California’s Brutal Underground Market for Puppies Exposed in L.A. Times Investigation

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After California made it illegal for pet stores to sell puppies in 2019, a vast underground market developed supplied by breeders in the Midwest that ship truckloads of puppies here. A new Los Angeles Times investigation found that often those puppies had been born in mass breeding facilities where they were neglected and not given adequate medical care. Families, who paid thousands of dollars for pets they were told were bred locally, often ended up with sick animals. Over the course of 14 months, the Times investigated how these unscrupulous puppy supply chains operate, the lack of protections for dogs, and why abusive breeders and brokers face few consequences. We’ll talk with the reporters about their investigation and how you can avoid getting duped by unscrupulous sellers. Guests: Melody Gutierrez, investigative reporter, Los Angeles Times Alene Tchekmedyian, investigative reporter, Los Angeles Times Melanie Sadek, president, Valley Humane Society Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:59.4	Remember that puppy explosion during the pandemic?
1:02.2	It seemed like everyone got a dog.
1:04.6	A lot of those cute doodles and French bulldogs were trucked to California from shoddy puppy mills in the Midwest. They were born in
1:12.2	facilities where they were neglected and then sold to brokers posing as mom and pop breeders in
1:17.3	California, who then sold them to unsuspecting buyers. Families paid thousands of dollars for sick
1:23.8	animals. We'll talk to reporters from the Los Angeles Times who spent more than a year
1:28.4	investigating the underground market. That's coming up next after this news.
1:52.8	Welcome to Forum. I'm Leslie McClurg. I'm in today for Alexis Madrigal. And recently, my family drove up to the Sierra foothills to meet with a dog breeder because we want to adopt a puppy this
1:58.7	fall. And the breeder was super lovely. And our family totally fell in love with the sire and the dame.
	...

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