The Puppy Mill
ALAN NAFZGER
The Puppy Mill – Pecan Street Press
Lubbock ● Austin ● Fort Worth
FREE DOWNLOAD – http://freeebooks.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Puppy-Mill.pdf
The Puppy Mill is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Amazon edition
The Puppy Mill
Copyright © 2015 Alan Nafzger
All rights reserved.
The Puppy Mill – ISBN: 9781072188155
THE PUPPY MILL
The Puppy Mill Written by Alan Nafzger
The Puppy Mill FADE IN:
INT. CLASSROOM – UNIVERSITY – LUBBOCK – DAY
Three African American girls, athletes, enter a predominantly white classroom. Professor Kyle Brugha (68) is about to begin his lecture. There are three minutes until the top of the hour. Also in the classroom are a noteworthy African American, Rashard Pageotte (19) and a ultra conservative WHITE GIRL (19).
The Puppy Mill
Brugha
Hello girls.
GIRLS
Hi, professor.
Brugha
Girls, did you go to the dog show?
GIRLS
Thanks for the tickets. We went.
Brugha
I didn’t see you but I wasn’t there long.
(beat)
If you lose you go home. You know what I mean?
The Puppy Mill
GIRLS
Sorry you lost.
Brugha
That’s part of it. Right?
GIRLS
Sure.
Brugha
What’d ya think?
GIRLS
Doctor Brugha, your friends have foul mouths.
Brugha
What?
They are all “Bitches in the ring” and these ladies bring their dogs in. And then the winner is “Winners Bitch”. “I like your bitch” and bitch this and bitch that.
The Puppy Mill
Brugha’s jaw drops. Half the class laughs. Half the class doesn’t understand what is so funny. Brugha tries to keep a straight face.
Brugha
Bitch? That’s a female dog.
The remainder of the class chuckles.
Brugha
Well, I’m sorry. I should have explained that to everybody when I gave you girls the tickets. My fault.
Brugha
It’s not really a bad word. It…
Rashard
Why is that?
Brugha
Well, if someone calls you a bitch. They are calling you a female dog. But what do you call a female dog?
Rashard
Well, I don’t know; black girls where I’m from, the first thing they call each other is bitch and the hair pulling and fighting begins. Most of the time, one girl waits until the other one turns her back.
The Puppy Mill
Brugha
Female dogs do that.
Rashard
Is that why women are called that?
Brugha
I don’t know.
Rashard
But that is true?
Beat.
Brugha
My dog’s fight, every once in a while. The boy dogs they will have bites sometimes on their face or front legs or shoulders. Face to face. Female dogs… sometimes they will have bites on their hips and rear legs. You just know what happened.
Rashard
Oh, that’s the way black girls fight. They sneak up on ya.
The entire class laughs.
WHITE GIRL
How come?
Brugha
Nature. I’m sorry if you are offended. But that is just the way dogs are. But to answer your question, that’s how some people “perceive” women. It’s probably a false analogy.
A girl pops out of her chair and walks toward the door. She frightens/concerns Brugha, who is mild mannered and doesn’t want to offend anyone.
Brugha
I’m sorry. That might have been inappropriate.
(beat)
I didn’t mean to offend you.
WHITE GIRL
You didn’t.
She reveals a tissue that she throws in the trash. We realize she has a cold.
Rashard
Oh, women they like that. Sneaky.
Brugha
So you would advise men to watch their back.
Rashard
Protect yourself at all times.
The class chuckles.
Brugha
Well, its about that time.
(half beat)
Okay, I have the magic list…
(gesturing to a small index card)
… which is basically taken directly from your test. Coercion, legitimacy, revolution and elections and tyranny. Totalitarianism. The Soviet system. Nazi use of power. Official corruption in Mexico. The Arab Spring. So is everyone ready?
The student open notebooks and take out pens.
Brugha
This lecture… regardless of how boring you think it might be… this sets the theme and tone of the entire relationship between government and citizens. Without this foundation, your political experiences might make little or no sense at all.
(half beat)
It’s important.
Brugha
What does the government use coercion for? You know fines, handcuffs and prisons.
Rashard
To scare and intimidate.
WHITE GIRL
Law enforcement.
Brugha
What is the different between influence and coercion?
(long beat)
One is persuasion and one is force. Right?
(beat)
Why do we obey? Who are they to tell us what to do and not do? What’s easier for the government – persuasion or coercion?
Rashard
It’s easier just lock everyone up.
WHITE GIRL
No, it’s easier to persuade people to follow the law.
Brugha
(to the white girl)
Like the Pledge of Allegiance? I think you are right.
(to Rashard)
Prison’s and cops cost a lot of money.
(half beat)
So, legitimacy is the best way. Everyone just agrees to follow the rules.
Beat.
Brugha
Compare our country to a country like Syria now.
