People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has sent its praise to Oprah Winfrey for her recent show on puppy mills – but warned the talk show host that the American Kennel Club (which is also praising Oprah for the show) should not be viewed as an ally in the fight against puppy mills, but an enemy.
"Please beware: Legislation to stop puppy mills is fought tooth and nail by the American Kennel Club (AKC), which will defend breeders no matter what. The AKC has done everything it can to thwart regulation that would help pound pups and shelter dogs," PETA president Ingrid E. Newkirk wrote Winfrey.
"More than 10,000 dogs and cats die in gas chambers and by injection in someone's arms every day in the U.S. because the AKC promotes breeding, registers and provides 'papers' to countless puppy-mill pups every year, and euphemistically calls these puppy factories 'high-volume breeders,'" she added.
The letter (you can read it in its entirety here) goes on to say that the AKC deserves "the lion's share of the blame for the deaths of more than 3 million dogs and cats every year in animal shelters, all of whom deserve good homes. Those homes, however, are being taken by specially bred dogs that come into an already-overpopulated world solely because of breeders' greed."
The AKC's letter to Oprah was sent the day the show aired. In it, the organization called itself a "strong proponent of responsible breeding" and said the puppy mill problem is a result of non-AKC registered breeders who operate free of regulation.
PETA's senior communications coordinator, David W. Perle, called Oprah's segment a "landmark" one, and said one viewer, as a result of the program, donated 100 spay surgeries to PETA's low cost spay/neuter program, called SNIP ("Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please").
