(WXMI) — Dozens of dogs rescued from a puppy mill have arrived in West Michigan.
Friday morning, 98 dogs landed in Grand Rapids before making their way to Harbor Humane Society and other shelters to get checked out and find their forever homes.
The BISSELL Pet Foundation partnered with National Mill Dog Rescue to save more than 225 dogs after authorities pressured a large-scale puppy mill to shut down.
The dogs have been getting help at a rescue facility in Missouri.
Friday, they made their way to rescues in several parts of the country, including Harbor Humane in Ottawa County.
They were initially rescued after law enforcement authorities pushed a large-scale puppy mill operation to close its doors somewhere in the Midwest and a commercial breeding operation shut its doors for good.
“Our dogs will all be going into foster for a few weeks to just really kind of have that decompression period and acclimate, and then we'll work on finding them adoptive homes,” said Jen Self-Aulgur, executive director of Harbor Humane Society.
Self-Aulgur was down in Missouri helping with the process.
“During the last few days, we were helping with cleaning, with vetting - every dog saw a vet, you know, got vaccines, got checked out. And, you know, kind of got a little bit of a behavior assessment,” Self-Aulgur explained.
The dogs have a long road ahead of them before they are adopted out to permanent homes.
Cascades Humane Society took 22 of the dogs into their care and AuSable Valley Animal Shelter took in four.
"BISSELL Pet Foundation's Animal Incident Management initiative is ready to respond when our partners face an overwhelming crisis like this one," said Cathy Bissell, Founder of BISSELL Pet Foundation. "We are honored to support National Mill Dog Rescue with funding, placement and transport needed to remove these deserving dogs from a dangerous situation and give them a chance to find a loving home."
Thursday, legislation was introduced in the Michigan House to phase out the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet stores.
The Puppy Protection Bill, introduced by Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou, aims to end the puppy mill-to-pet store pipeline, driving the “pet market in Michigan toward more humane sources, like shelters, rescues and responsible breeders.”
The Humane Society of the United States reports that since 2021, hundreds of puppies were imported by Michigan pet stores from puppy mill breeders and brokers in the Midwest.
“My legislation to phase out the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet stores will protect animals from inhumane breeding conditions and ensure Michigan consumers are no longer duped into buying cruelly bred, sick or genetically disordered pets,” Tsernoglou said. “Pet stores routinely rely on inhumane breeding practices to procure dogs, cats and rabbits. It’s against the values of our pet-loving state to let this continue. I am calling on Michigan pet lovers to support this important transition to a humane business model for all pet stores statewide.”
In a news release, Tsernoglou said that in the last two years, Michigan pet stores have bought puppies from puppy mills that had been cited for “filthy, feces-filled conditions; denying veterinary care to dogs with open, gaping wounds; and allowing dogs to kill an entire litter of puppies in their enclosure.”
Rep. Tsernoglou noted that while puppies are being imported from puppy mills to pet stores, Michigan shelters are dealing with overcrowding and an increase in the number of pets being surrendered to their care.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, Michigan is one of the top 10 states for pet store consumer complaints.
“We applaud Rep. Tsernoglou for introducing this humane pet store bill to shut down the puppy-mill-to-petstore pipeline in Michigan once and for all,” said Blake Goodman, Michigan state director for the Humane Society of the United States. “This policy will ensure that mother dogs are no longer treated like breeding machines so their puppies can be sold to unsuspecting Michigan consumers.”
The proposed bill mirrors local pet store ordinances already in effect in some Michigan cities, including Ann Arbor, Harbor Springs and St. Clair Shores.
If signed into law, Michigan would join Illinois, New York, Maryland, Maine, Washington and California in enacting this type of policy.
