Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill Meltdown: A Future Ahead

Another day, and again progress. As I write this, the counter shows we reached our target of a 1,000 signatures. In just 4 days. How can I possibly even start to thank you for this? I am deeply grateful and in awe over your involvement in this case.

Pia, Merete and me will jump in the car tomorrow and deliver your signatures to the Chief of Police, Niels Danny Sørensen. Niels is the actual nr.1 person in Denmark that can push T.H.E. button for the final 33 dogs to get out now. Will Niels be my next best friend? We'll find out soon.

Thanks to the growing media attention we can show you this video of the first group of dogs - press play above - that were rescued yesterday. And please do press play, there is no scary footage, just dogs that celebrate their first day on the way towards a new future. The clip about the dogs is from about 30 seconds in, and around 2½ minutes long.

The video, shown on the network TV2 Øst, is in Danish. In short, you will hear Rikke Christenen-Lee, the veterinarian of the animal welfare organization "Dyrenes Beskyttelse", say: "Their fur hides a lot, but when you look closer you will first see the bad shape they really are in." Rikke continuous: "This is a very disturbing case of severe neglect, it is incomprehensible the police have not acted in this case and seized the dogs earlier". The dogs were not abused: "We cannot find any evidence somebody actually did try to harm them physically, they are in a bad shape caused by pure neglect".

Police Chief Niels Danny Sørensen was also interviewed, and on the question "Do you think you have responded to this case in good time?" his answer says it all "That's always something you can discuss, but we responded based on those standards we use and the statements of professionals we received." Stop. Did Niels just answered "No"?. It sounded a lot like "No, because our standards were not equipped for this, and our veterinarians were wrong".

Back to the dogs. There were rumors that they also still bred Golden Retrievers - originally they had two kennels, one for Hovawarts and one for Golden Retrievers - and the footage confirms this. There where a couple of Goldens among them, I have no numbers yet. But boy, I couldn't do anything else then smile when I saw this Golden on the right keeping his dog bowl in this mouth with an expression on his face like he landed in heaven.

And they did land in heaven. The staff of "Dyrenes Beskyttelse" are professionals. Vet's, behavioral experts, facilities. They are exactly in the place they need to be right now to have their "mental timeout".

Earlier today i talked with "Dyrenes Beskyttelse" about all of you that mailed me you would like to adopt one of the dogs or volunteer in the shelter.

They were so happy to hear that, especially because you all were experienced Hovawart owners and some of you had a dog with issues from the puppy mill before. It also warmed my heart, when you, some of you heartbroken about the issues you had with your pets from that place, directly opened that same heart once more to adopt, very well knowing what you are possibly getting into.

Dyrenes Beskyttelse asks for your patience:

"It will take time before the dogs are fully recovered. They each will get their own health plan, and have to be re-socialized, before we can go to the next step. Only our professional staff is working with them now. First when they are healthy and can function as family dogs, we will set them up for adoption."

When that goal is reached, and I am sure they will, all dogs will be set up for adoption over here, where you can apply.

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For the latest and how you can help, visit the page Stop Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill.

Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill Meltdown: First Dogs Saved

The first dogs are saved. They were handed over by the owner into the care of the animal welfare organization "Dyrenes Beskyttelse". They are as we speak in the shelter of  "Dyrenes Beskyttelse" in Roskilde.

The staff in the shelter are first and foremost giving the dogs a "mental time-out", considering that the dogs have never been outside before and only have seen the inside of a cage their entire life.

They are all in poor shape. They are underweight, have bad teeth and open wounds. Their fur is matted and dirty. But they are safe, rescued from a life of torture and are now making their first steps into a new future. They will be fed, their wounds healed and their fur cleaned. All dogs will go up for adoption, but first when they are ready, received the proper care and are re-socialized. Something we can all rejoice.

Remarkable is that this first group of dogs are given up by the owner of the puppy mill voluntarily. "Dyrens Beskyttelse" is in a continuous dialog with the man, and yesterday he agreed to hand over some of the dogs. When they finally went into the stables to get the dogs, the sight they met was different from what was told by be the police though.