Rashard
The dictator has lost his legitimacy.
Brugha
Why?
Rashard
He used gas on his own people.
Brugha
Maybe, he did. What else might he have done?
WHITE GIRL
He oppressed his people.
Brugha
Good. Basically, when that happens the people have the right to rebel. So we have a civil war. And its’ a balancing test… every leader has the right to defend itself but there comes a time when maybe they lose their legitimacy (right to rule) and everyone piles on them. Foreigners begin to enter the fighting.
(half beat)
So, just to make this easy to understand, if you suck at government, then you lose your authority. And people either ignore you or they get a gun and try to kill you. Think about the Arab Spring.
(half beat)
How does our democracy work with all this? It prohibits power without legitimacy. Elections give you legitimacy.
(half beat)
What do you get when you combine legitimacy with power?
WHITE GIRL
Authority.
Brugha
You read your text book. That’s great!
(beat)
Who has authority in here? I do. What if someone comes into this room with a gun and he points it at my head and says, ‘class is over’? Don’t argue with him, just leave. Whether you like this class or not, don’t get me shot.
The students chuckle.
Brugha
Now when you lose your legitimacy that pretty much leads to revolution. We are a bit stressed for time and you had all this in Western Civ. So I’ll just mention a few… 1688 Glorious Revolution, American 1776, French 1789, Russian 1917, Chinese Communists in 1949 and Cuba in 1959. There have been thousands but they all share a beginning… a eroded legitimacy.
(half beat)
Now do you have the right to question the government?
WHITE GIRL
No.
Rashard
Yes.
Brugha
Well, you do. Yes. Always. Free speech, petition, lawsuits, journalism. But what if it gets really bad and the government goes crazy… totalitarianism.
(half beat)
Anyone know why we have the second amendment? Guns? Anyone?
WHITE GIRL
To keep people from robbing your house.
Brugha
And?
OTHER WHITE GIRL
So if you are gonna get rapped, you can shot them.
Brugha
Do you carry a gun?
OTHER WHITE GIRL
No but my momma does. She keeps it in her umbrella, in her car.
The class chuckles.
Brugha
That is all very true. Any other reason?
Rashard
To keep communists from taking over the government.
Brugha
Interesting take. Oooh, “Communists”. But essentially correct.
(half beat)
Yes. Basically… to persevere our right to limited government. Tonight I’m going to ask you to read the Declaration of Independence again. And tell me if you think it was a revolutionary document. And if you think it was… is it still? I mean does it mean anything today, or is it a bunch of old out-dated source code?
WHITE GIRL
What exactly do you mean by totalitarianism?
Brugha
Well, look at the root word… total.
Rashard
It’s where everything is against the law.
Brugha
The government has ‘total’ control. Think about Hitler and the death camps…
WHITE GIRL
How do they get away with something like that? He killed something like 6 million people.
Brugha
Power.
WHITE GIRL
That will never happen here.
Brugha
No?
(half beat)
I had a high school coach for a history teacher. We used to watch the dinosaurs out the window rather than listen to him. It would make him so mad.
The class chuckles.
Brugha
He was old school, red head, football you bet, flat top. You guys have no idea what that was do you? He warned us, and this was nearly 50 year ago, that someday everything will be against the law.
Rashard
How did he know that would happen?
Brugha
Well, the legislature is always making new laws… they think that’s their job and we’ve been a state for 170 years and a country for over 240 years.
(half beat)
How many laws have they written in this time? You go up in the library to the third floor. Turn left. Half that floor is the government documents. Maybe sixty rows what are they eight foot tall. Volumes and volumes.
Rashard
Control freaks.
WHITE GIRL
No they’re not.
Brugha
Well, some of you might have noticed, I don’t hang out on the first or second floor there on that west side… I figure someday all those government documents will collapse the building.
The class chuckles.
Brugha
I’m just kidding, but over-taxation, over-criminalization and over-regulation is a major drawback to “democracy”. Eventually they all seem to devolve into these over-criminalized socialist states, basically what we have now.
WHITE GIRL
I don’t understand when will this happen?
Rashard
We already there.
Brugha
Are we?
WHITE GIRL
So what will happen with like criminals and stuff?
Brugha
Well, in a totalitarian state, everyone would be a potential criminal.
Rashard
Once they know who you are… they will be around for you.
Brugha
Well, I remember Coach Williams mentioning what this does to policeman. He said you know how everything is pretty much up to judges (it used to be that way). He said the police would have all the power… and they do don’t they?
Rashard
They can do whatever they wanna do.
WHITE GIRL
The police can do whatever they need to do to keep us safe.
Rashard
No, they can do whatever they want to do to anybody they don’t like.
WHITE GIRL
Like you?
(half beat)
What about juries? The other day you said they are the last protection someone has.
