A March for Free Speech for Those Who Have No Speech - PUPPY MILL DOGS
By Rose Leroux Photo courtesy of Chris Johnson
On December 19, 2009, the Saturday before Christmas, eighty animal welfare activists marched in a silent vigil for dogs suffering in puppy mills. The grass roots group was also marching for the five million companion animals who are killed every year in the shelter system because there are not enough homes for them. Local activists had been planning the event for months following an investigation by the Companion Animal Protection Society (CAPS), which claims that Barkworks, a pet store chain in California, sells animals from puppy mills. The CAPS investigation included evidence from the United States Department of Agriculture inspection reports that the Midwest commercial breeders supplying the stores had multiple violations.
The puppy mill awareness drive that took place on the busiest puppy-buying day of the year, was intended to raise the awareness of consumers and to steer them to the overcrowded Los Angeles shelters to adopt or rescue a pet for Christmas.
The activists poured into the mall as a sea of red shirts, walking in poignant silence around the store as scores of uniformed security guards working for the mall glared at them. The Los Angeles Police Department was present, with several officers, to uphold the group's right to assemble. Unbeknownst to the shoppers around them, a legal precedence was being set. The animal activists were upholding a California Supreme Court decision from 2007 that ruled it unconstitutional to restrict assembly for the purpose of boycotting a store on private property.
"They told us it couldn't be done, that we weren't allowed to boycott inside the mall, but we pressed through the legal labyrinth for our constitutionally protected right to free speech. It was a very moving experience to march together against the cruel business of puppy mills under threat of arrest. Everyone had tears in their eyes. Some walked hand in hand. We were all shaking with emotion but we knew we were marching for those animals in pet factories and all the ones who died in the shelters this past year. It's cruel to keep dogs in cages their whole lives just to supply pet stores and if we were hauled of to jail for a night waiting for an arraignment for a misdemeanor, well, that's nothing compared to what puppy mill dogs are made to endure year after year. I saw a little girl ask her mom why we were there. "˜They're here to ask people to rescue an animal, not buy one,' she said to her young daughter. That made it all worth while to me." ~Carole Raphaelle Davis, co-organizer of the boycott and West Coast Director of the Companion Animal Protection Society
