The auction in the words of my rescuer friend Carolyn

The dialog below was written by Carolyn Hadley, Something Special Castaways of Kansas City. Carolyn and her partner, Susan Turturice had set up a fund to bid on as many of the auction dogs as possible and to arrange for their safe transport, foster and re-homing. This is their story...not mine. I only observed what happened with admiration. I also went to the vetting station where some of the dogs stayed until their transports arrived. Although we hoped to be able to rescue more, many factors prevented that reality. God bless those who got out and those who were responsible.

This past few weeks have been a whirlwind. We did manage to pre-buy some of the dogs being offered up at the Schindler Auction in Mexico Missouri. We "pre-bought" the labs, german shepherds, cane corso's and 7 senior poms. My daughter and I drove down to pick them up on Wednesday, where we were met by a rather confrontational gal named Betty. She is a breeder as well and was clearly not fond of rescue. We then met Bonnie Schindler who in all honesty was a very nice lady, she is on her 3rd battle with cancer and is terminal. When we went out to receive the dogs at one point we must have gotten to close to the edge of the drive as Betty told us not to go any further. We picked up all the dogs without incident, got them back to Kansas City for boarding and continued to gear up for the upcoming Friday and Saturday Auction.

Hopeful Poms at vetting station awaiting transport to loving homes

Note from me: Before we were allowed on the property, we had to have our driver's licenses photocopied and sign a waiver stating that we agreed to follow the rules which included no photo taking. A rescue was escorted out by the sheriff for taking photos and the atmosphere charged with animosity. The auctioneer made it very clear that they did not care who bought their dogs but that we better follow their rules. 

He also stated that the auction dogs had received the required vaccinations and that the health certificates needed had been added as a mandatory charge of $10 to the bills the successful bidder would pay at the end. Carolyn/Susan had been given permission before the auction to bring in a vet and he planned to vaccinate and issue health certificates for $5 at a vetting station about 20 miles away. This was the first they heard about this new arrangement. They sent their vet home but continued to keep the vetting station open and brought the dogs there to await transport.

Schindler Property Set Up: We arrived on the Schindler property just after 8am. I was overwhelmed by rows and rows of “huts”. Each hut was hooked to the next and they were maybe 2ft by 2ft houses with equal footage of raised wire floored cages. The little dogs would run back and forth to the front of the cage and into their “huts”. For the most part the dogs were pretty social in that they did not cower at the backs of their cages, most wanted to be up front and center getting love and attention. There were several rows of very large sized chain link runs that housed the large breed dogs as well. There were many barns and outbuildings on the property which each served a different purpose, such as puppy barn, whelping barn, yorkie barn etc. Overall, the conditions were far better then I expected.

Auction: I had only ever been to one small auction before and I only went as a co-pilot. This was the largest breeder auction in the state of Missouri. They started out selling the larger breed dogs, cockers were first. They were housed in larger sized runs in sets of 2. They were ranging in price from as low as $55 up to $500. I had managed to keep my emotions in check until about the 8th or 10th cocker sold and the reality of what was happening set in. 

Several times over the next 30 min. I had to look away and stare out over the field in order to clear the tears from my eyes. To see these dogs being held up in the air as if they were same a clock being auctioned at a junk sale. They would tell you what number in the catalog the dog was, what model number he or she was (year of birth) and the females were labeled as bred, due in heat, in heat etc. Males were referred to as good workers or they threw good litters. Not a single name was used, just numbers.

Sr. Cocker Alphie now safety in foster care

Our first purchase was a male cocker 03 model (auctioneer's term) and we also managed to get another male cocker 02 model. I think this was one of the most nerve racking, heartbreaking things I have ever done. We continued on through the outside runs, including boxers, huskies (most bought by the Amish between $685 and $1150), then bassets and beagles, which also brought mostly between $300 and $600. We finally got to the last outdoor run which contained the adorable lil corgi's. We had already scoped out who we wanted to bid on and checked in with other rescues to make sure we wouldn't be bidding against one another. Up came #104 female 09 model, she was heavily bred (due soon) so we knew the Amish were going to be on her and NONE of us wanted to see these babies jump out of the frying pan and into the fire by going to an Amish breeder. I jumped in to bid against the Amish couple while others kept an eye out on what they were doing. The man said to his wife that I was rescue and wouldn't bid very high. I finally dropped out of the bid at $900, we didn't get her but they didn't get her cheap either. Don't think I will ever forget how hard we tried for that lil girl, and it breaks my heart to think she has a whole lifetime stuck with that horrible breeder. 

7 yr old Brussels Griffon Fonzi in loving foster home now 

They finally moved on to sell what they called Bullet puppies, which is English bulldog and basset cross. There were 5 puppies, all female. Bonnie came out and took about 10 min to explain how much money you could get out of these pups, the best steps to breed them and recommended a particular artificial insemination kit. I believe all but 1 of those babies went to rescue as none of us could bare to sit back and let them go into that life. Once that was over we moved into the tent to start the small breed auction.

