Posted on 04/28/2006 10:44:39 AM PDT by Wolfstar
Alarmed by cross-border sales of ill pets, animal groups push for law
By Vincent J. Schodolski
Tribune national correspondent
SAN DIEGO -- Sandra McConkey's cocker spaniel had just died. Halloween was approaching when she and her daughter Ashley, then 14, were walking through the parking lot of the Plaza Bonita mall here.
All of a sudden Ashley started shouting, McConkey recalled. "Mommy, look, puppies, let's buy one!"
There in a box were two cocker spaniel puppies. "They were adorable," McConkey said. "They looked just like our dog who had died."
McConkey said she bargained with the Mexican woman selling the puppies, and eventually she and her husband paid $300 for both after being assured they were purebreds and had received the initial inoculations from a veterinarian in Tijuana, just across the border.
Within hours, however, both dogs showed signs of illness, and not long after, both were dead.
"My girls had to watch all this," McConkey said, adding that Ashley and her older sister, Jennie, were terribly upset.
Thousands of puppies brought into the United States from Mexico every year suffer the same fate. According to veterinarians and animal-welfare workers, 75 percent or more of the animals from Mexican puppy farms die within days or weeks.
And now there is increasing traffic in puppies from Eastern Europe, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In response, the group is pushing federal legislation to curb dog smuggling.
[SNIP]
Beyond canine ailments such as parvovirus, distemper and scabies, "these dogs have diseases that can be transmitted to human beings," said Madeline Bernstein, president of the Los Angeles branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She mentioned ringworm and mange as examples.
[SNIP]
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
My remarks are aimed at those who are boycotting Mexican produce.
It seems to me that we want the Mexican economy to get better so that people who are coming here illegally will have more of an incentive to stay home. Jobs would be part of that, and the ability of the Mexican government to export their goods helps that.
Most here have a beef with American companies and individuals who hire illegals to work their fields, which creates a market for illegal workers.
Therefore, boycotting Mexican produce as a way to stage a protest against illegal immigration would be counter productive. Their beef is with American Companies and products.
On the other hand, if this is protesting imports/free trade, the boycott makes sense. It's just that in this case those are two competing issues.
$300 for two puppies she was
ASSURED were pedigree and had
innoculations...by a woman
selling them ON THE STREET?
Never asked for papers...for the
puppies OR the woman?
Ok...still one being born every minute,
Mr. Barnum!
interesting point, i don't see the solution in that statement though
I am sick and tired of the arrogance of the third-world dirtbag Mexican government and their occupying army here in the states. I am sick and tired of our politicians; the demonrats are an anti-American 5th column and the Repub's in the Senate are gutless wonders who could care less about those, like us here on FR, who got them to where they are.
You are still trying to find constructive and mature reactions responses and are hoping to find reasonable solutions to the problem, and I commend you in this. The Mexican government is so corrupt that no matter how much their economy improves, there will be little trickle down and the illegals will still keep trying to make it here.
I, on the other hand, am older and more cynical. I see no way out of the problem. Our politicians will betray us, the media will aid and abet this, and ultimately there will probably be something resembling a civil was in this country.
So, I'm just trying to throw a monkey wrench in wherever I can.
Besides, having spent a lot of my life in third-world countries, I can assure you that their ideas regarding hygiene are considerably different from ours. So it is partly out of health concerns that I will buy no produce grown in third-world countries.
I might have offered to buy the pups provided she was willing to accept paperless money.
Its not that they are soft-hearted. Its more that they think they are getting 'a deal' on a pure bred dog which might be $1000 or more here in the US at some pet store. I'm going to have to chalk this one up to Americans being stupid if they are going to Tijuana to buy things period.
Poobear, with respect, which pinglist would that be? I don't keep any.
I'm a volunteer puppy trainer for a guide dog organization -- and out of fear of PARVO, we puppy raisers aren't allowed to put our puppies' paws on the ground anywhere (except inside our homes and on leash immediately outside), until two weeks after their THIRD parvo vaccination.
So we have carry the lil' critters around everywhere until they're 15 weeks. Gets pretty heavy!
The risk is real..... good tips!
Is that a Leonard Cohen tagline?
I dunno, I get pinged with these Doggie pings daily. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Obviously, neither is a perfect option given the bleakness of the regime. However, I can see why at least having some control over their financial decisions is a better choice than giving them no options and allowing them to control things like our oil acquisition.
I digress. But I think you can see my point. In this case, I was looking for an explanation of goals from x1stcav before I commented further. But too late! : )
The woman in the article bought the pups in San Diego.
I'm not interested in the stupidity of people, just in the suffering of the pups. I posted the article to call attention to this problem.
Yeah, it is very sad.
Poobear, I'm the one who pinged you to the doggieping list... do you want off that list?
Oh, I get it. "Hair," apparently poobear is on your Doggie ping list and wants off. Thanks. :)
Really sad stuff (especially for the puppies). However, how stupid do you have to be to pay $300 for puppies from someone out of a box in a parking lot? Why would you imagine anything they told you was true? The consumer gets what they deserve, I suppose, but the poor dogs do not.
susie
I've removed you. :~D
ah, well that explains it. bug him some more 'till we get an answer then :)
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