What "Dyrenes Beskyttelse" told me, was:

"we could retrieve 23 dogs in agreement with the owner. After seizing the dogs and moving them to our shelter in Roskilde, 2 unfortunately had to be euthanized immediately, as they were in very bad shape. After their first medical examination of the others, 4 more dogs had to be euthanized. Unfortunately we found 33 more dogs on the property. Vi hope to convince the owner to hand over the remaining dogs as well, so they can receive the necessary care and medical treatment as soon as possible."

The "official" number so far of dogs inside the property has thereby gone up, as there are not 40, but as much as 55 dogs found inside the property. It is not only unfortunate that the number is higher than first was given, it also makes me doubt about how thorough the investigation of the police and their vet's has been, when you miss no less than 15 dogs.

Looking past the numbers, the bigger picture is that "Dyrenes Beskyttelse" is actively coming into the case now and they have established a dialog with the owner. The first dogs are saved. Most of them are still alive and looking at a new future, for others their suffering has at least ended. All in all positive turn of events and hopefully the developments keep going as fast as they have been going the last couple of days. Then we achieve the goal of having the dogs out as soon as possible, instead of February 1, which is still the plan the police would like to follow.

We have to try to get them all out. Keep up the pressure in support of "Dyrenes Beskyttelse". Please keep sharing and signing for the dogs that are left behind. It would be great if Pia and me could handover your 1000 signatures to the Mayor soon. We only need 160 more signatures:

Danish Police: Shut Down Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill
and Rescue 40 Hovawart Dogs

And a final message to all the fellow campaigners that read this. There is more focus on the case now. The Danish Kennel Club reported about it today and "will ensure authorities are aware of the events". Politicians are now starting to answer the mails we send "because they see there is a lot of concern and they have received multiple inquiries about the issue". One journalist, Allan Grassberger of the paper "Dagbladet", is now reporting daily about the puppy mill, and he will include our petition in the next article. Thank you all for your writing efforts, it is a huge job, but it also is bearing fruit.

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For the latest and how you can help, visit the page Stop Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill.

Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill Meltdown: Help Is On The Way

Anja's boarding facility (photo from "Hundefristedet")

Wonderful news today. Anja Maindal, owner of a dog holiday boarding facility, offered to house all forty dogs from the puppy mill. Heroes do exist. Or is she a saint? She is probably both.

Anja's dog holiday boarding facility is in the slow part of the season right now, and she has plenty of room to house the dogs so they can be taken care of. Even better, Anja is also an educated behavioral specialist, so she could work with the dogs that have socialization issues. And we can make a best guess, after what these dogs have been through, deprived of human contact and living in cages, they probably will need it.

With good news there always follows some sour too, unfortunately. The police still doesn't act and didn't accept Anja's offer. They send Anja over to the Animal Welfare organization "Dyrenes Beskyttelse" and those two together now have the plan to try to talk sense into the owner and see if they can get the dogs. The police could have ended it today once and for all, and they have the possibility to do so based on Art.21/22 of the Animal Cruelty Act. The next I write is purely guessing, but as animal welfare has such a low priority (read: budget) the police probably doesn't want to pick up the bill, which they should when they seize the dogs and house them.

Let's cross our fingers for Anja, and that the talks with the puppy mill owner have a good outcome.

Other positive news is that the national media starts to show interest for the story, which would give a lot of exposure. Nothing published yet, but they are informing themselves with yours truly. Undoubtedly created by the petition you all signed and shared so vigorously together with those of you that participated in writing personal emails to authorities and the press. In less than two days, you already collected more than 500 signatures. If we can double that in the next two days I am going - together with any of you that want to join - over to the the Mayor of Faxe, and handover the petition. Please drop me a mail or a Facebook message if you would like to join.

We havn't achieved our goal yet, but I really want to thank you all already now for your amazing support and what you are doing for our Hovawarts. Some of you have also invested a lot of your time into this already, just because you thought this was a cause worth fighting for. You are all my heroes. And if you haven't signed yet:

Danish Police: Shut Down Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill
and Rescue 40 Hovawart Dogs

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For the latest and how you can help, visit the page Stop Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill.

Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill Meltdown: Police Is Failing

Kenzo is barking his longs out to get his fourty friends removed from the puppy mill in the town of Haslev, Denmark. And yes, this is a shameless plee if you will not bark with us, by signing this petition:

Danish Police: Shut Down Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill
and Rescue 40 Hovawart Dogs

If you have not read sunday's post, the short version of what happened is that a long-time Hovawart puppy mill in Denmark is melting down due to economic and health issues with the owners. Fourty Hovawart dogs inside the puppy mill are caught in the middle. They live in an abandoned property, severly underweight and are being neglected. Police has given the owners until February 1, to bring things in order. The Danish Animal Welfare organization, "Dyrenes Beskyttelse", fears for the dogs survival and is afraid they won't make it that long.

