Daniel Wilmer, a Satellite Beach computer programmer and web designer, loves his buddy, Buford, a 12-year-old shih-tzu.
And he wouldn’t trade him for a healthier dog, despite Buford’s frequent attacks of pancreatitis, a condition that threatens kidney function. Those episodes cost Wilmer “thousands and thousands of dollars” in veterinarian bills over the years, he said.
“And currently the vet has diagnosed him with a mega-esophagus … an extended pouch from the esophagus,” Wilmer said last week. “He has to stand on his hind legs as he eats and for 15 minutes after he eats.”
Wilmer said he fell in love with Buford in 2008, when he bought him from Puppies Plus in the Melbourne Square. And he said owner Bill Jacobson, of Melbourne, could have avoided getting a puppy in such ill health if he had visited Buford’s breeder.
Wilmer said his mother traced Buford back to Tina Carr, owner of Simply Puppies of Hannibal, Mo. The Humane Society of the United States lists Carr and her business as one of a “Horrible Hundred” breeders in the nation, based on numerous violations cited by the United States Department of Agriculture.
The society derides as “puppy mills” those breeders found to keep their animals in neglectful and unhealthy conditions.
Wilmer discussed Buford on Jan. 8 with the Brevard County Commission. He was one of several residents supporting efforts by Vice Chairman Bryan Lober, of Rockledge, to prevent pet stores from getting their animals from puppy mills and “kitten factories” and make them instead get pets from adoption agencies like animal shelters or rescue groups.
“This ordinance was developed with Sheriff (Wayne) Ivey and Animal Control and tailored as narrowly as possible,” Lober said.
Amid protests from Jacobson, Lober tabled his effort until the end of February, by which time Ivey said he could get with animal-rescue leaders and pet dealers and hammer out a proposal more could accept.
At one point, Lober suggested a measure in the meantime to make pet dealers visit their breeders.
Commissioner John Tobia, of Grant-Valkaria, said he might support that, but only if Lober would also require other businesses to visit their sources – like making local gasoline retailers visit their Middle East oil fields.
Jacobson was the only pet dealer at the meeting. He scoffed at Lober’s use of statistics from the Humane Society of the United States. “They just want people to be vegan and eat tofu and broccoli and not have any pets,” he said later.
While going meatless is fine, he said, he accused the agency of trying to force that lifestyle on the public.
Jacobson said he couldn’t respond directly to Wilmer’s claims, mostly because of the time that has gone by since 2008.
But he said he understood pancreatitis as a food-borne ailment, not a congenital defect.
Overall, Jacobson said, Lober’s proposal to force pet dealers to only take shelter animals would put him out of business.
“You want to take Bill and take his livelihood away?” Suntree resident Thomas Frey asked commissioners. “I don’t think Mr. Lober has the right to tell us who to buy from.”
In fact, Jacobson said, Lober’s effort to restrict the sources a pet retailer can use will only lead to more activity by puppy mills by forcing them to go underground.
Jacobson said he started his business in 1997 and now relies on Choice Puppies Inc., a puppy broker of Goodman, Mo., to provide him with animals from “licensed, legitimate” breeders certified by the American Kennel Club.
With Wilmer’s claims, he said, he counts three problems getting healthy puppies.
“And in 21 years, that ain’t bad,” he said, adding, “Is it possible (Choice) bought a dog they shouldn’t have? Yes. And when we find out, we cut that breeder off.”