Animal Dealers: Licensed to Kill

Animal dealers are part of a complex network that supplies an endless stream of animals to research facilities. Each year, millions of companion animals in the United States disappear, and an estimated 2 million of these are stolen, often out of their own yards in broad daylight.(1) Many stolen animals wind up in laboratories, where they are force-fed poisons, exposed to radiation, addicted to chemicals, or subjected to other painful procedures.

The Dealer Network
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for licensing animal dealers and enforcing the federal Animal Welfare Act, which sets minimum standards of housing and care. Anyone who sells animals to laboratories must be licensed. Class A dealers maintain their own breeding colonies, while Class B dealers can obtain dogs and cats from “random sources,” defined as “animal pounds or shelters, auction sales, or from any person who did not breed and raise them on his or her premises.”(2)

For a nominal fee, anyone can obtain a USDA Class B dealer license. While licensees are required to provide a kennel with adequate shelter and veterinary care, dealers are generally not willing to cut their profits by providing medical attention for sick or injured animals. An abundance of new arrivals makes mortalities “affordable.”

In states that allow “pound seizure,” Class B dealers can buy animals from pounds and animal shelters. Rural flea markets and animal auctions, where animals are sold for a pittance, also provide animals for Class B dealers, who can receive hundreds of dollars for each animal.

“Bunchers” are a vital source of animals in the dealers’ network. Using sedatives hidden in meat, females in heat, and nets, they lure or trap dogs and cats. Some thieves pose as animal-control officers and comb neighborhoods in vans, “impounding” animals without tags. “Free to a good home” newspaper ads are another way for bunchers to obtain animals. Posing as part of a caring family, the buncher may take a child with him or her when picking up a free animal. Bunchers often clear out entire neighborhoods, then transport the animals across several states to avoid detection, although some animals are sold locally. Animals are also stolen during burglaries, as well as from cars, sidewalks, and shopping areas.

Classroom Casualties
Some dealers make a living exclusively from selling animals for dissection. A PETA undercover investigation revealed that the largest suppliers of animals for dissection depend on Class B dealers to keep their inventory well stocked. Investigators documented deplorable conditions at a cattery operated by John H. Wise—a dealer who supplied live cats to Ward’s Scientific Establishment—including live cats who were being housed in filthy cages with dead cats. His cousin, Al Wise, operated a similar cattery and sold cats to Carolina Biological Supply Company. Despite these facilities’ claims that they only deal in animals euthanized at local pounds, undercover videotape showed that deliveries of live cats, many wearing collars, were common. Upon arrival, the animals were shoved into gas chambers and hooked to embalming machines. The cats would visibly struggle as formaldehyde was injected into their bloodstreams.

Hell Begins Before the Lab
PETA’s undercover investigations have revealed many other abuses in the dealer pipeline, including kicking, beating, and throwing animals into holding pens; overcrowded transport conditions; maggot-infested food; lack of food, water, and veterinary care; newborn animals who were crushed to death or eaten alive by stressed cagemates; and lack of shelter in extreme weather.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) inspectors are responsible for monitoring dealer facilities for compliance with regulations pertaining to recordkeeping, the physical conditions of the facilities, and the animals themselves. However, enforcement is extremely weak, and most inspectors allow dealers to repeatedly “correct” violations. In many cases, activists have documented consistent, severe violations and pressured the USDA for years before action was taken. The few dealers who are ordered to close down have been known to transfer ownership of the kennel to family members in order to beat the system.

Companion-Animal Protection
There are several steps that guardians can take to prevent the theft of their animal companions. Most importantly, don’t leave animals unattended in the car or yard, and don’t let them run loose. Make sure that they are wearing tags with your name, current address, and telephone number on them. Have dogs microchipped (www.helpinganimals.com/h-microchip.html) or tattooed through the National Dog Registry (www.nationaldogregistry.com or 1-800-NDR-DOGS). It is a crime in some states to perform experiments on animals with tattoos. Watch for suspicious trucks or vans that seem to hang around in your neighborhood; get license plate numbers, good descriptions, and photographs, and report them to your local humane society or police.

What You Can Do
The following tips will also help you combat companion-animal theft:
• Identify local dealers. A listing of licensed dealers in all 50 states is available from the APHIS Web site at www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/publications.html (see “Facility Lists”).
• Attend auctions where animals are sold and traded. Try to blend in with the crowd. Take photographs of dealers, their vehicles, and license plates. If possible, photos of animals should be close-ups and should show a dealer with the animal in his or her vehicle. Be discreet—use a hidden camera, if possible. Take notes on who is selling to whom. Once you determine who the suppliers and buyers are and what states they are from, you can connect with activists in those areas to set up a network for tracing stolen dogs and cats. Pay special attention to unusual-looking dogs; make fliers with their photos or descriptions and distribute them to animal shelters. Keep track of “lost” ads in newspapers, and watch for those animals to appear at auctions.
• If a stolen animal is positively identified in a dealer’s possession, report it to USDA officials in your state and demand that the dealer’s records be inspected. Contact the media—the story might make headlines and curb more theft. Urge the animal’s owner to press charges against the dealer for possession of stolen property and for damages such as veterinary bills.
• Place an ad in the classified section of your newspaper that says: “PET THEFT ALERT: Don’t let your companion animal end up in a research experiment. Don’t place ‘free to a good home’ ads or leave animals alone outdoors. Check out new homes thoroughly before allowing an adoption. Call _____ (your phone number or PETA’s) for more information.” Contact PETA for a supply of “Finding the Right Home for Your Companion Animal” brochures; then call people who are advertising free animals and offer to send them a copy.
• Spay or neuter your companion animals, and educate others about doing the same. With so many unwanted animals changing hands, dealers have an easy job of filling their kennels.
• Arm yourself with the facts by reading Stolen for Profit by Judith Reitman (1992, Pharos Books). This book exposes the medical establishment’s funding of a national pet-theft ring.
• For more information, call the Pet Theft Citizens Network at 1-800-STOLEN-PETS. This is not a lost companion-animal retrieval service but rather a network set up to track dealer activity.

References

1) Judith Reitman, Stolen For Profit, New York: Kensington Books, 1992.
2Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, “Title 9—Animals and Animal Products,” Code of Federal Regulations, 1 Jan. 1999.