Today we learned that the health and economic conditions of the owners are very severe. The property - with the dogs still in it - is foreclosed, and the new place the owners moved to, soon has to be abandoned as well. It is very likely the owners will not be able to recover their business.

We also learned the police fails in handling the situation. They revoked the puppy mill's license based on the the Danish Regulation For Commercial Breeding. A good step although long overdue. More important, they neglected to address the state of health of the dogs. The dogs are in such a bad shape, that this is not about a breeding license, this is a downright animal cruelty case, and falls under the Animal Protection Act which obliges the police to either seize or euthanize the animals when the owner apparantly is not able to take care of them (Art. 21 and 22).

The police won't move unless asked questions by politicians. Politicians won't move if we don't tell them loud and clear: There is only one priority at this moment. The dogs must get out of there. Now.

The petition targets the local Chief of Police, the Mayor, local Town Hall members, and the Danish Minister of Agriculture and Animal Welfare. If you would like to send them your own letter or e-mail, that would even be better. 

We can give you more information from inside the puppy mill soon, as one of their former employees has come forward with her story.

But first we have to get the dogs out. Please sign and share with your friends. I know you will, you love dogs as much as I do when you read this blog. Thank you.

***

For the latest and how you can help, visit the page Stop Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill.

Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill Meltdown: 40 Hovawarts In Harms Way

The notorious Danish Hovawart puppy mill  "Hof-Joy", otherwise known as "kennel Hovawart", is now in serious trouble. Due to financial problems and health issues with one of the owners, the kennel couldn't keep up their appearances when they were visited by the Danish police in October last year.

The police found up to 40 Hovawarts in horrible conditions inside the property, and some were completely emaciated and in very bad shape. Their license to breed Hovawarts was revoked by the police and  the Danish animal welfare protection agency ("Dyrens Beskyttelse") was put on the case. The property is being foreclosed and the family moved to a rental property close by. Still, the Hovawarts remained in the abandoned property. Even today the family is still trying to sell their current litters. A contact informs: "there is a litter of 10 puppies, they are 14 weeks old. One of them was sold to a person who never owned a dog before and is an alcoholic".

A recent visit by the police showed the dogs were being fed, but still the circumstances were horrendous, and the police mentions in particular that "the stench of ammonia due to urine and feces was unbearable". The kennel has until February 1 to bring the number of dogs down to 10.

I wonder how in earth police and animal welfare organizations have not removed the dogs already, and even gives the kennel yet another chance to survive. They have been doing this since at least 2006. What more facts do we need to make this stop?

Anyhow, I wanted to have this quick message out to all you Hovawart lovers. Contact each other, contact your clubs, contact the Danish Hovawart Club, as we might expect that very soon the future of 40 Hovawarts is decided upon. Let's discuss with each other what we can do as I am afraid their fate doesn't look good. It is best to be prepared. They are probably in very poor condition and poorly socialized. There is a real risk police and animal welfare officers will euthanize them.

Maybe you remember Bamira? She was recently acquired to breed  more generations in this puppy mill. We reported about Bamira in Victims Of A Hovawart Puppy Mill when we heard the story of her former owner, that wanted to stay anonymous at the time. In October last year however, her owner, Pia Skovmose, went public and was on Danish TV.  What will happen to the 40 Hovawarts. What will happen to Bamira? She is in there, trying to survive in that filth, with her 39 companions.

This is the time, where we as a Hovawart family have to reach out and help each other, and make ready to help our Hovawarts.

Please discuss with each other what we can do to help would it get that far the dogs are seized. Not only to help with possible adoptions or re-homing. But any other way we can think of. Like trying to help the Danish animal welfare organization understand the Hovawart better to prepare them, or build a network where people that adopt can refer to for advice, etc. Any ideas are welcome, and you can leave it in the comments area below, send me a mail to kenzohw (at) gmail (dot) com, or open a discussion in the Facebook group Stop Hovawart.dk.

