Hi Mike,

Sorry to be sooooo long in replying to this.. but it's been crazy here between
Motherboard "death" in October, Modem woes, and just much more like Turkey day


I've been trying to catch up everywhere this week, and I'm getting there 

> I know some of You are from NY, I don't know if the news had traveled around,
> but did You all hear of a guy, I believe he lived somewhere between Rochester
> and Syracuse. In Amish country, I believe Romulus ( the town, not the planet
> to You Star Trek fans ) a Man Named Yoder was running a kennel ( I am not
> going to say puppy mill, but I understand there were over 300 dogs there at
> one time. ) His dogs came down with some kind of bacterial infection and he

I wonder if it was leptospirosis.. if so, sadly enough, the dogs would have
died anyway, and probably quickly.

I don't know enough about leptosirosis to say though, really.. I know my vet
thinks that a Leptosirois bacterial infection is what killed my kitty, Tina..
he said it strikes fast and furious, and kills very quickly (she was gone in
two days). He said the vets in our upstate area are seeing a lot of it lately,
and he advised getting all of our animals vaccinated.

> euthanized them via putting the dogs in a box and pumping in carbon monoxide
> from a gasoline motor. Yoder said he put them to sleep because of their
> health, and they did not suffer. He could not afford to take them all to the
> vet to be put down.

If the dogs were that sick, and I hope he was right about that, what can you
do.  As far as not suffering.. man, those dogs were asphyxiated.. I can't
believe they didn't suffer at the end :(  Very sad situation, for sure, but
hopefully those dogs are in a better place now.  Much better...

> Now does anyone have an opinion on this. playing devils advocate, what was he
> going to do. 74 dogs to be put down, for those of us who have done it, that
> is a big expense for one dog. My newf cost me 200 dollars ( included taking
> care of the remains ) and my little pug cost 145, and that was 2 years ago.
> Did he really have a choice? Could he have done it in a better way? What do
> You think?

I know it's expensive, sadly enough.  Priscilla, my lab who could barely stand
or walk at the end, required a home visit (or several very strong men to get
her to, and into the car if we were going to try to get her to the Vet's
office).  She was ready for sure, and didn't even budge after the initial shot
was administered.. Essentially she just drifted off... I don't remember the
cost, but I do remember our vet charges quite a bit for the initial animal in
a home visit (I think it was $150.00).. that plus the cost of the shots
involved, and also of removing her body did add up to a pretty large amount of
money.  I can't imagine having to pay for that many animals who needed to be
put to sleep.. it would be astronomical even if he could get them all to the
Vet's office.

> I Myself, know that a lot of amish farms are known for being puppy mills. I
> bought what became my first Pug about 12 years ago from a young amish woman,
> who is constantly being hassled as a puppy mill, but I swear when I went
> there I found her animals to be taken care of very well. She did

We also have bought two dogs at different times from what I am sure were
puppy-mills, because they were dogs that were sold at pet stores at the mall..
both had problems, but the second one, a particolor cocker spaniel was very
bad.. Our vet at the time said the dog obviously had a touch of distemper when
a puppy.. As a result he wouldn't recognize people in our family from time to
time..  He would go vicious when Ron would wear this particular blue and red
robe.. obviously that brought back some real bad memories.. He spent most of
the 10 years of his life with us on Dilantin so that he didn't get those petit
mal seizures.  Poor guy.  But I had to have him put to sleep finally when one
day he started growling ferosiously at my daughter and her newborn baby.. who
would want to take a chance on that one .. I sure didn't want to.

> necessarily strike me as stable, but I won't go into that now. But her dogs
> were or seemed to be well taken care of. Barney did not turn out to be a real
> healthy dog, but a great dog temperment wise. He ad to be put to sleep at
> 11 yrs old due to loss of use of his rear quarters. He was old for 11, due to
> other minor problems including low thyroid output etc. Anyways I digress,

Yes, that can be a really sad thing.. Priscilla did indeed have hip displasia
even though the _breeder_ we bought her from said the dog's lines had been
tested for it.. Well the good thing was she was with us for 14 years..

> This Yoder, I don't care who You are, should not have 300 dogs. There is

Yes, even breeders we've gone to have maybe a litter.. but nothing like 300
dogs :(

> something funny there. I know he made money selling dogs, but do You need 300
> and how do You take care of 300 animals. How he put them to sleep kinda
> disgusts me, Yet I can see a person, with that many dogs, panicing if disease
> did hit so many and realizing  how much it would cost to take care of them. I
> personally think the fine he got 300.00 was rediculous. However I do believe
> he should not be allowed to have that many dogs in his possession. He
> obviously cannot afford to take care of them. What do You think?

You have to wonder if it came down to food for him, or the dogs or some such..
Like anything else, you can't believe everything you read sometimes..But
anyway like I said, at least now the dogs are not suffering.. which I suspect
they were before they were put down.

Take care,
Janis

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