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Just the name Honey Boo Boo conjures up shudders in most people at least when applied to some weirdly popular, attention-seeking missile of a child on American reality TV. When applied to this pup, however, well, I'd much rather watch this girl on TV than the other one.





Honey Boo Boo came in along Magoo and Penny from a puppy mill via Kismutt Rescue and she was adopted out almost immediately.

These three, though, may be some of the last puppy mill rescues Toronto Animal Services South will get from Kismutt. That's because just over a month ago, one of the papers local to the area published an article which seemed to imply there was no puppy mill problem in the area and that basically Kimberly Thomas, owner of the rescue, was making it all up in her head.

“I’ve been in the kennels three or four times [this year] and they are fantastic,” says local animal control officer Evelyn Hahn.

Is this what Hahn considers "fantastic"?







All of the above photos were taken by Thomas of dogs from puppy mills in her area.

The article is so obviously biased against Thomas that the reporter didn't even try to keep up appearances of objectivity by at least interviewing her for her side of the story.

If memory serves me correctly, immediately after the on-line article came out, dozens of comments protesting the biases in the reporting were submitted and now, even those have been deleted.

So, now the word is out in the puppy mill community that Thomas is trying to expose their deeds and the millers no longer call her up to buy their used dogs.

One can only assume the worst with regards to what the millers are doing with their unwanted livestock now.

Magoo, Penny and Honey Boo Boo were rescued just in time. A week later and they'd be ... well, you figure it out.



There's a chance Thomas may still have access to mill dogs from farms further afield who didn't receive the particular newspaper in question but otherwise there's no silver lining to this story. Even more dogs and pups now will live their whole lives under brutal puppy mill conditions and then they will be unceremoniously killed.



7 Comments to “These three are safe”

  1. BatmaN says:

    I cannot believe they put out such an article and what's more that they take the time to delete intelligent posts. Disgusting and shame on them.

  2. It's more than expose: a number of people associated with her have started a petition, at the demand of hundreds, even thousands of people who have read about these mills, to ban them in Ontario. It needs to be done, but the dogs will pay the price until it is. Copies of the petition are at most veterinarians, or you can sign here: https://www.facebook.com/PeopleAgainstPuppyMillsOntario .

  3. EJ says:

    As a journalist Elena Maystruk should be beyond ashamed for the irreparable damage she have caused with her poorly researched article, not just to the hundreds of dogs trapped in puppy mills in Wellesley, but to the hard and thankless work of Kismutt Rescue.

    I'm amazed the paper is allowing her to continue reporting, let alone defending her by removing the huge trail of comments that were posted the following days and weeks championing Kismutt.

    I would be very interested to know if Kismutt is getting any more dogs at all.

  4. selkiem says:

    I wouldn't even call that individual a journalist. A syncophant comes to mind - clearly and obviously in kahoots with the animal control department which doesn't like being shown how ineffective and outright useless they are. That's really sad.

  5. Thank you very much for publicizing this. People are oblivious to the cruelty of mills until it's shoved in their faces.

  6. annie says:

    someone tell us what we can do to help shut down puppy mills please! Our politicians seem not to care. The cruelty laws are pitifully weak and the millers are without soul. I despair at the life of these dogs,. And to add to the horror I heard yesterday that MIchael Vick has got himself a dog! Shouldn't he have been banned from owning a dog for life?

  7. Anonymous says:

    Since I realized that declawing of cats is still legal in Canada, nothing surprises me anymore...

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A request

The reason for this blog is to help get specific dogs adopted from TAS but equally important is to try to normalize the idea of shelter dogs being just as good and just as desirable as any other dogs including those which are regularly merchandised by backyard breeders, puppy millers and those few remaining pet store owners who still feel a need to sell live animals. The single greatest stigma shelter animals still face is the belief that shelter animals are substandard animals. Anyone who has had enough experience with shelter animals knows this is untrue but the general public hasn't had the same experiences you've had. They see a nice dog photo in a glossy magazine and too many of them would never think of associating that dog with a dog from a shelter. After all, no one abandons perfectly good dogs, right? Unfortunately, as we all know, perfectly good dogs are abandoned all the time.

The public still too often associates shelter dogs with images of beat up, sick, dirty, severely traumatized animals and while we definitely sometimes see victims such as these, they are certainly not the majority and, regardless, even the most abused animals can very often be saved and made whole again.

Pound Dogs sometimes discusses the sad histories some of the dogs have suffered. For the most part, though, it tries to present the dogs not as victims but as great potential family members. The goal is to raise the profiles of animals in adoption centers so that a potential pet owner sees them as the best choice, not just as the charity choice.

So, here's the favour I'm asking. Whenever you see a dog picture on these pages you think is decent enough, I'd like you to consider sharing it on Facebook or any other social media sites you're using (I know many of you do this already and thank you for that). And when you share it, please mention that the dog in the photo is a shelter dog like so many other shelter dogs waiting for a home. If we can get even five percent of the pet buying public to see shelter dogs differently, to see how beautiful they are and how wonderful they are, and to consider shelter dogs as their first choice for a new family member, we can end the suffering of homeless pets in this country.
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