Isabella’s Ordeal

For the second time in a month, Kathy Abate was holding a sign in front of All Pets Club. As part of a newly formed group, CT Citizens Against Puppy Mills, Abate is now on the front lines as she seeks to end the puppy mill system. 

Abate and her husband, Art, of West Haven, purchased Isabella, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, from All Pets Club in Branford in November 2007. (See photo to see Isabella as a pup.)

“I was uneducated [about the breeding of puppies in puppy mills], but I knew I wanted a dog,” she explained.

But shortly after they bought Isabella home, she was diagnosed with kennel cough, a highly contagious respiratory disease. That turned into pneumonia, and Isabella just got worse. She was hospitalized on IV antibiotics, and when she came home, Abate had to give her three shots a day for more than a month. ​“It was so painful for her,” she said. ​“She would cry. It was awful, just horrible.”

Despite the aggressive treatment she received, Isabella had a lung removed in March 2008.

When Abate approached Jerry Pleban, the owner of All Pets Club, about Isabella’s health problems, she said he insisted that if they had brought Isabella back and let them treat her, they wouldn’t have gone through such an ordeal; he said her doctors didn’t treat Isabella properly. Isabella came from a puppy mill in Kansas. State law requires that the state where the puppies originate be posted on a sign on the cages.

When interviewed last month, Pleban said he stands firm about the quality of puppies sold at his stores. There are additional stores in Southington, Wallingford and Windham. Click here to read our previous story.

He said the store has been dealing with the same breeders for 13 or 14 years. The breeders he buys from are licensed and inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he says. The organization, Against Puppy Mills, lists inspection reports for breeders affiliated with All Pets Club. Click here to read the site. 

At that time, Isabella was being treated at VCA Shoreline Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center in Shelton. The treatment cost $9,500. The Abates, like many U.S. pet owners, did not have insurance.

“Money was never an issue for us,” said Abate. ​“We just wanted him to admit he was getting these puppies from puppy mills.”

The Abates received legal advice from Ken Bernhard, who represents the Westport Coalition Against Puppy Mills. In November 2008, Abate received an email stating that the coalition had researched a Kansas State inspection for 2005 of ​“Dot’s Little Doggies,” where Isabella had been bred and born. The kennel had passed the inspection with a note about cage head space not being at 6 inches minimum. At that time, in 2005, ​“Dot’s Little Doggies” had 596 dogs and pups, 41 different breeds.

Seventeen pages of United States Department of Agriculture reports on ​“Dot’s Lttle Doggies” from July 2007 to as recently as Nov. 9, 2011, reveal conditions such as poor dental conditions, hair loss and sores found in the dogs, inadequate bedding, inadequate headroom in cages, missing and rusted metal in cages in contact with the dogs, poor record keeping, expired drugs on the premises, and lack of an exercise program. Dot’s Little Doggies is apparently still operating. 

Based on their problems with Isabella, the Abates filed a case in small claims court against All Pets Club. However, under pressure from Pleban at All Pets Club, they said, they withdrew their case in March 2009 and settled for $2,200 in cash and store credit.

“Again, it wasn’t about the money, but the whole issue of APC supporting those horrible puppy mills,” said Abate

In the meantime, the Abates adopted another puppy in August 2008 as a companion for Isabella. This time they were fully aware of what to expect. They found Martini, age 5 months, through Petfinders.com. She belonged to a military family from Arkansas who had placed her in a shelter because they were moving overseas; she had been obtained from a puppy store, whose puppies were supplied by puppy mills.

Because of their knowledge in dealing with the health problems of puppy mills puppies, the Abates were selected from among 100 applicants after Abate wrote a letter explaining what they had gone through with Isabella.

But the story doesn’t end there. Syringomyelia.

Abate had noticed that Isabella was scratching around her ears and her veterinarian told her about Syringomyelia , a little-known genetic condition that results from poor breeding in which the puppy’s brain is too big for its head; it causes pain, paralysis and eventually, death. The treatment of choice is surgery, although Abate said that some families opt for treatment with just medication. Abate’s Internet search led her to Dr. Dominic Marino, a specialist at Long Island Veterinary Specialists; he is world renowned for his work in that field.

Isabella was already in his study and when Martini joined the Abates, she was also enrolled as soon as they adopted her. The cost for enrollment was $500, which included free annual MRIs, and reduced-fee surgery.

In April 2009, Isabella had her second MRI and Martini had her first. Dr. Marino called with the news that both dogs had Syringomentia and that Martini’s was much worse.

“If we didn’t adopt ‘Tini, I don’t know what might have happened to her,” said Abate

In August 2009, both dogs had surgery (their condition was too advanced to be managed with medication only), which involved opening their skulls and placing titanium mesh over them to allow their brains to expand normally.

Abate said the dogs were confined in crates for about a month and no jumping was allowed for three months. They’re also on two different medications indefinitely.

After spending what Abate describes as “a phenomenal amount of money,” both girls are asymptomatic.

“They’re wonderful little girls,” said Abate. “They are happy, doing well, absolute delights, and dearly loved.”

CT Citizens Against Puppy Mills will hold its third demonstration on Sunday, Dec. 18, from noon to 2 p.m. in front of All Pets Club, 479 East Main St., Branford.

The group, which also has a Facebook presence, is circulating a petition to stop the sale of puppy mill puppies at Yuppy Puppy, a newly approved store at the Walmart Plaza at 858 Boston Post Road, in Guilford. It has not yet opened.

The owner, according to Guilford town records is Tara Fleming, of Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, who currently owns two Yuppy Puppy stores, one in Brodheadsville and the other in Stroudsburg, Pa. Fleming says on her website that “our puppies do not come from puppy mills but rather local and human breeders. Because we are also home breeders, we feel that it is our duty to use care when bringing new lives into the world. Click here to see her website.

The location for the new Yuppy Puppy was approved by the Guilford Planning and Zoning Commission on Oct 5, 2011. The commission approved the plan to change the use of the site from a karate studio to a retail store for Yuppy Puppy, LLC. The application was approved because there were no changes to the exterior of the building. 

The authority of the P&Z does not extend further.

Marcia Chambers contributed reporting to this story

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