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digg itThis had to be an undercover operation or the dogs would have been sold to another puppy mill. One of the dogs that was purchased in this transaction was a blind, 12 year old pregnant beagle. Who breeds a 12 year old beagle, a puppy mill does. They drain every possible dollar they can from their breeder dogs, then discard them, old and broken and in this case blind. As nice as Ivan Smucker seems, make no mistake...he was running a puppy mill. The two men that risked everything to help these dogs are the unsung heros of this whole story. They along with a local animal rescue group and Best Friends worked together to save these dogs from a life of misery. There are no losers in this story, The Smuckers made a lot of money, the dogs are safe and will be spayed and neutered and never bred again. The twelve year old pregnant, blind beagle will give birth to her last litter and be placed in a loving home. Best Friends will get the publicity they crave for this good deed and what about the real heros? Those two wonderful men, the true heros not the villians you are trying to make them out to be....they hopefully will be recognized for the selfless, caring people they are.
Dog breeder tells his side of the story
Wytheville Enterprise: News > Bland County Messenger: News >
Tue Oct 16, 2007 - 05:29 PM
By NATE HUBBARD/Staff
The dogs are gone from Ivan Schmucker Jr.’s property, but the Amish farmer still has many difficult decisions ahead.
Schmucker gave his side of the “insider” transaction in a phone interview late Tuesday afternoon after his dogs were purchased by the Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society on Friday evening using two local residents who told Schmucker they planned to buy the dogs to open up a kennel of their own.
The organization said in a press release on Saturday that it had bought the dogs from Schmucker after “an ‘insider’ worked with Best Friends to buy the dogs.”
Schmucker said he first was contacted on Oct. 6 about selling the dogs by Stuart Cregger and Robert Reed.
A Yahoo search for their names turned up multiple Web sites offering Yorkshire Terrier dogs for sale. One of the sale links provided the Web site http://www.mypetpups.com for the two men’s business.
According to the home page of the Web site, Cregger and Reed “live in the Appalachian Mountains in Southwest Virginia, in Christiansburg.”
The “about us” page on the Web site elaborated with the following statement (with original punctuation): “My name is Robert and my friend name is Stuart together we have been raising puppies for over 15 years, we breed to high standards, we look for health and breed standards in each puppy we raise.”
When a telephone number provided on one of the Web sites offering a dog for sale by Cregger and Reed was called, a message was received from U.S. Cellular stating that the number is “no longer in service.”
Further attempts to reach the pair through a phone number in Christiansburg listed to Reed failed as calling the number yielded a message that said “the party you are calling is not available at this time” before the line disconnected.
John Polis, public relations manager for Best Friends, wouldn’t comment in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon when directly asked if Stuart Cregger and Robert Reed were involved in the sale.
“It was a confidential thing,” he said.
Polis also said that he did not have any contact numbers available for the men.
Schmucker said that in August 2006, Cregger sold his stock of dogs to the Amish farmer’s Dogwood Kennels, so Schmucker was familiar with the pair.
After being contacted on Oct. 6, Schmucker said he decided to sell the dogs and signed a contract with Cregger and Reed. Schmucker added that he was confused when Cregger and Reed told him they hoped to open the kennel in Bastian as he said he was surprised that the county would allow another kennel to operate.
“It all happened in a week’s time,” Schmucker said. “We didn’t even realize Russ Mead was involved.”
Mead is the general counsel for Best Friends, which operates the country’s largest sanctuary for homeless pets on 33,000 acres in Kanab, Utah.
Schmucker added that Cregger and Reed had told him late in the week that they would bring Mead with them to the contract signing Friday night as their lawyer. Although Schmucker said he knew the lawyer from Mead’s appearance at a Bland County Planning Commission public hearing in early June, he said that when Cregger and Reed mentioned Mead’s name it didn’t initially register with him.
When Mead arrived with the pair on Friday evening at Schmucker’s farm, Schmucker said he was taken aback. However, he decided to go through with the contract with Cregger and Reed. Schmucker said Mead initialed the contract as the verifying lawyer, not as the purchaser.
“We’re going to be good to our word,” Schmucker said in explaining why he decided to still go through with the transaction.
Although Best Friends claimed that it was working under the assumption that Schmucker would not sell the dogs directly to the organization, Schmucker said the animal society never contacted him.
“It never crossed our mind,” Schmucker responded when asked if he would have knowingly sold to Best Friends.
Schmucker did admit that he had contacted some other breeders inquiring if they would be interested in purchasing his dogs.
Despite the tactics used by Cregger, Reed and Best Friends, Schmucker stressed over and over again in the phone interview that he is not angry with anyone involved in the transaction.
“There’s no hard feelings,” Schmucker said. “We don’t feel bad at anybody.”
The Amish farmer added that there is no point in harboring animosity.