Brugha
Yes. But think about it, if you’re on a jury in a country where EVERYTHING is against the law, how do you vote?
Rashard
You vote guilty just like “the man” tells you.
Brugha
Well, conviction rates just keep increasing. So, I agree with this young man. I’m sorry I don’t know your name yet.
Rashard
Rashard.
Good you just keep saying opposite of what she says and you will be right half the time.
Brugha
Coach William, he also said and that someday Russia will be free and the USA will be worlds tyranny.
WHITE GIRL
I don’t know if I agree.
Rashard
I agree.
Brugha looks at the white girl to expound her ideas. The class is clearly interested in the debate…
WHITE GIRL
I just don’t. This sort of stuff doesn’t happen in my country.
Rashard
You rich or your daddy friends with the police?
WHITE GIRL
No. He’s a county commissioner.
Rashard
See!
Brugha
This is a good lesson in what is happening here. It’s largely self-interest. If you think you are best served by a large government then you vote a certain way. If you are outside of the government you probably vote the other way.
Rashard
Half of us, it’s not our country anymore. It’s been stolen.
WHITE GIRL
Nothing’s been stolen; you and your buddies you are just a bunch of losers.
STUDENT
Who’s right professor?
Brugha
I have no idea… but I’m having fun just listening. Technically, that’s not my job. It’s your job. But maybe it happens so slowly; you don’t even know it is happening. That is the idea… so they don’t risk counter-revolutions. Bolsheviks don’t care they just usurp all the power at the point of a gun “all power comes from the barrel of a gun” Who said that?
STUDENT
Mao.
Brugha
That idea’s outdated… Mensheviks have the power now and say “all power comes from a ballot,” but of course they say that. They are the majority now. But arguably it could still go the other way and we might return to limited government.
WHITE GIRL
We are never going to agree.
Brugha
It’s really something personal.
(half beat)
Everyone is affected in a different way. That’s why you are “forced” to take this class. It affects you personally and you can’t escape that.
Rashard
My brother is in prison for smoking weed. They pulled him over, DWB, no reason.
WHITE GIRL
What’s that?
Rashard
Driving while black.
(half beat)
They said he didn’t put on a turn signal. The lawyer contested the search; they lost the police dash cam but the judge still allowed it. Texas man.
WHITE GIRL
He had marijuana.
Rashard
Handcuffed and in the back of the police car, my brother said he saw them planting it. A whole trunk full.
Brugha
I’m sorry that happened. Wrong place at the wrong time?
Rashard
He said, that waited and waited until a photographer came around. Once they had a photograph for the newspaper, they take him to jail.
WHITE GIRL
Your brother’s a drug dealer.
Rashard
My brother isn’t ambitious enough to be a drug dealer. He said he only had a bag with residue.
WHITE GIRL
He’s a criminal of course he is in prison.
Rashard
They filled his trunk full. He out in 10 years.
WHITE GIRL
But he “had” marijuana!
Rashard
Oh, man. Are you listening?
(half beat)
It’s goanna happen to you someday white girl. When they get all us brothers’ locked up they will need something to do.
WHITE GIRL
Your last name is funny, what kind of name is that?
Rashard
Pageotte. Haitian. My daddy escaped a dictator there and came here.
Brugha
Duvalier?
Rashard
And now we have the same kind of crap here. Where am I gonna go now to be free?
Brugha
Beat.
Brugha
Okay, now that is settled. I’m only joking. It’s never settled. It’s politics.
(half beat)
Which is?
STUDENTS
The struggle for who gets what when and how.
Rashard
Yeah, who goes to prison.
WHITE GIRL
You need to be in prison.
Hey, hey…
Rashard
I thought you had to actually do something to go to prison. Free speech right?
WHITE GIRL
I apologize.
Rashard
Professor I read the average person commits three felonies per day. Is that true?
Brugha
There is a civil-liberties lawyer up in Boston, Harvey Silverglate he wrote a book “Three Felonies a Day,” referring to the number of crimes he calculated the average American now commits because of vague and numerous laws. I guess I should add unwittingly. People don’t know they are breaking the law.
Rashard
But they can get arrested if the cops want to. If the cops don’t like them.
Brugha
There is a lot of innocent activity potentially criminal. I think a lot of the time the police just look the other way; they are just like everyone else and follow the path of least resistance. Like electricity.
Beat.
Brugha
And there aren’t enough prison cells for everybody,
Rashard
They got enough cells if you’re black though.
Brugha
Okay, not that my opinion matters. I was educated a long time ago and I wish things were like they used to be. But I think we do live in an over criminalized society where this huge volume of laws are dangerous for everyone, EXCLUDING the wealthy, the connected, professionals, lawyers, judges and police officers.
Rashard
They get a pass.
WHITE GIRL
No they don’t.
