Post by Die Fledermaus on Jan 9, 2011 16:25:26 GMT -4
>>http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/01/grymes_hill_woman_saves_thousa.html<<
>>STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Laura Flynn-Amato fell in love with Abby the minute she saw the yellow lab in a pet store in the Staten Island Mall. She took the weeks-old puppy home that day. And then the seizures started.
Seven years later, Abby is a happy and healthy dog who plays the role of family protector. But it was her start in a puppy mill in Lancaster, Pa., that has led Mrs. Flynn-Amato on a road to becoming a savior to nearly 4,000 dogs over the last five years who otherwise would have been left to die when they could no longer breed.
"It's definitely changed my life," said Mrs. Flynn-Amato, 35, a Grymes Hill resident who has appeared on "Oprah" and is currently featured in "Madonna of the Mills," a 50-minute documentary that follows four of the dogs she has rescued and portrays puppy mills as "prison camps" where dogs are dollar signs instead of man's best friend.
"I have witnessed things I never wanted to see. I have to keep my composure in order to get the dogs out."
Mrs. Flynn-Amato was something of an animal rights activist since she was a little girl growing up in Brooklyn. After finishing her homework, she would write letters to politicians seeking help for abused pets.
Her childhood dogs, Pepper, a German shepherd, and Emily, a basset hound, were both store-bought dogs who were healthy, but died young. Jimmy was her first rescue dog. She traded his abusive owner a six-pack of beer to bring the German shepherd home about 10 years ago.
Soon after Jimmy died, Mrs. Flynn-Amato bought Abby for $1,000, money later refunded as the pup's medical bills began mounting. It was while taking care of Abby's various health conditions that she learned of her beginnings.
Her first encounter with a puppy mill came in 2004 while visiting Lancaster, a longtime favorite vacation spot. She passed a sign advertising puppies, and pulled over to find a golden retriever circling on his own inside a wire cage.
"He was very cramped in, he had no water or food," said Mrs. Flynn-Amato, an assistant in an Eltingville dental practice.
She wrote a letter to 400 puppy mills operated by Amish and Mennonite farmers in Lancaster -- which has earned itself a reputation of being the puppy mill capital of the East Coast -- asking to take the dogs that could no longer breed. Calls slowly started coming in, first five a month, then 20, then 50.
Mrs. Flynn-Amato then contacted rescue groups in the tri-state area to join the effort and used $25,000 of her own money to establish her nonprofit, No More Tears Rescue.
Once a month, Mrs. Flynn-Amato and a friend rent a cargo van, load it with food, toys, leashes and wee wee pads and venture to Pennsylvania, where they share the road with horse and buggy. There, they travel from one farm to the next, picking up dogs, who are rehabilitated and given homes.
She has made it a rule to never ask too many questions of the puppy mill owners.
"I don't lecture," she said. "I don't want them to throw me off their property. I am just there to save the dogs."
They are kept in cages -- typically six inches larger than they are -- with wire floors, and let out only to breed. By the time Mrs. Flynn-Amato gets to them, they can barely walk, their ears and teeth are infected, they have the shakes and sores on their skin.
They have no names, just numbers.
"They're not housebroken, they hide under the table and they shake," she said. "If I don't rescue them, they shoot them. It's perfectly legal."
Ninety-nine percent of puppies sold in pet stores -- often for triple or quadruple the cost the pet store paid -- are bred in puppy mills, which are largely unregulated, according to Mrs. Flynn-Amato. Almost all go home with parasites or some type of health problem.
"I am trying to convince people not to buy from a pet store or the Internet," she said. "Go to a private breeder or a rescue group. The public is being lied to. They think they are getting a wonderful American Kennel Club breed. They are paying all this money and their dogs are going to be sick or have problems in the future."
Since bringing Abby home, Mrs. Flynn-Amato has rescued Beezy from a puppy mill. She was a 6-month-old cockapoo who couldn't breed. Her death sentence was written.
Now 2, she is still traumatized, shaking when strangers come to the door. But Beezy has become fast friends with Abby, following the older dog around like she's her mother. When Mrs. Flynn-Amato is on the road, her husband, Frankie, cares for the girls. He will do the same when she gives birth to their first child in June.
"The hardest thing for me is to see the other ones I am leaving behind," Mrs. Flynn-Amato said. "They have this look on their faces that say 'get me out of here.' They all bark at the same time.
