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Artica and Tiro
by Ron Schmiegelt
Artica and Tiro are Alaskan Malamutes and survivors from two different puppy mills. They were in similar situations, though Artica's containment may have been a little cleaner. Although they have both recovered from their neglectful backgrounds differently, now they are some of the most wonderful dogs anybody could want. They have enriched my life.
Artica
Artica is a beautiful female wooly Malamute. For the first six years of her life, she lived in a cage. Her only purpose in life was to produce Malamute puppies that the breeder could sell. Her life even started off hard. You will notice that a portion of her right ear is missing. The story from her breeder was that when she was young, she got too close to another cage and the dog in the other cage bit it off.
In the Spring of 2006, a gentleman purchased Artica from the breeder, since he had obtained another malamute from them. Soon afterwards, he ran into marital problems and could no longer care for Artica. He tried to return her to the breeder, but the breeder told him that he would just as soon shoot her. Fortunately, the man found Texas Alaskan Malamute Rescue (www.texalmal.org). She was accepted into rescue and given medical care and was eventually fostered by me in December of 2006.
It didn't take me long to find out that she was absolutely terrified of just about everyone and everything. When I would try to approach her, she would run and hide. When I would get ready for bed and take off my belt, or have a leash in my hand, she would yelp and cry as if she were being beaten. After about two weeks, she finally allowed me to approach her. Getting her to realize that whatever I had in my hand would not hurt her took another month and a half. During this time, I spent hours just sitting by her, petting her, and talking softly to her. With the help of others in the rescue community, and especially Malamute rescue folks, I learned different ways to approach her and present things in my hand for inspection.
Getting Artica to accept other people, especially other men, was a long process. Whenever we would go for a walk and meet other people, she would position herself between me and the other person. It didn't take long for her to start warming up to women, but other men took about nine months.
Through this process, I learned that she was a dominant dog. At first, she had little patience for male dogs. It took her a while to realize that all of the male dogs in my house were neutered and her interaction with them would not be for breeding, so she slowly started to give them some slack. In one of her early altercations with a male dog, she tore one of her dewclaws. Upon going to the vet, she had to deal with a male vet tech. This was too traumatizing for her and she would not allow the vet to examine her. Bringing in a female vet tech calmed her down enough for her to receive treatment.
Through this time, I was fostering other dogs as well. A female Golden Retriever came to me to foster, along with her brother. The female was very emaciated, however and. Artica took a particular liking to this girl. When the female Golden Retriever went to eat, Artica would guard the food dishes until she had her fill. Artica also taught the little Golden how to keep her brother from taking all of the food.
With everything that has happened with Artica, I cannot think of going on without her. So, I am in the process of adopting her. On a recent trip to the vet, she met the same vet tech she was so terrified of earlier in the year. Artica walked right up to him and gave him a big kiss. Artica now regularly attends rescue events as a Malamute Ambassador, and also teaches schoolchildren about arctic type dogs. She even got dressed up to pose for pictures with the Easter bunny. See below:
Tiro
Tiro's first three years were in a puppy mill in Hico, Texas. Fortunately, for him the Humane Society of North Texas obtained enough evidence to seize most of the dogs there. Tiro was one of over sixty dogs seized from this puppy mill, which happened in September of 2006. Out of the sixty dogs, there were four Malamutes. The Alaskan Malamute Assistance League (www.malamuterescue.org) stepped in to assist the rescue groups in Texas. Three of the Malamutes went to Texas Alaskan Malamute Rescue (www.texalmal.org), but one of them was humanely euthanized because he was so sick with distemper. One of the other dogs, Cicero was adopted and now lives happily with two Malamutes who were also previous TAMR dogs.
In the Puppy Mill, these dogs were kept in cages so small that some of them could not stand up. The cages were never cleaned so the dogs had to live in their own feces and urine. Their food was just tossed into their cages, so they had to pick it out of the feces. Tiro's coat was so packed with fecal material that he had to be groomed several times. He was also infected with all types of worms and other parasites and his medical treatment took several months for him to recover.
I started fostering Tiro in December of 2007. He has gotten along well with my dog and other foster dogs.
