Puppy Mill Horrors in Wisconsin

By Admin - Deanna, on November 22nd, 2007 |

I absolutely hate puppy mills!! And I hate the people who run them! I’m not going to mince words here. What they do to those dogs and puppies is nothing but torture and abuse, let’s not candy coat it!

Being a Wisconsinite, the growing puppy mill problem here sickens me. I came across a story today that gives you an idea of what I’m talking about. Read on if you have the stomach for it.

This is from TMJ4
An exclusive I Team investigation has discovered sick, injured puppies being raised in Wisconsin puppy mills.

Senior Investigative reporter John Mercure and the I Team headed to Central Wisconsin and inside some of the nation’s worst puppy mills. Mercure discovered puppies being raised in wire cages and wading through their own waste.

Wisconsin has become one of the top locations for puppy mills. And experts say the horrid conditions inside the mills are just getting worse and worse.

Our hidden cameras captured a black market for underage puppies.

Central Wisconsin is big farming country. Wheat, and corn are cash crops here. So are puppies.

We recently visited the Tammy Kautzer farm in Clark County. Humane Society officials say it is one of the most notorious puppy mills in the state.

We decided to buy a puppy at the Kautzer farm. Tammy Kautzer let us onto the property and our hidden cameras captured dogs crowded into wire pens inside the barn. They were on cold concrete floors covered in feces. In one pen there was even a dead puppy. There were so many dogs that it was almost deafening. All of them were yelping for something they seldom get, a human touch, a little personal attention.

Chuck Wegener works for the Clark County Humane society. “They don’t know what sunshine is. They’ve never felt grass. They’ve never been held or loved. It’s tough,” Wegener told us.

The barn was bad. Inside the Kautzer house was just strange. There were dozens of dogs stacked in cages. Kautzer admitted to us that many of them had staph infections. And the sick dogs shared the floor with the Kautzer kids. In one corner we saw a dog that had half of it’s skin torn away by another dog in the barn. Our experts said the dog should have been euthanized.

We decided to buy a Pomeranian puppy from Kautzer. She sold it to us even though the puppy was only four weeks old. That’s half the recommended age. “Any good breeder is going to say minimum, absolute minimum is eight weeks,” Wegener told us.

We named the puppy Angelica. We got her outside and we were shocked by how sick she was. There was fur missing. Angelica had a major staph infection with open sores. And her tail had been chewed away. It didn’t even look like a tail. Angelica also had parasites.

We headed back in to ask Kautzer about the sick puppy she sold us. She denied that the dog was sick, despite the fact that she wrote, ‘known illness’ on our receipt. She also gave us antibiotics to take home for our ‘healthy dog’. When we confronted her, Kautzer told us, “It’s eating on it’s own. It’s fine.” She went on to tell us, “It’s not sick. It’s healing.” And when we pressed her on questions about her receipt and the drugs she gave us, Kautzer ducked into her house.

We bought our dog for $300 cash. And experts tell us that Kautzer sold 400 dogs last year. That’s $120,000 she may have made. Terri Woodcock helped rescue Angelica. “These people don’t care about the dogs. If they cared about the dogs they would have them into the vet and get the proper care and not sell them at four weeks old.”

Vets think Angelica is going to be ok.

Right now she is going through extensive medical treatment.

Experts say part of the problem is that the Wisconsin legislature has not passed any legislation to protect little dogs like Angelica. Bills have been proposed recently. But none have yet come up for a vote.

Take a moment to visit TMJ4 and view the video there to see the puppy mill, the puppy miller and more. It’s not pleasant or pretty but people need to know!
More information on WI Puppy Mills;

For more information on puppy mills, visit – The Horrors of Puppy Mills