Sadly, let us hope it comes that far. Because the alternative is that the kennel will continue to spread their horror, or that authorities will euthanize most, if not all, dogs.

Update January 13:
A contact informed me "that the animal welfare organization already had to euthanize 12 dogs, due to the poor condition they were in". We also started a petition you can sign and share:

Danish Police: Shut Down Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill
and Rescue 40 Hovawart Dogs

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For the latest and how you can help, visit the page Stop Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill.

How To Rescue a Dog by Play

Just. Click. Play.

You don't have to watch, just press play.

I'll explain after the video.



I know you have seen videos like this before. I know you hate to look at it again. You don't have to watch it. I only need you to press play.

You pressed play! Thank you!

Now I can explain. The video reveals more than 160 puppy mills and puppy trafficker operations in Belgium. One of the smaller countries in Europe about the size of New York. The thing is that Belgium TV networks refused to air this very well-researched documentary. The rescue group behind the video, Animal Trust, decided to go viral.

If they would score a high number of "views", the rescue group can use those numbers to convince the Belgium TV networks to air it. If the quality of the documentary won't help, maybe viewer ratings will. No network refuses good viewer ratings.

That's why you pressing "play" in this case is so important.

People must know. People that don't read blogs like this one. Normal Belgium's that see television and don't know this is going on in their country. They have a right to know. First when they know, change can start. Because they are the next generation of puppy buyers.

You probably also thought that Europe was far ahead in solving the issue with puppy mills and puppy trafficking. Like a lot of Europeans actually also think. The reality is unfortunately the opposite. And it is not only Belgium, it is a lot more expanded than that. If you would like to know more how Europe is really doing, read our guest blog over at Cindy Lu's Muse about puppy mills in Europe: Wake-Up Call For Western Europe.

Today bloggers around the world unite for dog rescue and the rights of dogs. Visit the organizers Blog Catalog, Dog Rescue Success or Be The Change For Animals for more. Keep on reading and sharing!

You are not cheating me right? Please go back and press play. Alright then, I beg you. Officially.

Update July 26:
For bloggers that would like to help getting the word out, I made a small video widget that you can show in your blog's sidebar. An example of it is on the top-right of this blog. The widget contains the video, and a link to this page explaining the background of why it is important. To get it, grab the code below the widget, and copy/paste it as HTML on your blog's sidebar.

Bloggers Join Together To Campaign For Dog Rescue

Viva in the local shelter

It is hard to imagine that Viva once was unwanted and not loved. She was returned to a shelter, not once, but twice in her short life. Now she is living with us, and we find it hard to imagine how life would be without Viva. And how much we would have missed out on, if we hadn't found her.

There are many more dogs like Viva. To help, more then 10,000 bloggers around the world join forces on July 23, to raise awareness for dog rescue and the rights of dogs.

Please join this global event if you have a blog. Or share blogs you read on that day about dog rescue on your Twitter streams, Facebook timelines, etc.

On July 23 this blog will raise the case for dogs in Europe. Many in Europe see the rescue shows on Animal Planet, National Geographic Channel and others and think puppy mills and abuse of dogs is mainly an American problem. But if you look a little harder, you will see the issues in Europe are very much alike. Stay tuned.

For more information about the event and how to join, visit Blog Catalog, Dog Rescue Success or Be The Change For Animals.

Victims of a Hovawart Puppy Mill

This is Bamira. A young female Hovawart puppy from Poland. The future of Bamira looks pale. Will she churn out the next generations of profit for a puppy mill?

On the picture she is on her way to the notorious Danish Hovawart puppy mill known as "Hof-joy", "Hovawart-puppies.com" or just "Hovawart.dk".

Bamira was led to believe she would leave Poland and her family to join a loving Hovawart family in Denmark. But instead, she finds herself in the worst place possible a Hovawart in Denmark can be. A place where many Hovawarts have suffered before her and from where their misery is exported all over the world.

The Danish contact - let's call her "Jen" - that was involved in getting Bamira from Polen to Denmark was mislead. Now that she knows the truth behind Bamira's new "home", she tries everything in her power to get Bamira back. But Bamira has no rights. The law is not on her side, and sees her as a product with a buyer agreement. The outcome is not yet clear.