Tiro did not bear the same emotional scars that Artica did. He is a little on the shy side, but does warm up to people. He tries to make friends with every dog he meets. For at least the last nine months, he has been working as an ambassador for Malamute Rescue attending events and greeting people with his friendly disposition. He is very easy going and people always comment on how beautiful he is. Most never know the extent of his neglect.
Most recently he has represented the Alaskan Malamute in school presentations about the book; "The Call of The Wild." Thanks to Tiro and his friends, the kids became very interested in reading the story. We have been invited to do more presentations next year. I would sincerely hope that Tiro could be adopted by a loving family very soon. After what he's been through, he deserves the very best. He is happy and ready to go to his forever home.
Tiro sporting bunny ears for the Easter Bunny
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This is Goose. When he was 10 years old, Goose was rescued from a West Virginia puppy mill in which about 800 dogs were confined to cages just slightly larger than their bodies. At the time of his removal from the facility, Goose's lower jaw was greatly enlarged due to a combination of loose teeth and cancerous material. In order for his life to be saved, his entire lower jaw needed to be removed, and an artificial jaw was tried but did not work. Goose is still able to eat but his tongue hangs straight down. He is now 16 and being well cared for by a volunteer for Dachshund Rescue of America (www.drna.org). He was named Goose because his lack of a lower jaw gave him an unusual bark. In 2006, the "breeder" he was rescued from was still operating.
In puppy mills, inadequate nutrition causes the breeding dogs' teeth to rot, and because vets are seldom called, infection can set in and the teeth will fall out. That is why you will see photos of rescued puppy mill dogs with tongues hanging out of their mouths. It's not from a long, happy day of play but rather from a long period of neglect at a puppy mill.
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Cindy, a Papillon, spent her early years in a Nebraska puppy mill. Although she was bred season after season, she produced no puppies, so at age 4 she was dropped off at a vet’s office to be killed. Instead of killing her, the vet called Hearts United for Animals (www.hua.org), who adopted her out to a loving home in northern Virginia. Along with her guardian, Cindy sometimes attends pet store protests wearing her "Puppy Mills Breed Misery" kerchief. Most puppy mill breeding females die young, their reproductive organs worn out from continual breeding. Cindy was lucky to escape this fate.
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2007: Louie is a mini schnauzer rescued from a puppy mill in N. Carolina in September 2006 along with 2 other male schnauzers. I originally intended to foster 2 of the rescues, but ended up adopting Louie and finding a home for Duffie (the other rescue) with a good friend of mine. You can check out the pictures of the dogs on PetFinder.com or on the website for the Schnauzer Rescue of the Carolinas.
On September 10th, I drove to Durham, North Carolina to pick up the two rescues Louie and Duffie. They were rescued 1 week earlier. The kennel worker that got them out of the puppy mill said no dogs should ever have to live like that and be treated like that. It was awful, the fear in their eyes and body language. Both dogs attempted to shrink as far back in the cage as possible, to almost disappear. As soon as they were let out of the crates, they would immediately try to get back in. They would cringe when you pet them.
Louie has come a long way, but he only really trusts me and listens to me. He screams when my 13-year-old daughter tries to pet him, races away from her and barks and growls at her if she tries to put him in his crate. I hired a trainer who spent 3 weeks coming to my home to work with Louie. He can walk on a leash and isn't quite as afraid of people (at least when I am with him). He still is afraid of my daughter and my sister. It seems he has just bonded with me. I can finally pet him without him nipping at my hands and he sits in my lap in the chair at night (if I pick him up) and will let me pet him and he will fall asleep.
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"Rescued from a puppymill. These are 4 dogs that were rescued from a puppymill in Missouri by 'Puppymill Rescue,' a group dedicated to educating the public to the horrors of puppymills and to rescuing the resident dogs from their lives of abuse and neglect. Their website is http://puppymillrescue.com/."
"Belinda is a Boston Terrier. She was about 4 years old when I adopted her. Belinda has 3 legs, at some point she lost a front leg. If you've seen the pictures of the cages those poor dogs are kept in you can guess what happened to her leg. Either it got caught up in the wire of the cages and had to be removed or it went through the wire into the cage directly below and the dog in that cage mauled it and it had to be removed. At her spay it was obvious that Belinda had been bred a lot and that she had endured many cesarean sections. ( It's not uncommon for Bostons to be unable to birth their pups due to the large size of the pup's head.) In addition to that for some reason all of Belinda's teeth have been filed down.