"I feel terrible that I can't save them all." <<
>>STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Laura Flynn-Amato fell in love with Abby the minute she saw the yellow lab in a pet store in the Staten Island Mall. She took the weeks-old puppy home that day. And then the seizures started.
Seven years later, Abby is a happy and healthy dog who plays the role of family protector. But it was her start in a puppy mill in Lancaster, Pa., that has led Mrs. Flynn-Amato on a road to becoming a savior to nearly 4,000 dogs over the last five years who otherwise would have been left to die when they could no longer breed.
"It's definitely changed my life," said Mrs. Flynn-Amato, 35, a Grymes Hill resident who has appeared on "Oprah" and is currently featured in "Madonna of the Mills," a 50-minute documentary that follows four of the dogs she has rescued and portrays puppy mills as "prison camps" where dogs are dollar signs instead of man's best friend.
"I have witnessed things I never wanted to see. I have to keep my composure in order to get the dogs out."
Mrs. Flynn-Amato was something of an animal rights activist since she was a little girl growing up in Brooklyn. After finishing her homework, she would write letters to politicians seeking help for abused pets.
Her childhood dogs, Pepper, a German shepherd, and Emily, a basset hound, were both store-bought dogs who were healthy, but died young. Jimmy was her first rescue dog. She traded his abusive owner a six-pack of beer to bring the German shepherd home about 10 years ago.
Soon after Jimmy died, Mrs. Flynn-Amato bought Abby for $1,000, money later refunded as the pup's medical bills began mounting. It was while taking care of Abby's various health conditions that she learned of her beginnings.
Her first encounter with a puppy mill came in 2004 while visiting Lancaster, a longtime favorite vacation spot. She passed a sign advertising puppies, and pulled over to find a golden retriever circling on his own inside a wire cage.
"He was very cramped in, he had no water or food," said Mrs. Flynn-Amato, an assistant in an Eltingville dental practice.
She wrote a letter to 400 puppy mills operated by Amish and Mennonite farmers in Lancaster -- which has earned itself a reputation of being the puppy mill capital of the East Coast -- asking to take the dogs that could no longer breed. Calls slowly started coming in, first five a month, then 20, then 50.
Mrs. Flynn-Amato then contacted rescue groups in the tri-state area to join the effort and used $25,000 of her own money to establish her nonprofit, No More Tears Rescue.
Once a month, Mrs. Flynn-Amato and a friend rent a cargo van, load it with food, toys, leashes and wee wee pads and venture to Pennsylvania, where they share the road with horse and buggy. There, they travel from one farm to the next, picking up dogs, who are rehabilitated and given homes.
She has made it a rule to never ask too many questions of the puppy mill owners.
"I don't lecture," she said. "I don't want them to throw me off their property. I am just there to save the dogs."
They are kept in cages -- typically six inches larger than they are -- with wire floors, and let out only to breed. By the time Mrs. Flynn-Amato gets to them, they can barely walk, their ears and teeth are infected, they have the shakes and sores on their skin.
They have no names, just numbers.
"They're not housebroken, they hide under the table and they shake," she said. "If I don't rescue them, they shoot them. It's perfectly legal."
Ninety-nine percent of puppies sold in pet stores -- often for triple or quadruple the cost the pet store paid -- are bred in puppy mills, which are largely unregulated, according to Mrs. Flynn-Amato. Almost all go home with parasites or some type of health problem.
"I am trying to convince people not to buy from a pet store or the Internet," she said. "Go to a private breeder or a rescue group. The public is being lied to. They think they are getting a wonderful American Kennel Club breed. They are paying all this money and their dogs are going to be sick or have problems in the future."
Since bringing Abby home, Mrs. Flynn-Amato has rescued Beezy from a puppy mill. She was a 6-month-old cockapoo who couldn't breed. Her death sentence was written.
Now 2, she is still traumatized, shaking when strangers come to the door. But Beezy has become fast friends with Abby, following the older dog around like she's her mother. When Mrs. Flynn-Amato is on the road, her husband, Frankie, cares for the girls. He will do the same when she gives birth to their first child in June.
"The hardest thing for me is to see the other ones I am leaving behind," Mrs. Flynn-Amato said. "They have this look on their faces that say 'get me out of here.' They all bark at the same time.
"I feel terrible that I can't save them all." <<