Together with the Hovawart male, the puppy mill acquired last year - also under false pretenses -, it is again an indication this puppy mill is making steps to come back in business. Business went bad, as many puppies died in the first weeks after arriving at their families and resulted in a lot of bad publicity. But even then, they have been selling. Also after they lost their membership of the Danish Kennel Club and the Danish Hovawart Club, as was confirmed by two people that bought Hovawarts with them during that period. They would like to stay anonymous so I will call them "Jenna" and "Jen", who we already introduced.

Jenna is from the US and did all she could to verify the "breeder". She asked a lot of questions concerning her upcoming dog and the parents. She also checked references. Jenna wanted to show her Hovawart and maybe breed so she needed FCI papers. But when the puppy arrived at the airport there were no papers. All her queries went unanswered, and she never received the papers.

What Jenna didn't know was that the "breeder" was ousted by the Kennel Club the year before, so FCI papers was a promise they couldn't deliver. Luckily, Jenna's Hovawart is besides an allergy problem healthy. Of course he is loved, and he is a part of the family now, although the future turned out differently then expected.

Jen from Denmark has a similar story. Unfortunately her Hovawart has mental issues, and she is getting help from good people from the Danish Hovawart Club to re-socialize him and build his confidence. And even worse is that Jen also was tricked in getting Bamira to Denmark by the owners of the puppy mill. You can understand how guilt feelings plague her, when Jen found out the place is actually a puppy mill.

Both Jen and Jenna want their stories told as a warning for future puppy buyers to avoid this "breeder". It also shows how buying a puppy overseas without actually meeting up face to face and getting access to local information is almost impossible. Phone, mail, internet and Facebook is their first and best weapon. The same goes for a breeder like Bamira's. Selling overseas is like giving up your pup, if you do not have a network in that country.Or do not chose to use it.

There are a lot of victims in this story. Bamira. Jenna and Jen. All for the profit of few.

***

Update January 16, 2013:
I had to rectify the original story where I wrote that the Polish breeder and the Polish contact were involved in trying to get Bamira out of the puppy mill. This is not the case. They have not taken any action whatsoever. The only person who is trying to get Bamira out, is "Jen", supported in her efforts of many Hovawart friends. Thanks to my Polish readers for bringing this to my attention.

***

For the latest and how you can help, visit the page Stop Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill.

Selling Puppies In Pet Stores? The Ghost Is Back In Germany

Selling puppies in pet stores in Germany? Many responded in chock, wasn't this illegal? No. It was taboo, but it was never illegal. There was so much red tape involved in selling puppies through pet stores, the industry simply gave up.

Last week the whole of Northern Europe, including me, woke up from our dream when Norbert Zajac, owner of the largest pet store in the world according to the Guinness book of records, opened his puppy wing. According to Norbert Zajac, he expects to sell around a 1000 puppies per year.

Norbert Zajac created something that looks a lot like a 5-star hotel for dogs, which allowed him to comply with all the regulations, and there is nothing the law can do about it. Dogs have ample space, beds, toys, are walked, there is veterinary care, air conditioning, ... the works. (Follow this link, if you are interested to see the facilities, in the middle of the article in German is a video).

Window dressing in optima-forma nonetheless:

• We still have puppies that in the most important period of their life - the socialization period between 8 and 12 weeks - spent most of their time confined in a golden cage. And therefore have the highest risk of ending in a shelter because of behavioral issues. 
• Also, there is no responsible breeder in the world that would let their pups be sold through an outlet, without the opportunity to check the future owner. 
• Puppy mills and backyard breeders have no problem pushing puppies through Norbert Zajac though. Even worse, it has now become easier for them to get away from the illegal "car-trunk" selling again, and appear legal once more.

PETA Germany organized demonstrations already a half year ago, when Norbert Zajac filed the paperwork for his permits. (here is a video of such a demonstration, you will also see them having a discussion with Norbert Zajac).

But now the ghost is back. So what can we do? PETA Germany organized a petition. For each signature a mail is send to Norbert Zajac. Until now more than 38,000 signatures have been collected. The petition is in German, but here is a picture I made with some instructions in English to help (click on the picture to enlarge):

English instructions (click to enlarge)

You can also like the FB page "Initiative against puppy discount" that PETA Germany created on Facebook.

I really hope you could help and sign the petition. Maybe we can still stop this in it's initial steps, before it is too late, and we have pet shops selling puppy mill dogs in Northern-Europe once again.

