County Commissioners of Morrison County/Belle Prairie, MN

Who can say no to puppy kisses? Its the rare person who does not melt when confronted with a darling puppy full of funny energy. But it is also the rare person who stops to think about the origin of that puppy. It would surprise most people to learn that there is a huge commercial kennel industry in the United States that mass produces puppies and ships them to pet stores.

The numbers are truly staggering - there are hundreds of thousands of breeder dogs caged in kennels being bred over and over. Many kennels have hundreds even thousands of breeder dogs caged at their facilities. One company alone had over 26 million dollars in sales in 2002.

The conditions at these kennels are often horrific - with seriously ill dogs living in filth trapped in small wire cages being bred time after time until their little bodies wear out and they either die or they are killed because they fail to produce. Anyone who has ever visited one of these "kennels" will most certainly be haunted by the images, and by the little squeaking sounds coming from dogs who have been debarked - most often done by having a metal rod rammed down their throats to rupture their vocal cords.

It was brought to my attention that Mr. Block applied for the permit so Mr. McDuffee would purchase the land from him. It has also been brought to my attention that Mr. McDuffee has refused entry to anyone wanting to view his current "kennel." Why? What is he hiding? It has also been discovered that his wife, Wanda McDuffee, had her privileges suspended in 1998 for 10 years by the AKC--not exactly a ringing endorsement. "Momemtum is building behind this issue, and is spreading virally to many other dog lists/groups and individual owners/fanciers. Thus, I believe it's not only newsworthy as a topic, but also performs an important public service. The sense I get is that many people are shocked that these operations exist in Minnesota. It's bad enough when puppy mill puppies are imported into the state, but to have them grown here is appalling".-Lori Brostrom

Based on this information, we, the undersigned below, respectfully request that you revoke the conditional use permit granted to Mr. Block and Mr. McDuffee (who has since obtained the permit with the purchase of the land from Mr. Block) for the building of his "kennel". We have just cause to believe that this "kennel" will be nothing more than a puppymill where the dogs will live in cramped cages, filth and misery for all of their days. Please reconsider and revoke the permit. Don't allow this kennel to be built. Thank you.