“We would rather build bridges than burn bridges,” he said. “We don’t want to slander people and we still consider them friends. We don’t have any grudge against these people. We legally did this with a contract.”
Best Friends would not release the amount it spent to buy the dogs, and Schmucker also refused to give any details on how much money he received in the transaction.
With the contract signed, Schmucker said four Budget trucks arrived about 7:30 p.m. to pick up the dogs. He said he delivered the dogs to the bottom of the hill on his farm where they were then loaded into the trucks in pet carriers. Schmucker estimated that the transfer was complete by 11 p.m.
Now that the sale has been made, Schmucker said he’s taking some time to regroup before considering his next business.
“We don’t know,” he said when asked what his family’s future plans include. “We’re not sure. We have to let the storm settle and pick up the pieces from here.”
Schmucker said his Bland County farm still is for sale, and the family still hopes to move to the Amish community known as White Gate in Giles County.
When pressed for details on his future business endeavors, Schmucker offered that the family may consider operating hunting cabins, but again emphasized that the idea is only tentative.
Schmucker also was vague when asked why he decided to sell the dogs. Best Friends said it purchased 167 dogs, but Schmucker said the contract was for 179 dogs.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know why,” he said. “We just wanted to downscale.”
Schmucker said he is certain of one thing: he’s done with the dog breeding business.
“We sold them the dogs and that’s it,” he said.
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .
The truth lies somewhere in the middle. I applaud the Enterprise for taking the effort to portrait both sides of this story. The fact that an attorney from Best Friends was present at the sale, and even signed the document, is quite telling to me. It would seem some of the purported intentions of Mr. Schmucker (not wanting the dogs to be “rescued"), as well as the “trickery” and covertness of the sale have likely been exaggerated. I certainly don’t condone the over breeding of animals, or keeping them in small cages their entire lives, but it is in the interest of the Best Friends Network to make the Schmuckers out to be as “evil” as possible, because that makes them the bigger hero.
This is a wonderful victory. However, Zooquatic Pet Center in Christiansburg VA continues to sell puppy mill puppies. Many of the same groups that worked to end this puppymill in Bland have been working with Zooquatic as well--but to no avail. Please let the owner know that we will have no part of puppy mill cruelty or aggrivation of pet overpopulation in our communtiy. We are holding our next protest outside the store on Saturday October 27th from 11 AM to 2 PM and anyone is welcome to come out.
For more info, please visit our website:
http://www.nrvcare.org.v.tedu
Hooray for the two gentlemen who risked a lot to save these animals from the inhumane life they lived in a puppy mill. The Schmuckers had no intention of selling their dogs to any welfare groups as their intent was to sell them to another puppy mill so that thousands more unneeded animals could burden our society, most ending up eventually in shelters and being euthanized. These men deserve a medal for their time, effort and expense to save these animals from further misery. The rescue groups have one concern, and one cocern only....to protect animals and find them a good home. Puppy mill breeders such as the Schmuckers are simply chasing the almighty buck with no regard to the consequences and impact their greed does to these animals and society in general.
Hopefully the new owners will keep their word and spay/neuter all dogs. Make a very special effort to place them in the right homes under the right conditions and continue to follow them for years to come.These dogs deserve a peaceful loving home.
You can guarantee these animals are going to be spayed and neutered before they’re even adopted! By the way there is a video about their rescue posted on Bestfriends.org! It’s heartbreaking
I have personally vsited Best Friends some years back accidentally, as a stop on a road trip (their shelter is open to the public) and can truly say they are committed to giving abused and neglected animals loving homes, and was impressed with the conditions there and the love and care the animals receive. I have no doubt their covert actions in this case were done strictly to ensure that these dogs would end up in humane care.
Your “hero’s” sold their “stock” of dogs to Schmucker in August 2006. Would having a “stock” of dogs not mean that they themselves were running a puppy mill? If not, and they were in fact reputable breeders, why would a reputable breeder sell a dog or dogs to a known puppy mill. You say Schmucker wanted to sell his dogs to another puppy mill yet chose these two “heros” as the lucky recipients. Best Friends sanctuary admits that they did not contact Schmucker directly and just assumed that he would not sell them the dogs. Schmucker was running a business, albeit an unpopular one, but a business none the less. My guess would be that given the opportunity, he would have sold the dogs to whomever was willing to pay the money he wanted for them. They were just livestock to him. Dont get me wrong, I in no way condone Schmuckers practices, but, dont make the other two men involved out to be heros. Make no mistake, these men operate a puppy mill of their own.
always, the Amish are portrayed as a gentle, compassonate people. This man is obviously the exception to this. There is no compassion involved here in the suffering of these dogs, it is a matter of extreme greed. So much for the Amish living “simple”.
Don’t bash Best Friends for doing what they feel is right. They deserve the publicity and credit for this.