Take the pledge: Boycott Petland

download this "pledge" and share

In an attempt to have Petland USA follow the example of their Canadian branch to stop selling pets from their pet stores that come from puppy mills, a petition was raised. In just one month it already gathered more than 45,000 votes.

When confronted with the results, Petland management decided in all their wisdom to ignore the results and even made up a genuine conspiracy theory.

As a response, a call for action from change.org, the BTC4Animals team and Mary Haight from DancingDogBlog was organized to join a social media protest for a boycott of Petland USA.

Everybody could join by placing a "pledge" badge on the FB walls of the Petland franchises. In an attempt to stop the bad publicity Petland USA closed their FB walls.

WE SHOULDN'T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT.

It is appaling they can still turn a blind eye for the practices that are going on, continue to sustain puppy mills that use dogs as breeding machines. Kept in small cages and never seeing the light of day.

In Europe this was banned 2 decades ago, Petland Canada stopped selling pets through pet stores. Other chains in the US stopped as well. Clearly Petland USA knows this. But they choose to ignore it and make money on the suffering of dogs.

Join this action and take the pledge by sharing the badge on your FB wall, blog or other social media. And lets keep on voting and sharing the petition as well.

Europe No-Kill by 2016?

image courtesy of michellehenry.fr

Animal welfare for pets varies enormously throughout Europe. Not only do countries legislate differently. Even towns legislate differently. Last week's story on Dancing Dog Blog about the Swiss town threatening to put down dogs for unpaid taxes was yet another example. Thankfully the Swiss government quickly stopped the local authorities before any dog could get hurt. A painful reminder of the incoherent policies throughout Europe.

Seen in this light, there was positive news last November that this is about to change. The EU announced that the protection of companion animals - meaning dogs and cats - will be integrated in EU animal welfare legislation. See the press release her: Good news from Brussels: Dogs and cats under protection of the EU. When the EU legislates, it overulles all other country and community laws. In one blow they are able to harmonise all legislation about animal welfare.

The plan

What does the plan from the EU entail? It is very ambitious. They will focus from 2011 onwards on companion animals as part of their animal welfare policy for the first time. The overall goal is that no more healthy pets are put down by 2016. In short: No-Kill in the whole of Europe. Some of the measures that will be implemented are:

• birth control
• closing of puppy mills
• EU wide pet licensing and registration
• rules for breeding and trading

All will benefit. Even countries like Germany and the Netherlands that already have the above in place, suffer from puppy mills in Eastern European countries that keep the illegal influx of puppies alive. Germany is an excellent example of what can be accomplished by the plan. Their efforts have resulted in only 8% of the population owning a dog. As far as I know, Germany is no-kill already. Compare that to France with a much softer legislation where 38% of the population has a dog. Great-Britain with 23% and 15,000 healthy dogs killed each year. The southern and eastern countries have even more issues. Strays, puppy mills, etc. So many lives can be saved. It would be great if we could follow the German and Dutch scenario all over Europe without local exceptions.

Can the EU make a difference?

The goals are ambitious and sound like music to my ears. As wonderful this news might seem, I have mixed feelings about it. The EU is definitely the place that could make a change, unfortunately it is also the Mecca of bureaucracy and compromise. The track record of the EU in the area of animal welfare is very poor. So far they have only focused on life-stock and progress in this area is futile, hindered by big fat agricultural lobby groups.

I hope the EU can break with its own past and accomplish their goals. This is their chance. No, this is our chance. The pet industry, puppy mills in particular, have no EU lobby power like agriculture. Neither is it likely they have the financial means to build up an EU sized lobby. On the other hand we have also seen the whole of Europe making the wrong decisions in animal welfare due to some farmers going to the barricades in just one of the member states.

Fair enough. I am excited, this gives hope nonetheless.

First steps

The action plan has just been set in place, and therefore nothing concrete has come out of Brussels yet. But some first steps already are visible. At the moment they are building websites to inform the public and gathering data to develop the policies. Everything will be published online. Keep your eyes on this unfolding website: http://www.carodog.eu/. Data from all European countries and from most other countries in the world will be collected here, with numbers and performance indicators about companion animal welfare. How many dogs are sheltered, how many re-homed, put down etc. Together with showcases of successful projects, the tools to analyze it, and what was done to reach those numbers. Compared per country. Bookmark this site, it will become a rich source of information.