Belinda was very frightened when I first got her. It took many months to housetrain her and close to a year to convince her that I would never hurt her. Today, about 5 years after I adopted her, she's a happy little Boston. Will not allow anyone but me to touch her, but is just as sweet as can be."
"Melanie--another Boston Terrier. The Puppymill rescue group was told that Melanie was Belinda's sister from the same litter.. Not likely.. Melanie is definitely older, although there are some physical resemblances. I adopted her about 2 years after I got Belinda. Melanie was in the Mill longer than Belinda and it shows. After many months she learned, for the most part, to be housebroken, but still gets anxious when I pen her when I leave the house and will soil all over her pen no matter how long or short a time I'm gone, even with another dog for company. And although it's been a little under 3 years since I adopted her, she's still very fearful. She follows me around and wants to be near me, but still tends to shy away from my hands.
She's got a heart murmur, has recently developed what are most likely malignant breast tumors and, due to a significant hair loss, bloated abdomen and other clinical signs there is the concern that she may have Cushings. My vet was appalled at the condition of Melanie's uterus when she spayed her. Once again, many, many, many litters and just as many cesareans. A lot of Melanie's teeth are broken, but not filed like Belinda's.
Melanie is a very sweet dog and it always tears me up to see the total terror on her face when something scares her. She's happy now, but the memory of her life in the Mills will never completely leave her."
"Victor is a black Italian Greyhound. He was only 1 ½ years old when I adopted him. I will never know what cruelty this poor dog endured during his short stay at the Mill, but it was enough to make him into the most fearful dog I have ever seen, and I've been working in rescue for many years. You could not get anywhere near him when I first adopted him. If you did he would urinate and defecate in fear. He was a fear biter, lashing out in pure terror whenever hands approached him. He's oversized, has horrible large pointy teeth with weird spacing in between the front ones and a little bit of an overbite. I also noticed he moved funny...Back legs splayed out, so as I worked with him to try and get him used to hands, I checked out his legs. His kneecaps were not even on his knees!!!! Both were rotated inwards. I waited a year before I had the luxating patella surgery done in hopes he would better handle it mentally and we did both legs at the same time so he wouldn't have to go through the surgery twice. He came through the surgery fine and there was no arthritic damage done since it was caught early, but that was a hard thing for him to go through and a $2500 shock for me!
Now almost 3 years later Victor is a happy dog who loves the other dogs and whose tail is almost always wagging... But I still can't easily get my hands on him. Bless his heart he wants attention. He follows me everywhere, lays on the rug outside the bathtub while I'm taking a shower, will jump up and put his paws on my legs, but still runs in fear from my hands. If I have food (he's very food motivated) I can actually pet him a bit while he takes the food from my hands, but he can only do that for so long before he runs away. He's a happy dog though, and that's what's important."
"Francine is a blue and white Italian Greyhound. She's about 12 years old now and came out of the mill about 3 years ago. Her teeth were rotting in her mouth and her vision was very poor. She was also very fearful, but has a sweet loving nature and now seeks out attention from me.
I discovered she has PRA (progressive retinal atrophy) which is why her eyesight is so poor. As with 99% of the health issues that all 4 dogs have, PRA is genetic and all were most likely passed on to the many, many puppies they sired/gave birth to. Francine still has some eyesight in one eye, but it's minimal. Several months ago I noticed one of Francine's eyeballs looked enlarged. Over $1000 later a visit to the vet/specialist discovered that because of the PRA the lens in the eyeball had slipped forward and was blocking fluid from leaving the eyeball causing glaucoma, which is very painful. The only solution was to remove that eyeball, which we did. It was painful process for Francine, but she has recovered and is doing well. Francine also has occasional seizures and has to be watched carefully."
"All 4 dogs have been a challenge to teach what it is like to live in a normal household. They will all retain, to one degree or another, residual effects of living in the puppymill for the rest of their lives. As hard as it has been at times, my reward is seeing them lying with pure contentment outside on the deck, free and basking in the sunshine as they were never able to do in their prior life."