Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?

If you're in Montcalm County and your dog goes missing or ends up at the county's animal shelter, there's a good chance he could end up in a research facility.  The shelter GIVES animals to a Class B Dealer.

The animals are then sold for use in experiments.  In the past, dealers have been allowed to take the animals before they become available for adoption.

Dealers get the animals for FREE, while you and I must pay for their adoption.  Montcalm county has had an alliance with a Class B Dealer for over 30 years.  The dealer often takes the most adoptable animals.  These animals, once trusting family pets, are much easier for the researchers to handle.

As of this writing, the Montcalm County Animal Shelter has no sign informing the public that they give away our pets to be sold for profit to research facilities.

What is Pound Seizure?
 
Pound seizure is the practice of releasing or selling lost, stray, or abandoned cats and dogs from municipally funded animal shelters for use in biomedical research, product development, safety testing, and educational demonstrations.  
 
Animals from shelter, commonly called "random source animals", are used to practice surgery by medical and veterinary students and are then euthanized.  Hundreds of dogs and cats taken from shelters are used every year in painful or long-term experiments or programs.

What is a Class B Dealer?
 
Class B Dealers are brokers who acquire animals that they sell for profit to research facilities.  The animals are used in the pharmaceutical industry, the cosmetic industry, at certain medical schools and veterinary hospitals for training.  Most of the animals are put through painful experiments and testing only to be euthanized after the experiment is over.
 
Class B dealers get their animals from "random sources" such as auctions, flea markets, "free to good home ads" in the paper, an in the case of Montcalm County pets, from our local animal shelter.  Our county has a contract with an animal dealer and our shelter gives dogs and cats to the dealer in exchange for certain services that he provides.
 

Why is Pound Seizure a Bad Practice?
 
Pound seizure gives our county a negative image.  It betrays the public's trust and keeps individuals from utilizing the shelter when they can no longer keep a pet.  This impacts the purpose of the state curelty and stray laws and negates the purpose of animal control.
 
Animals suffer needlessly.  By giving our companion animals to a Class B animal dealer, we are losing money that could be made by adopting out the animals to loving homes.  We don't have to put up with this.  We can fight for change!