Starving Sheps at "Puppy mill"

My mother in law is killing her "pets".

My mother in law has a yard full of German and American Sheps. She's a
Southern hillbilly and she lets all her animals breed like crazy.None of
them are fixed. They call themselves "breeders" but more of the pups die
than survive.They sell the few that survive for 50 bucks each, for extra
money. She and her husband refuse to feed the poor animals a decent amount of food, much less a decent quality. Right now, only one of the females has any pups that lived. The litter that started out with 10 is now down to 4, and they're onyl a few weeks old. They are outside in the freezing cold, with no blankets or nesting material at all. The mother dog is nothing but skin and bones. I was trying to sneak her some scraps this morning and this normally gentle dog was so hungry that she bit my finger all the way down to the bone when she tried to snatch the food away from me.

I am so angry at her, but my husband forbids me to say anything to her
about it. It would start a fight. This woman doesn't know how to care for
her animals at all, and she's just breeding them to make money, like a
freaking puppy mill.

She also has a cat that she kicks because he sprays. I've told her over and
over that if she would get him neutered, the spraying would stop. She just
doesn't do it. She says she doesn't have the money. It only costs 35 bucks
in this area to get a tom cat fixed, so if she doesn't have the money for
that, she should probably not have animals. (yet another thing that my
husband forbids me to tell her)

There is no animal control to call out here in the middle of nowhere. Not
even the game warden would say anything to her, because this is how
everyone in the area treats their animals.

I'm hurt every day I have to see these poor animals starving and
struggling. Saying something would create more bad feelings and start
trouble. A few years ago I took things into my own hands and snuck several
dogs to new homes, and within a few weeks, My mother in law had acquired
new "breeding stock".

I don;t know what to do. I'm angry and hurt and upset and I can;t even go
to the ER for my hand. They'll want to know what dog it was. If i tell
them, they'll put the dog to sleep. If I don't, they'll start me on the
rabies shots, multiple painful shots to my stomach... because the backwoods ER here doesn't have the new kind.

Can anyone help me? Give me advice? How can I tell my husband that his
family is trash? How can I help these pups survive, and possibly help
prevent any more from having to suffer and die?

There are no police to call. There really is no law enforcement here. It is so rural and remote that you end up needing to drive about an hour or so to get groceries. This is "redneck" country, and not the "hard working honest cowboy" kind. I'll go to the doctor, and I'll try emailing the right people. thank you all for supporting me. I am just so angry and upset and hurting for these dogs, and I'm upset that I'm the only one that seems to care about them.

His parents also don't live in Clarksville. We're out of state visiting for the holidays. the live in "Victoria" alabama. It's somewhere between Elba, Brundidge, Troy, and Enterprise. Victoria is Barely a community, not even a town. It's all country out here and I don't know who to contact for help.

I cross posted on some other sites and got mostly similar advice. (I also got called all sorts of names for allowing this to go on, like it's me personally doing these things to these animals. D-: )I ended up going to the nearest vet (in Brundidge, for those curious) and told him about the situation. I was surprised to know he did know the family, but the only pet he knew they had was my MIL's lapdog, who they took in LAST year.

He listened without saying much but he said he would drive out to "remind them" that the lapdog really needs to be spayed, and while he was here, he'd take a good look at the Sheps. He said he would try to talk them into decent care for the dogs, and come back and check in a week or so. He also said that if he saw any dogs in immediate danger, he would get in touch with the right people. He seems like a really good guy, and since he already knows them and they trust him, I think this will do a lot more good than calling any authorities.

I've got my fingers crossed that he makes it out here within the next few days, but he may not be able to until after New Years.

At least I've done something, though. And please, for those of you that want to bash me and how I'm handling this, you're not here, you don't know all the details. I've come here for help and to figure out the best course. I don't want these animals to suffer any more than the rest of you, and it hurts me a lot more to see them than it hurts you to read about them, I promise.

I'll do my best to keep you all updated on this. I should still be here until around the 5th or 6th. please, send vibes for these babies that they will get decent care soon.

ALso, update on feeding. I managed to subtly guilt trip MIL into feeding most of her Christmas dinner leftovers to the mother dog. I know human food is not the best for her, but since the leftovers were about to go into the trash, and that dog is so thin you can see ribs, i figured it would be ok. I even picked out all the bones I could find. Roxy (mom dog) was so hungry, she even ate the cranberry sauce.

The "Stud" is Solomon. He's about 9 or 10 months old now. He's the last surviving male pup from their last Stud, who died this time last year from old age. (RIP Roy, you lived a long life, and served well as a police dog.)

Then there is Roxy, and 1 more mature female i don't know the name of, one about 4 month old female named Marley, and the 4 surviving pups that belong to Roxy that are about 2 or 3 weeks old I think. I can't get close enough to check their condition, not with Roxy being so hungry and protective. She's very nervous, having already lost so many.

There is also a black Pitbull named taker that belongs to my SIL. Taker gets spoiled though and is in excellent health, despite never having shots or being neutered. He's 2 yrs.

And Honey is the lapdog. She's white and gold, poodle and Pomeranian mix I think. SHe's about 2 or 3 yrs. good health and REALLY spoiled.

And the cat, that doesn't even have an official name. He's the one I posted about on Breeder's corner with a curled tail. He gets called Handsome, Skittles, Scat! , Mouser, Cat, Dummy, and Bad Kitty. He's underweight and I know he's got to have worms because he's only in the house to catch the mice.