Danish Hovawart puppy mill active again

Any regular reader of this blog knows I am a big fan of the Hovawart breed and both my dogs are Hovawarts. Unfortunately, Hovawarts in Denmark have a bad reputation because of health and mental issues. Why? Most of them come from a puppy mill called the Hovawart Kennel. After some years in hiding, they have now become active again. They also started exporting to the USA under the name Hovawart puppies.

Bad rep

The first time I went to our vet with Kenzo he was still the smallest of puppies. Our vet was in chock. "Oh no, a Hovawart? Where did you get him?". She was relieved to hear he didn't come from the puppy mill. She told me about the "Hovawart Kennel" and that all her former Hovawart patients came from this notorious breeder, and she had to put all of them out of their misery before the age of three, except one. And this is not the lucky one, he had a very expensive hip replacement, and can still not walk properly.

It didn't get better when I tried to find a club to train small Kenzo. They were reluctant to take on a Hovawart, as they had so many bad experiences with them. They did let me join a class. One of the owners of a German Shepherd Dog even threatened my health if his dog would get hurt by Kenzo.

Hovawart puppies for sale

As it seemed, the "Hovawart Kennel" has been active in Denmark for almost 15 years. Under different names, like "Kennel Hof-Joy", but with the same owners and on the same address. They have been exposed several times by puppy buyers that lost their dogs very early, even days after buying a Hovawart puppy. They have been in a TV-special about puppy mills on Danish television. The Danish Kennel Club and the Danish Hovawart Club (both officially recognized by FCI) threw them out. The police investigated circumstances and found the dogs in very bad conditions. Unfortunately, by Danish law, they were only fined with an amount less then the price of a puppy. Ridiculously low. A lot of owners appeared on television, complained on Internet forums, but nobody stepped forward to press charges.

Under the radar

It went quiet in a couple of years in which they apparently have been living in the USA. But now they are surfacing again under a new name in Hovawart circles. This time because they have acquired a Hovawart from another breeder, and have been using this dog for litters outside of the control of the Danish Hovawart Club and the Danish Kennel Club. No complaining owners yet. But it is very suspicious that they re-registered this dog in the Continental Kennel Club, which is not recognized by the FCI. The dog was already officially registered with the Danish Kennel Club, an FCI-recognized organisation. Obviously not something you can use in this type of business. Even worse, as it turned out the owner of "Hovawart Kennel" is also the owner or representative of the Danish branch of the "Continental Kennel Club". And that is more then just a conflict of interests. It is the setup of a hoax.

The breeder of which they acquired the Hovawart that should serve as a stud, repented. He went public by placing adds on the Internet warning people about the kennel being active again. Kudos for this breeder, that made a mistake, but didn't want to hide and went public instead.

Absent voices

But apart from this one breeder it is awfully quiet. The website of the Danish Hovawart Club has a list of responsible breeders, but doesn't mention which bad breeders are active. They don't mention anything that has transpired in the last 15 years. The Danish Kennel Club is not much better. They only have one hidden reference under the old name of "Kennel Hof-Joy" on their website, a moderate "we knew" response to one of those (now outdated) TV-programs that has been aired years ago. One could expect a more pro-active attitude from the people that strive for the perfection of all dog breeds. At least a regularly updated blacklist of breeders. On the Internet please. Where the fight is taking place.

Apparently law in Denmark is not equipped for this kind of situations. The police has no real power and can only fine the breeders for ridiculously low amounts. It is very bitter that this can happen in the same country that has just accepted a new Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) to ban no less then 13 breeds. A worst-case scenario of mixed-up priorities. If our laws on puppy mills were as harsh as those that ban breeds, maybe we wouldn't have to ban breeds in the first place?

What about Kenzo?

All ended well for Kenzo, everybody in dog training class is crazy about him. He is extremely nice to smaller dogs, and especially smaller dogs that are afraid of large dogs. One of our trainers has even had Kenzo and me assist her in setups to help a couple of smaller dogs to overcome their fear. Even the German Shepherd Dog owner became a big fan of Kenzo. I am happy that Kenzo is such a good ambassador for his breed.

It is not the breed, but actions of us humans that makes, or breaks, the dog.
Any dog.
Of any breed.

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For the latest and how you can help, visit the page Stop Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill.