found throughout the world's oceans, and known
for its graceful and quick swimming and its long, low vocalizations. Fully
grown, the mammal is longer than a bus.
Then on March 12th, LCA participated in a large rally protesting the actions of
the Hump at its location at the Santa Monica Airport. LCA joined Pelican Rescue,
the Sea Shepherd Society, OPS and other groups in a concerted effort to show the
owners of the restaurant that their actions were intolerable. The protest was
just as successful as the investigation and a few days later, the owners of
Typhoon announced the Hump restaurant would be permanently closed.
Dump the Hump
Massive Demonstration Protesting the Hump, October 12, 2010.
Stop the Slaughter of all Cetaceans.
The LCA SIU has a message to anyone else in the USA selling Whale Meat. Stop it
now. We will find you and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
law. Anyone who eats whale meat is as guilty of murder as the man who pulled the
trigger on the harpoon of the deck of a whaling ship. LCA would also like to
thank our heroic friends at OPS and the Sea Shepherd for continuing their fight
to reverse the exploitation and pollution of the world’s oceans and its
inhabitants.
BLM Roundups
Last Chance for Animals Special Investigations Unit (SIU)
travelled to the Mountains of Northwest Nevada in February of
2010 to investigate and document the Roundup of Wild Horses by
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). During the course of our
investigation into the Calico roundup, we videotaped wild horses
being chased through the snow by a couple loud menacing
helicopters.
The stallions, mares and foals were terrified as
they were being herded across the rocky landscape into holding
pens where they were immediately separated from one another.
After being captured by a government that has no shame the
equine families were ripped apart. The SIU went to the Palomino
adoption facility and the Fallon holding facility to see what
conditions these magnificent, proud, wild horses were being
forced to endure.
The horses including young foals do not have
any access to shade or cover in order to escape the elements.
These facilities are in Nevada where temperatures reach into the
120’s during the summer and sub-freezing during winter. Icy cold
winds whip through the facilities but the horses have no way to
escape the elements. They are forced to stand in the mud of
their own feces and urine. We saw numerous foals and horses with
bloody hooves. As a result of the roundup 68 horses were
directly killed. In addition over 30 mares aborted their nearly
full term foals.
The BLM’s stated reason for removing the wild
horses is because they are starving or soon will be. As you can
clearly see by our video of the horses being rounded up not a
single one is starving or even thin. The facts belie the BLM’s
statements. We also saw other wild horses out in the same area
and we did not see a single one who looked to be in any kind of
distress. In fact the only horses we saw who were injured were
those that had become so due to the BLM’s ill-advised roundup.
Check out LCA’s homepage for more in-depth information on the
BLM roundup issue.
Lake Elsinore
Investigation
On June 19th 2009 an LCA SIU investigator accompanied The
Director of Animal Friends of the Valley, Willa Bagwell and
their humane officers to a residence in a quiet neighborhood in
Lake Elsinore, CA. Based on our complaint and investigation, the
Animal Friends of the Valley raided the individual’s home and
seized 34 dogs and puppies and transported them to their
shelter.
LCA’s Special Investigations Unit had been hunting for this
distributor for months. The distributor specialized in “designer
breeds” of puppies that sold for up to $2,500 retail. But
because the individual operated under the radar and without any
local County or USDA licensing, she was difficult to uncover.
Back in September of 2008, during our investigation into the
origins of puppies sold in Los Angeles pet stores, LCA had
received information of an individual who had a long history of
selling sick puppies to various “boutiques.” This kind of pet
store caters to a high-end clientele with many well known
celebrities amongst their customers. The puppies are advertised
and sold as originating from loving homes and supposedly hand
raised. However, what we discovered at the residence in Lake
Elsinore was the antithesis of what the customers had been told.
As you can see by the video evidence, the yard looked more like
a garbage dump. It was a mine field of dog and rat feces in
amongst beer bottles and garbage. There was clutter strewn
about. Broken down vehicles and appliances were some of the
items set haphazardly around the property.
Once the raid had been executed we learned that the individual
was the middle-man for this dubious enterprise. The puppies
distributed were bred in the surrounding area. The distributor
would then take possession of them when they were only a couple
weeks old and raise them until they were sent off to pet stores
in the Southland. Though the distributor denied breeding dogs,
we found a couple of 2 day old pugs with their mother on the
premises. We had uncovered a filthy breeding facility. There
were basset hounds, pugs, Japanese Chins, a Rottweiler, cocker
spaniels and terriers, living in cages or cramped, wretched
conditions.
The Lake Elsinore Fire Department responded to the scene as did
the local Sheriff. The distributor was told they would be
charged with numerous violations of the California Animal
welfare act. Animal Friends of the Valleys had to bring in
additional staff in order to process the 34 puppies/dogs that
were rescued from the deplorable conditions at the residence.
The puppies were taken by the professional staff at Animals
friends where they received proper medical care and meals.
Unfortunately several puppies were harboring the European Parvo
virus and eventually succumbed to the disease despite the heroic
efforts of Animal friends of the Valleys to save them.
Because of the investigative efforts of LCA several puppies were
given the chance of enjoying a normal life. With your support we
will continue to expose the callous greedy citizens amongst us
who think nothing of making money off the suffering of innocent
animals. LCA needs your support to go after these criminals no
matter where they live. Nobody is too big or too small for LCA’s
SIU. This facility was in a middle class neighborhood in
Southern California. There is a Church on one side and the
library is directly across the street. This can and does happen
anywhere, maybe even next door to you. Cruelty is cruelty,
whether it is a mill with 600 dogs or a backyard slumlord
breeder. Please contact us if you
know of a puppy mill operation that is breaking the law.
In August of 2005, an LCA SIU undercover investigator met with
Agents from the FBI, OIG and a US Attorney in Virginia to
discuss our cockfighting investigation into the “Little Boxwood
Sportsman Club” in Stanley, VA.
At “Boxwood” our investigator had witnessed illegal gambling and
other activities associated with organized animal cruelty. Based
on his report, the authorities opened a joint criminal
investigation into Boxwood in conjunction with LCA, the FBI and
the Virginia OIG. Our operative, working with undercover agents
from these agencies, infiltrated Boxwood posing as gamblers and
cock fighters.
Boxwood, one of the oldest names in cockfighting in the country,
had been around for nearly 70 years. “The cockpit” attracted
people from Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New
Jersey, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee,
West Virginia and Virginia. Even a congressman from California
was known to visit the pit. In order to attend, all one had to
do was purchase a “membership” at the gate from the Virginia
Gamefowl Breeders Association [through this case, the VGBA was
disbanded]. For a nominal fee, one could purchase a membership
and any individual could gamble on the fights or fight chickens
themselves. It was common for families with young children to
make a day of the events there.
Over the next 18 months LCA’s undercover operative made 39 trips
to the infamous pit. Cockfighting is a cruel, gruesome event.
Our investigator witnessed roosters whose bodies had been
slashed by razor sharp “gaffs,” resulting in severe injuries if
not immediate death. He said, “On numerous occasions I saw birds
with perforated air sacs, bleeding and struggling to breathe.”
The fights at Boxwood would last 3 to 5 minutes in the main
cage. If a bird survived in that arena, it would be tossed into
the “drag pit” to finish their fight to the death.
During the investigation, LCA’s operative wondered why the
activities at Boxwood had not been stopped by the Page County
Sheriff’s Department. To get to Boxwood, our investigator had
driven past a deputy sheriff’s residence, right down the street
from the cockfighting ring. Eventually one of the agencies
investigators recorded the “cockpits” organizers describing how
he bribed the local Sheriff to continue their operation. In the
secretly recorded conversation, a local resident, Albert Taylor
[later convicted] described as a long time local member of the
Republican Party, mentions the police protection to several
cockpit organizers and the undercover agent: “The only thing
Presgraves told me is his position hasn’t changed. We don’t have
to worry about the Sheriff investigating or shutting down the
pit. I’m sure if he [Sheriff Presgraves] don’t get pressure too…
I’m sure if he gets any pressure, we’ll know unless somebody
hangs onto his fu**in’ elbow.” Taylor added, “[to protect
Boxwood] I’ll make a donation… and he can put that in his
coffers.”
Former Page County Sheriff
Daniel Presgraves
The information and undercover video of bird fighting and
illegal gambling conducted at Boxwood that was obtained by LCA
and State and Federal investigators, lead to a historic raid on
the facility on May 29, 2007. The operators of Boxwood were
arrested and charged with a myriad of crimes relating to animal
fighting and gambling.
Then on October 21, 2008, Sheriff Presgraves was indicted on 22
counts, including a racketeering charge that outlined the
alleged bribe and various other accusations, including the
sexual assault of female employees at the sheriff’s office. On
Friday, September 9, 2009, Presgraves [since resigned from the
Page County Sheriff’s Department] pleaded guilty in U.S.
District Court in Harrisonburg to the racketeering charge.
For the first time in United States history, the newly
legislated Animal Fighting Venture Prohibition Law (U.S. Code –
Title 7, Chapter 54, Section 2156) was utilized to win
convictions in this case and close down a long standing
institution that made its bread and butter from the systematic
abuse of animals. This law and the convictions of these
individuals, along with the work of LCA’s SIU in conjunction
with state local law enforcement will have far reaching effects
in the battle to save animal’s lives and change the way society
thinks about the ramifications of cruelty to animals, especially
when it comes to so-called “sport.”
LCA Investigates Illegal Puppy
Mills by Air
On
July 1, 2009 LCA’s SIU received a plea for help from a San
Bernadino County Humane Officer who had stumbled upon an illegal
dog breeding operation north of Hesperia, CA. She had seized
dozens of dogs from a sweltering “breed and feed” station after
receiving an anonymous tip from a Federal land surveyor. The
humane officer said the illegal kennel could only be accessed by
GPS coordinates and turned out to be adjacent to an abandoned
farm in the Mojave Desert. In her email to LCA, the officer
wrote:
“The conditions at the puppy mill were as bad as it gets… One
puppy was taking her last breath on sand that registered 133
degrees. Most of the dogs were purebreds, Doxie's, Llaso's,
Maltese etc. Some of them so badly matted their feet webbed
together. All the animals were seen by a vet. Some were so bad,
humane euthanasia was recommended by the vet.”
The
humane officer (who had to remain anonymous) was very concerned
that there were other “breed and feed” makeshift kennels in the
same high desert area. Knowing how vast and inaccessible much of
the land is, she knew the only way to check for other dogs in
the area was to fly over them and photograph possible locations
that could then be investigated on the ground. The officer and
others had pleaded with other animal welfare groups to help, but
no one was able to respond to her.
Another concerned animal lover, aware of the situation, wrote in
an email forwarded to LCA:
“…The temperature that day was 106 and the ground temperature
exceeded 120 degrees where the dogs were lying. The water for
the puppies was green with algae and too hot to drink. Some dogs
were found dead and the conditions beyond belief. She and with
the help of the deputies were able to round up more than 120
puppies, small breeds... Due to the thousands of miles of desert
and remote locations, the humane officer and the Humane Society
need assistance by air in flying over the desert area. As a
former law enforcement officer (now retired) I contacted our
local Sheriff's Dept and inquired about the use of their
helicopter or fixed wing airplane for a few hours to fly over
the desert locations. As you well know with a governmental
agency - the process moves very slowly and obviously time is of
the essence as we are now in summer in the Southern California
deserts where the temperatures routinely reach up to 120
degrees. I have not heard whether the Sheriff's dept will be
able to assist and this situation cannot wait.”
LCA’s
SIU and Chris DeRose immediately swung into action. The humane
officer was interviewed by our Director of Investigations and
stated that if there were any other dogs out there in the
desert, it would probably be within a ten mile radius of the
original location. With the approach of an oppressive summer,
time was of the essence in insuring that there were no more
secret locations of dogs in this vast area.
Chris knew of a pilot, Bonny Schumaker, who works for NASA and
might assist us with a flyover of the area. SIU contacted Bonny
and she was more than glad to. Bonny agreed to fly us over the
area so SIU could photograph any more suspicious structures that
we could immediately follow up with on the ground.
On July 5th, with Bonny at the stick, investigators from LCA’s
SIU took off on July 5th from El Monte Airport. We flew over the
San Gabriel Mountains and deep into the Mojave Desert, northeast
of Hesperia. It was only from the air, looking down that one
could grasp the near impossibility of the task at hand. The area
in question was vast, remote, dry as a bone and accessible only
by dirt roads or trails. On top of that the area in question is
near a military base so the lowest we could fly was 6,500 feet.
As Bonny circled, the team photographed and videotaped as many
structures where dogs could be kept as we could. This gave us
some idea of the scope and the lay of the land for our follow up
by car and on foot.
The following day, LCA’s SIU drove to the locations we had
surveyed from Bonny’s Cessna. Even with the aerial surveillance,
the task of locating some of the abandoned structures was
daunting. As the temperature pushed over 100 degrees, the SIU
team went from structure to structure, crossing them off the
list of possible locations for an illegal dog breeder. While in
the field we stumbled upon a Ranger with Bureau of Land
Management. He hadn’t seen any other suspicious activity. We
located and interviewed the ranch owner who we were told knew
the desert in that ten mile radius better than anyone. He
assured us that the individual who had been keeping dogs had
been run off and there were no more dogs out there. We drove
from structure to structure and thoroughly investigated each
one. We also returned to where the dogs had been originally
seized to make sure the breeders were not back in business.
Fortunately, with the help of an aerial surveillance, LCA did
not find any other illegal breeders or suffering dogs in the
area in question. LCA was able to assure the humane officer that
we did everything we could to verify that the dogs she had
seized were the only ones out there for the time being. Of
course, the battle continues to fight legal and illegal dog
breeding operations wherever they may be.
Puppy Mill Investigations
Undercover Photograph of Yorkshire Terrier at World Kennel, April 29th 2009.
In May 2008, as a result of LCA’s SIU investigation, World Kennel was ordered to
reduce the population of dogs in their breeding facility from 402 to 100.
Today, their current population of dogs is about 135. This photograph represents
the life of just one of those dogs inside this Southern California "puppy mill."
LCA'S SIU Takes Cesar Millan Undercover:
LCA’S SIU Investigator blog: “From Pet Store to Puppy Mill”
When Last Chance For Animals' Special Investigations Unit (SIU) began
looking into the practices of boutique pet stores in Los Angeles selling "designer"
dogs for up to $3,500, I would pose as a customer with Kim Sill (our stalwart
volunteer) and ask the sales person a simple question, "Where do your dogs come from?"
Invariably the answer was that the dogs came from a "local breeder" and the mother
and father dog live "on a ranch" – and this idyllic picture would be painted of
where the puppy came from. In a way it makes the customer feel good that
for the money they’re paying, they’re receiving something special. Smelling
a rat, we worked backwards and found the location of the dog's origins, the
idyllic “ranch” and drove out to take a look.
We found the “ranch” called World Kennel, 70 miles north of Los Angeles
in the Palmdale area. With a simple look over a high fence with some
binoculars and a video camera we discovered a breeding system where the parent of that
puppy in the window is kept in a cage or on concrete its whole life.
The noble “mother” portrayed by the salesperson was actually bred over and
over again from various sires and most likely had no idea how to
run on grass, or what a dog treat tastes like. We also discovered that the
breeding facility which normally would be approved to keep as much as
265 dogs six months earlier had recently exploded to a population of 403!
SIU kept World Kennel under surveillance and set out to discover several
more breeding facilities or “ranches,” as they like to say in the pet
stores, which were also breeding dogs in huge numbers. To our shock we
began to understand that somehow Los Angeles was becoming the puppy mill capital
of the West Coast. Last Chance for Animals had to do something about it.
As it turns out, so did Cesar Milan. When the producers of the Dog Whisperer
asked us to take Cesar out with us on our ongoing investigation, I was honored. When
the idea came up of getting Cesar inside a puppy mill, I was baffled. How do
you get the most recognizable dude associated with dogs into a dog factory? However,
if there's one thing Chris DeRose and our investigators are good at it, it's
getting people to let us in. While shooting outside a puppy mill in the desert,
we were approached by the owner. Chris DeRose convinced the owner that we were just
there to inspect and approve the dog factories and Cesar would help us to see that the
dogs there were happy. Within seconds, I was in a pick up truck with Cesar and the
owner, being driven to his kennel, making sure I had enough tape in my hidden camera to capture
my little version of history: Cesar Milan inside a puppy mill. While Cesar quipped with
the cagey owner, and toured the place, I tried to shoot the action with the camera
hidden in my shirt. Somehow our investigation into the practices of puppy mills in So.
California was resulting in getting the most recognizable authority on dogs to see
first hand the conditions that create these dogs’ chronic behaviors. It was awesome.
As we returned back to the crew who was wondering “what happened inside there?” I recalled
that we were getting the answer to that one simple question we’d asked 6 months
before: “Where do your dogs come from?” And the answer, through the
eyes of Cesar Milan, was simple... They come from puppy mills.
-- LCA's Director of Investigations
Cesar Millan: The Dog Whisperer and LCA’s SIU Bonus Undercover Footage
Cesar Millan is not affiliated with LCA. These clips are outtakes from NatGeo’s “Dog Whisperer: Inside Puppymills:
LCA and Antonovitch Lead Puppy Mill Reform Campaign
in Los Angeles County
After LCA’s SIU uncovered the desperate conditions for dogs at World Kennel, a breeding facility near Palmdale, CA that supplied several Los Angeles Puppy “boutiques,” LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovitch (R) invited LCA to spearhead a taskforce to solve the area’s previously unknown puppy mill problem. SIU swung into action overtly and covertly to bring to light “LA’s dirty little secret.” Armed with this video and our report, Mike Antonovitch proposed a motion to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor’s to review ordinances and legislations to effectively ban “Puppy Mills” in the County.
4.
Freedom of Information Act
FOIA is a federal act which allows the public to access the
records of
government agencies, including those that experiment on animals,
upon
request.