She tales decent care of everything but the Sheps and it breaks my heart. I'm still waiting on the vet to come out. I hope he doesn't forget. I bought a small bag of cheap puppy food last night ($6 bag for 7.5 lbs. real cheap, but high fat and high calorie) and gave that to her about 3 am when no one was up. She devoured the whole bag and she's looking a little less starved this morning.

One of these days I'll learn how to type out what I really mean.

She doesn't starve them on purpose. It's like, since she doesn't have to see them all the time, she just ignores them and their condition. "Out of sight, out of mind". She just doesn't seem to care about the outside animals much at all.

And I fed them at 3 am for 3 reasons.
A) My hubby wouldn't know I spent the money that we don't really have.
B) I wouldn't run the risk of getting lectured for "interfering"
C) I have a feeling that if the MIL saw me feed the dog, she'd skip the dog's next feeding to save money, figuring that 1 feeding a day would be enough.

I'm here alone at the moment, so I'm about to run some more food out to the girl and see what else I can do for her.

Only if the dogs were brought inside, or she was put outside with them. The saddest thing is that they have a huge yard, great for this many dogs. It's all fenced with a chain link fence, and is separated into front and back yards, perfect for keeping moms with litters separate from the Stud and the others females in heat. Her house is literally surrounded by dogs, but the blinds are hooked to the window sills with those little plastic hook things and they're never opened. She's only outside to feed them or when she is going to or from the car.

I think she has some bad feelings about the mother dog, but just thinks this is how it's supposed to be. I think that in her entire life, every female dog she's ever had has had this (lack of) care, and gotten this thin. I think she just doesn't know any better, and thinks this is how it's supposed to be.

That's why I can't wait for the vet to get here. He'll tell her straight up that the mother dog needs more food.

the results of my foray outside a moment ago:

Roxy and I may not be "Friends" yet, but she's beginning to trust me. I put food out for her and stood nearby while she ate. Then I walked around the yard ignoring her and raking up pine needles. When her food was gone she started following me. When the pile was big enough, I stopped raking. I put down more food right at the opening to her puppy "box" and stood there while she ate. I took it all slow and let her know I didn't want to hurt her or the pups. Once she stopped body blocking me from her babies, I got the pine needles i had raked up and put those in the box with the pups. After 15 minutes or so, she even let me pick the pups up and put them on top of the bedding.

There are FIVE pups, not 4. The last one is just small and stays buried under the others most of the time. They are all amazingly fat and healthy looking. They're maybe not roly-poly pups, but they are not underweight which amazes me. Since they're not walking around yet, they pretty much stayed right where I nested them.

Roxy followed me around the yard some more, after making sure her pups were ok. She even butted her head under my head and let me love on her. She's really a sweet thing when she's not starving to death. I've got a picture of her on my phone, but there's not enough signal here for me to send it to email. I'll get that pic up ASAP. I want you all to see just how thin and starved this little girl is.

ALso, Marley, the puppy, is missing. Hubby got home as I was putting up the rake, and i told him. We searched for the pup all over the yard, even looking into the pool area, that she shouldn't be able to get into, but she's nowhere to be found. She's still small enough to maybe have gotten under the fence or to have slipped between the post and the edge of the gate. We're going to look for her more later. I made him put some food outside the fence, just in case.

sorry it has taken so long for an update. been rather busy and worried about my own cats.

Update on the doggy situation:

MIL is feeding them a bit better. I think my subtle comments finally got to her. I showed some pics to the vet and he says the dog might have whip worms, which would require a 3 day treatment. All he needs to be able to check is a fecal sample, but I told the MIL that she needed to take the dog IN to SEE the vet in order for that to be done. (sneaky me). So I figured that this way he would be able to physically see the dog and make his own judgment about her condition. If she needs more treatment, I'm sure he'll say so.

But that's all I've got to add for tonight. I've got a long trip to make in the morning. For updates on my own pets, see "Prissy has been de-tailed" in the health forum. Thanks all for the support and advice. And thanks Carolinalima for pointing out I'm NOT home. :-)

A few pics of the mom dog from the day she bit me. She's gained about 3 pounds so far, so I guess her weight is SLOWLY coming back up.

Well, the dogs are ALL infested with parasites. From fleas to roundworms to tapes. They were all given Strongid de-wormer, and the inside dogs were given either Drontal or Droncet-- tape worm killer, regardless -- but Mama dog wasn't given anything but the Strongid, since that's all the vet felt ok with giving her without an exam.

The Strongid helped some. She has gained about 6 or 7 lbs now. She has been having her weight go up and down a bit though. I've gotten a friend of mine that lives down the road to go take some pictures for me for updates. He knows the family, and is my SIL's age, so he goes to "visit" her. The puppies are nested in some pine straw. Not ideal but better than nothing. I think my MIL ran out of food again, because my "spy" says the dog has been looking really hungry, and searching the yard for food more than normal. But he says that when the pups are about another week older, and can be without mom for a few hours, that my MIL plans to take the dog to the vet. so fingers crossed.

I'm tempted to tell my MIL that if they can't keep up with the food costs, I'll help her pay to get the girls spayed. I also just found out that she doesn't get any of the puppies any shots before she finds new homes. She just sends them off with no prep whatsoever.

ugh. I'm still unhappy with the situations, but I've done something, at least. hopefully, if I make her feel guilty enough, she'll start taking better care of them. Some people shouldn't be allowed to have animals, period. (Much less kids. Don't get me started on her --lack of-- parenting skills.)