This overhead view taken on June 30, 2020 shows workers tending to dogs at a rescue shelter in Jakarta. - AFP
JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): What’s is front of her shook all her senses. Right off the bat, Yurike Lanser was greeted with an unsightly scene.
Small cages, one on top of the other, each cramped to the brim with at least five dogs that barely had any space left to move.
But absent from the room is the putrid smell of faeces and urine one would expect from so many dogs in one place. The air was heavy nevertheless, loaded with the chemical smell of detergents.
“We feel our eyes sting as we enter the room. It seems like the owner of the place was trying to clean things up with detergent, even when the dogs were all still inside,” 48-year-old Yurike told The Jakarta Post on June 15.
Altogether, Yurike and her team rescued 104 dogs from the puppy mill in East Jakarta earlier this month.
Yurike, who founded the dog adoption centre Dogs Need Love in Bogor, West Java, said puppy mills were becoming a prominent problem lately. These facilities, where high-selling breeds of dogs are kept and forced to breed for commercial purposes, are often characterised by poor welfare conditions.
“This issue is never brought [to the public’s attention]. But, since the Covid-19 pandemic started, puppy mills have sprung up everywhere, and most of them started as backyard breeders with little experience who were looking to make a quick buck,” Yurike said.
And this particular puppy mill was no exception. During its heyday, the facility had over 200 dogs, although only around 120 dogs, mostly consisting of french bulldogs, poodles and bichon frisés, were left as the owner of the mill was looking to sell the business.
This meant that Yurike and her friends had to compete with owners of other puppy mills, some of whom bid up to Rp 500 million, to take over the facility.
“We can’t put up those numbers, since we are not looking to sell these dogs,” Yurike said.
“Thankfully, the owner of the puppy mill seemed to have a change of heart and agreed to our proposal of just covering the operational cost, " she said.
Everything happened so quickly since then, they had to use eight cars and two vans to move all 104 dogs. The dogs have since been transported to a pet accommodation in Bogor, close to Yurike’s own adoption centre.
She has since been busy with checking the conditions of each of the dogs. To help support the operation, Yurike started a social media fundraiser, and the response has been positive.
Aside from cash donations, she said that some dog salons and veterinarians have also offered their services pro-bono. “
But, the thing I’m most happy about is that the whole thing did not boil down to a hate campaign against puppy mills. I think it’s important to understand that the business owners are not solely to blame here,” she said.
As long as there are irresponsible pet owners, these businesses will contiue to cater the demand, Yurike said.
Khalisya Anjani Putri, a 25-year-old Bogor-based veterinarian, said that puppy mills pose a serious health issue for the dogs, as owners of these facilities tend to disregard the living and sanitary conditions needed for dogs to live healthy lives.
“[Dogs coming from puppy mills] often have health problems with their skins, including fleas and scabs. Some also have problems with their digestion,” she said.
“I won’t be surprised if dogs from these mills might have shorter lifespans due to their poorer conditions.”
This, she said, was in addition to the fact that dogs coming from puppy mills often have their emotional growth stunted, and some would also have lingering traumas.
“Dogs are under incredible stress in [cramped] places. As they have needs to socialise with other dogs since they are pups, [growing up in mills] would often heavily impact their behaviours. Some might even grow to be afraid of people if they were abused,” she added.
Angelina Pane, founder of the animal welfare NGO Animal Friends Jogja, said puppy mills were not an issue exclusively in Jakarta, as Yogyakarta also had its fair share of irresponsible dog and cat breeders.
“It’s a problem everywhere, and the atrocities going on in these places are not exposed, since most people only care about the cute pictures of dogs and cats [on social media platforms], without knowing the conditions behind it,” she told the Post.
In the famed student city, Angelina said, it was common for Yogyakarta university students temporarily staying in the city to breed cats in their boarding houses for additional income.
One notable case the NGO was involved with was in 2017 when they received a report that a university student, who started a cat breeding business in their flat, had abandoned a litter of kittens for weeks without care.
“[The student] just left the cats to die in the room, since they moved on to another business. [The student] was still living in the same room at the time,” Angelina said. When Angelina and her team arrived, they found that some cats had died and their remains were already decomposing, while some kittens managed to be rescued.
“We encourage people to adopt, rather than buy [cats or dogs]. Cats and dogs [from mills], even those of high-selling breeds, that are not bought usually end up in cages in traditional markets,” Angelina said.
She also urged for the Indonesian Cynology Association (Penkin), the country’s authority in handing out dog breed certificates, also known as stamboom, to take firmer action against puppy mills.
