Those merle poms are really, really cool. I want one. Alas, I doubt I will ever find one from someone I'd care to buy a dog from.
That said, I'm going to make a statement that is sure to get me flamed. Taking her site at face value (i.e. construing the evidence in a manner most favorable to the defendant) . . . well, there's a lot worse out there. As a resident of VA, we've seen a lot of the worst the past few weeks.
I'm beginning to think that places like this are . . . well, inevitable, and as things go, not so bad . . .
WAIT! Don't flame yet!
I am a firm supporter of responsible breeding, health testing, breeding for some purpose other than money making. . . but . . .
People want dogs. They want purebred dogs. They often want very special purebred dogs of a certain color (whether its a real color or not). No ammount of education is going to get most people to join a waiting list for a puppy from a responsible breeder, or even do the legwork to find a responsible breeder. This is a culture of instant gratification. Sure, if there's a responsible breeder in the area who has a litter (and I don't think they ALL have to have waiting lists) they'll be happy to purchase there. But they want their dog, and they want it now and they want EXACTLY the dog they want.
That said, I'd rather have people like this, who raise their dogs in clean conditions, who give health tips and warnings about genetic diseases (no health testing, but perhaps she's not had any overt problems, that leaves you with DNA tests, which are expensive). This seems to be how she makes her living, not a hobby for a few extra bucks. Yes, I'd rather have her out there, providing puppies to the ignorant and impatient, than the horror shows we saw in VA, or even many of the BYBs, who don't know a dang thing about dogs. With that many dogs its hard to believe this lady hasn't learned something.
She's a liscensed kennel . . .that means she's inspected and regulated. Good. I'd much prefer that to people doing this in secret. And someone will do it. There's too much money to be made. We may have to accept that this sort of thing will go on . . . it can go on with people who seem to at least rather like their breed and care fairly well for their dogs . . . or it can go on in the backs of barns, in tiny filthy cages, in secret. But it will go on.
Will I buy a dog from her? No. Will I recommend someone buy a dog from her? No. Will I shrug if someone does and say, well, you coulda done worse? Yep.