Bullet with rescuer's happy daughter

People who were working there carried small dogs out 2 and 3 at a time and they were lined up on a table mostly in groups of about 5 or so. The bidding would start, someone would jump in and it went up from there. If they were females, they were held up on their hind legs and their bellies were bared to see if they were bred. Many times I saw the breeder, mostly Amish ones come up and literally, physically stick their fingers inside the vaginal opening of the dog to "check" her. The dogs were scared and the looks on their faces… the look of horror and of not knowing was gut wrenching. The prices of the dogs were sky high, on average $500 or $600 per dog. If the female was bred, it skyrocketed, if she was due in heat or was in heat, again the price was driven up. If the male was small and perfect breed standard, the price drove up. Even the 10yr old females were going high.

Day Two: By the time they continued to add to the online catalog and pass out supplemental sheets I would estimate that they sold roughly 900 dogs and puppies at this auction. Day 2 was certainly no better and probably worse than day one. They had so many dogs left to sell they set up in 2 tents with 2 auctioneers, selling simultaneously. If you were in tent one you couldn't see what was even being sold in tent 2. I saw yorkies go for as low as a couple of hundred to $1500. There were several dogs on day two that were brought out and placed on the table that were whelping (delivering puppies) at the time. One poor pug #388 female 03 model had just whelped 3 puppies but was brought out to the table, her back end wrapped in a towel to be auctioned off. One of our rescue partners wanted her but had to go to the other tent, so she asked me to bid for her, said I could go up to $600, I won the bid at $725 and just kicked in the overage from our funds. I can't begin to explain the hurt I felt for this dog when she was ripped away from her babies, but wrapped in a towel and held in the air for the world to decide her worth. There were moms with 1 day to 1 week old puppies brought out and auctioned off as a group. One yorkie mom and her babies was bought by a breeder, I did hear the breeder say later in the line to someone else, “hey do you want to buy this yorkie, I only want the puppies” and they did… so her babies were taken from her before they were weaned because she had no value to them. She was a larger yorkie without much hair and not particularly yorkie attractive… so no value for her, I did find out later that they folks she went to were rescue… thank God, they saw value in her.

At the time it was going on, it just didn't seem real, of course we weren't sleeping and were exhausted and trying to stay focused on saving as many as possible… it wasn't until I had these last few days to reflect that I understand the magnitude of what transpired. I am emotionally drained and sickened by the way these animals are treated. We ended up in conjunction with our partner rescues speaking for 114 dogs…. Dogs that will no longer be subjected to this horror and puppies we managed to get that will NEVER know the breeding life and for that I am thankful.

THE ONE WHO STOLE MY HEART: I think each of us that attended found that one dog that stuck with us… that one we knew we had to help. I met mine on Friday.

I went into the puppy barn where they had not only puppies but some small Chihuahuas as well (those that know me, know I am a big dog person… 3 great danes of my own). But in one of the 2ft by 2ft wire raised wire cages… no solid surface at all, was a white ceramic food bowl, curled up in the food bowl was a tiny blue Chihuahua. I walked over to the cage and this tiny being got up and ran to the back of her cage. I bent down and in my best baby voice said “hi baby… how are you?” This lil thing bounced around butt wagging and ran to the front of the cage with the biggest toothiest smile I had ever seen. She did this over and over ever time I spoke to her…. Heart dog????? Oh yeah…..

#652 AKA Cindy, playing in the grass for the first time

I went back several times to see her, she wasn't slated to sell until Saturday. I couldn't get her out of my head. Next day we arrived at 8am again and I found Kristin (the breeders granddaughter) and asked her if there was anyway I could buy her before she was auctioned. I pointed her out, she said she would ask her grandma, she returned about 15 min. later and said grandma said to ask Bob the auctioneer. She did just that and came back to me and told me she was bred and they wanted $400 for her. Based on the prices I had witnessed the day before I knew I had to take her for that. She doesn't weigh more then 3 pounds, she's blue and she's bred. The Amish would have paid top dollar to have her. So that's when Cindy or in auction terms dog #652 female chi 08 model, bred, became mine. She flashes that big ole smile every time you talk to her and she is the sweetest most loving well behaved lil girl I have ever had honor of knowing and loving. She will be going in next week for her spay and will never again know breeding or living on wire again. She seems to have taken quite nicely to being a couchpotatoin the most hideously ugly orange and brown sweater (only one small enough for her) ever. She doesn't mind the ugly sweater, in fact it's put a smile on her face… and mine. Don't think I ever knew that such a small dog could occupy such a huge part of my heart.