BEWARE OF JULIE MARTINEZ AND GRANT SMITH OF MITTELWEST - Page 6

DuganVomEichenluft,

Did you not read the part about dogs living in crates?

I would class this as abuse / neglect personally.

Brandi, I think you are misunderstanding the issue as a lot of people are seeing it. The issue was never that they had parvo. That, I think, is something everyone can sympathize with. The issue is that they HID it while FOURTEEN puppies died and were bagged up like trash. How you lose 14 pups you're treating is a little confusing, as parvo is brutal, but if caught early, can have reasonable treatment success. Surely, they would have had better success if treated as a vet would treat them, unless they were going to care for them around the clock as surely the vet writing the instructions expected.

While this was going on, they denied it, said there was only a coccidia and giardia outbreak which they were trying to remedy (this is according to the report), and continued to host public training on their property until word got out. Pretty irresponsible, in my opinion, and many others.  With the sheer number of dogs they keep and sell, it isn't hard to imagine how far and fast this could spread. Additionally, having decoys work dogs there and travel afterwards to different clubs is another risk. The responsible thing to do, imo, would be to immediately put the property on lockdown. No dogs in, no dogs out. ADMIT tragedy has struck. Warn others.

Seems like if they had worried less about image and took the dogs to the vet, maybe 14 would not have died. I have to consider whether not wanting word to spread is the reason for not taking puppies to the vet. Better to hide the deaths than have everyone find out, maybe?

These are just my thoughts after reading the report and comparing it to what I heard beforehand (January). I don't know all the facts, and don't pretend to.

@ Jenni - good post, well said.

 

Plus:  I am a bit concerned about the role of this man and woman, who pointed out where there were dogs in crates.  Strikes me this could be one of two things: a couple of (staff ?) who'd decided (what, just for devilment ?) to make it seem something bad was going down; or a couple of staff who disagreed with what was happening and were trying to do something about it.

The proprietors presumably knew who these two people are / were; but did not appear (according to the Report) to contest what was said.

Disturbing, whichever way you look at it.   

 

HOWEVER  I remain unsure about the dead pups "being thrown out like trash" bit of this case.  A bag can be opened again by someone seeking to take photos and make a point.  But bagging dead puppies as a temporary measure until they can be fittingly disposed of is surely not that rare (or that awful) a method in itself, for a commercial kennel. Whether there are 14 or 4. It's not like this was one euthanised pet in its own home, to be transported to a vet surgery or crematorium for disposal - and its not unknown for bodies to be bagged up (temporarily) in trash bags even in those circumstances !

Interesting.

On 2/8/2018, the inspectors both state that Mr. Smith was going to show them 'all the dogs', yet as they are leaving the property, they are flagged down by two employees who lead them to a room in 'an outbuilding' that the inspectors had NOT been taken to by Mr. Smith, and which is found to contain dogs being 'housed' in crates.

So much for being shown 'all the dogs' by Mr. Smith.

Right, hexe. Another "discrepancy" in the report. "All the dogs" wasn't all the dogs at all. "Coccidia and giardia" was parvo. Let's not forget that they had a time and date in which the officers would return. Not exactly caught off-guard.

Jenni78,
Thank you for pointing that out. I had missed that during my readings. I went back and read it again and see what you're saying.

I'm curious to see the final and accurate outcome.

FYI- More dead puppies this week at Mittelwest. Jacob Leffelman, the field officer from Illinois Department of Agriculture is being notified, as the case remains open.

Parvo is still active and the case is STILL open with IL Dept of Ag.

I would just like to say that if anyone is dealing with this or have dealt with this situation and would like to speak up, feel free to contact me. If you feel afraid to post publicly, you can contact me directly. You are not alone.

Thank you.

Wow.
This seems so very unfair in the name of protecting others?

We too imported pups not to long ago and they arrived with parvo. We lost our puppies and the imports survived. Did we do anything wrong? No!
But we did suffer a loss just as MW is.
But I can't see how anybody deserves this thread.
Boo hiss.

Im trying to figure out what loss this OP has.. Did their puppy die ? Where they not compensated for Vet treatment ? When did they get their puppy ? Its clear that the AG department lifted the Parvo quarantine after 3 weeks of not having parvo, being tested Neg for it. It's not uncommon to crate dogs, contain them for their own safety and comfort while you have an inspection happening, or even after eating . Sometimes it's distressing for the dogs seeing a stranger, and what breeder wants to yell "SHUT UP".. in front of the inspector ? Her facilities are amazing. I wish. Lost 14 puppies ? What a shame. We lost 7 out of 11 about 8 years ago- more of the puppies died at the Vet than they did at home .. We haven't had one case of Parvo sense. The title of this thread should read " Mittelwest Parvo Outbreak spring 2018" ... It's no wonder the person who wrote it wants to remain anonymous. There are people out there.. this is a warning to other breeders.. who will bring a recently dead Parvo puppy on your property.. maybe throw it over your fence.. or just jump your fence with a sick puppy.. just to get your dogs sick. This is the new Animal rights activist tactic to bring your reputation down. This happened to a friend of mine. A rescue friend of mine told me she overheard someone telling how they did this to my breeder friend. Parvo has to come from somewhere.. Apparently Julie got it from Germany/Airline ?... what a shame.