Brugha
Everyone has to be careful, maybe that is one reason this class is required.
WHITE GIRL
What about the people that don’t go to college.
Brugha
Prison’s are full of them. Pretty much.
(half beat)
Well there you have it. We are learning lessons here at Tech right? “Stay away from these people in law enforcement.” We aren’t just an agricultural school, right?
(half beat)
Yeah, well tell that to the university president.
Rashard
Walk with your head down and never make eye contact.
Brugha
I didn’t say that. But I wouldn’t sit down at a dinner table socially and tell them what you do for a living or your hobby or anything.
Rashard
It’s probably against the law.
Brugha
This arbitrary power of the police and legal ambiguity of every human activity invites the sort of thing that can stamp a permanent criminal record on an otherwise squeaky clean slate of a harmless individual.
Rashard
They can charge you with anything they want and it’ll probably stick.
WHITE GIRL
(to Rashard)
Horse shit!
Brugha
See, I knew agriculture would sneak in here someway or another.
Everyone chuckles.
WHITE GIRL
Oh! Professor I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.
Brugha
I teach politics. It’s not like I’ve never hear that phrase before.
(half beat)
Well, it’s time. I guess you should all go home and watch Gilligan’s Island or whatever you all watch.
(half beat)
Thanks. Read chapter 3 and the Declaration of Independence before Thursday please.
The students file out of the classroom. Professor Brugha remains for a second or two incase there are questions.
WHITE GIRL
What are you some sort of athlete?
BLACK GIRLS
Hey!
Rashard
What? Cause I’m black, I’m here because I’m an athlete?
WHITE GIRL
Well, are you?
Rashard
I’m here on an academic scholarship.
They happen to look at the professor as an arbitrator or perhaps for his approval. Long beat.
Brugha
I’ve never seen anything like this in a classroom.
(beat)
That’s not bad.
(half beat)
Actually, I think the banter back and forth pretty much helps explain this all to the class. Man you two had them going.
The white girl contemplates and the extends her hand shake. They shake and agree to disagree.
COUNTY OWNED PUPPY MILLS
The steal dogs from breeders… sometimes show quality breeders… and operate them as retail rescue…
The sad truth is that we live in a world where numerous government owned facilities exist that directly or indirectly contribute to perpetuating animal abuse. County owned Puppy mills are a perfect example. It is here that dogs are literally mass produced so that the breeders can rake in as much profit from the offspring as possible. Right now there are anywhere between 2,000 and 3,000 USDA-licensed breeders operating in the United States. Some of these operations can be so large that they contain 1,000 breeding dogs at the same time. What’s not included in that figure is the number of unlicensed puppy mills that exist; the ones the USDA has not approved and does not know about.
While responsible breeders understand the importance of the parents’ health and careful genetic pairing to produce strong litters that will improve the breed, the operators of these puppy mills eschew quality in favor of quantity. Without the proper husbandry practices being followed at these mills, serious genetic flaws spread throughout the breeding pool unchecked. More important is the abuse that runs rampant at these facilities.
Overcrowding, disease, and inadequate access to even the most basic veterinary care are prevalent in these types of operations, leading to widespread cases of horrific negligence and malnutrition. Untreated medical conditions such as tumors, birthing complications, respiratory infections, flea infestations, heartworms, and digestive problems are all common side effects to the lack of care and the unsanitary environment.
Stuck within the confines of these germ-filled warehouses, the dogs are simultaneously deprived of exercise and grooming. Many of them are forced to live either on wire or slatted flooring that cuts into their paws and legs, leaving wounds to fester into cysts and infections. Often the cages are stacked in columns to save space. When this happens, all of the waste from the higher cages falls on the dogs below, further leading to the spread of disease. Ventilation is often poor, the overall habitat is a cesspool of filth with minimal to no lighting, no access to outdoors, and barely even room to breathe.
Many dogs spend their entire lives, from birth to death, crammed in these conditions, never once feeling sunshine on their face, feeling the grass beneath their feet, or breathing a single breath of fresh air. The females are used as little more than housing units for puppies. They are rarely given adequate recovery time between births. Once they are physically depleted to the point where they are unable to reproduce anymore they are often killed and disposed of to make room for new females. The male dogs used for stud fair no better.
Where do the puppies that come out of these mills end up? As quickly as five weeks after birth many are shipped off to pet shops while others are sold directly from the owner to buyers through the internet, newspaper ads, at swap meets, and at roadside auctions and open air flea markets.
Currently Missouri is the top puppy mill state in the country with other states following close behind. While the highest concentration of puppy mills is in the Midwest they have been spreading nationwide even as far as upstate New York and into the Great Lakes Region. The largest puppy broker in the country is believed to be Missouri’s Hunte Corporation which ships approximately 80,000 puppies per year to pet stores nationwide.