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12:31pm

Oprah Takes on Puppy Mills

In the news business, we often sit back and watch the course of events unfold and consider through our reporting what implications it might have. It’s never a public declaration of opinion to sway the end results, or at least it shouldn’t, but the prospect of what today could mean has me sitting in the stands cheering raucously rather than sitting aloofly in the press box.

This afternoon, Oprah Winfrey will air a show exposing the ghastly conditions countless dogs across this country face in puppy mills. It’s the unsightly underbelly of the nation’s quest for the perfect pet and the pet industry’s profitable solution for quenching the demand for pure bred and designer breeds.

Jokingly, marketers say Oprah has the Midas touch, where anything she recommends becomes an instant multi-however-you-want-to-measure-it success. Oh, God, please let this be true, today of all days …

As I was writing “Oprah Takes on Puppy Mills, Dedicates Show to Late Dog,” I encountered some terribly sickening images. And it left me thinking about how covering news about puppy mills (or the as sundry of other cruelty and abuse vices that cross our desks) compares to the atrocities that other journalists cover. I wondered in what other capacity, or beat, could I be assigned stories that deal with such a magnitude of gross injustice, maltreatment, starvation, disease, corruption and hopelessness?

My answer was I would have to be a reporter covering the cash-driven blood shed of diamond mining, the loss of humanity in the sex-slave industry, the superiority in calloused killings of genocide, the collective cries of a nation mourning their children’s plague-riddled bodies. Yes, this is a list straight off the most important new stories of the year, but there it is -- on the same plane of principal and atrocity -- puppy mills.

So why is does it remain this country’s dirty little secret? I can’t help but refer to history. I think of the conclusion of World War II, and the discovery of concentration camps. There were several nearby civilian villages, but the citizens, whether Nazis sympathizers or in desperation for survival, denied that these camps were factories of death. Allied Forces literally had to convince entire villages of the reality by taking them in-person to the sites of mass graves. While the Holocaust was happening right in their own backyards for years, they only recognized it as such when the G.I.s took them within the barbed wire gates.

To be clear, I am not saying America is Nazis Germany, but I am drawing the parallel that we are like the citizenry who was sorely misguided in the camps’ purposes. We are a nation in love with material things and with that comes pets, who promise to make us feel good, look good and make us better people. But it’s all about the right pet. If it’s not a Labradoodle, a Teacup Maltese or anything AKC-registered, then it’s no dice. We are image fixated, which is a product of our over achieving, success-driven nature -- a good thing, if in moderation.

At dinner parties, Americans converse in a circle of occupation and affiliations, whereas Europeans first speak of family and hobbies. This exemplifies our need to make an impression and to correctly portray our identity behind titles and things. This has us spawning a world of cruelty and abuse to feed our need for perfection.

We use all sorts of rationale as to why we choose breeders or pet stores over shelters for bringing home Spot and Fluffy. We contend our pet stores and breeders aren’t harming the animals they breed, but it’s happening, maybe, in someone else’s backyard. Today, these safe, comfortable perceptions could all change. Oprah is dragging a nation of misinformed citizens to the bowels of degradation and abuse.

I am holding my breath to see what kind of firestorm this could unleash upon pet stores, breeders and lawmakers. And I’m praying, God please let this tide turn … Please let this make not just national, but international headlines … like the Rwandan genocide, Darfur and the African AIDS epidemic ...

I think of “Zoe,” one of the breeding dogs saved by Main Line Animal Rescue. I cannot say it any better than MLAR did on their Web site: “And poor ‘Zoe,’ the Westie, was dripping blood when she was rescued as part of the investigation. For years, this poor dog had large, sharp triangular bladder stones, which were left untreated by the miller. She suffered horrendous pain, straining so hard every time she urinated, she actually prolapsed her bladder into her uterus. And as bad as that sounds, it gets worse. The breeder had a bark collar on her so every time she cried out in pain, she received a shock.”

Chills crawl up my spine and my eyes tingle with tears. My heart goes out to Zoe, her reality is my worst nightmare. Growing up I read a lot of historical novels, so in a personal way I learned of how so many voices, which cried out for help, were silenced by the stalwart complacency. What on Earth am I referring to? Well, undesirable citizens were being rounded up and killed in concentration camps long before WWII was declared. Those who knew of it cried out to Britain and America for help, but we turned a deaf ear to their pleas of mercy just so we could maintain isolationism, among other reasons.

This made a deep impression on me. What if I found myself caught in a closed border, where murder, torture, rape and random other abuses occurred, but no one knew about it or could come to my aid? Which would be worse … them not knowing to help me, or them choosing not to help? My mind’s defense mechanism can only reason: But they would have to know … and have to come help, right?

Well, Zoe was crying out for years, and punished for doing so. She and thousands of dogs have pled with us to come to their aid, and we have not. Now, I cry for Zoe, for the pain she has endured, the scars she will have and the fact that I -- taking ownership of our society and my home state -- have allowed this to happen by turning a blind eye and a deaf ear.

I can only say this in parting, Mahatma Gandhi was quoted as saying “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

Let this not be our ending chapter, rather let this be our defining hour – may change happen today.

To read the related news article, search "Oprah Takes on Puppy Mills, Dedicates Show to Late Dog."