Monday, April 16, 2018

The puppy pipeline to Grandville

How the Midwest puppy pipeline works…

One puppy transport company, Puppy Travelers, offers a glimpse into the inner workings and logistics involved in moving puppies across the country. Puppy Travelers operates out of the Neosha Missouri distribution ‘hub’. According to their website, they have pickup locations throughout the Midwest and follow four primary delivery routes.  

Petkey Online System – How they all communicate

How does The Puppy Travelers manage this enormous network for the pet industry?
Their website features PetKey’s Online Pet Management System.

“This system was created for businesses involved in the pet industry to help track sales, shot records, warranty paperwork, registrations, sales reporting and much more.”


The Puppy Travelers website illustrates how new puppy stores, like The Barking Boutique, can order puppies using the PetKey software. On their website, they use a PetKey screen shot used as an example. Interestingly, this example shows Bateman Diversified as the transporter. The Barking Boutique shipping records also listed Batemen Diversified.



~The Barking Boutique uses Petkey Online Pet Management System linked to brokers and transporters.~


So does The Barking Boutique leverage this delivery network?

Even though The Barking Boutique utilizes a sophisticated supply chain network that includes brokers, transporters, convenient pickup locations and well established delivery routes to source its puppies, the store still claims that their puppies are personally picked up from the breeders, in distant states, every week by the store. This would require a two-day trip every week!

On May 8, 2017, the owner of The Barking Boutique spoke during public comment at the Grandville City council meeting. Boelkes stated “We wanted to invite you out to our kennels to show you Cloveridge. To show you Shadow Valley…show you all the kennels I get to see every, at least once a week or once a month, but my Dad actually drives and picks up all of my puppies from the kennels.” 

And the owner continued to say, “We go and visit our kennels. We know they are not coming from awful places. We know they are coming from good places. We go to the kennels and look for the dog behavior.”

Since the store opened in April 2017, The Barking Boutiques’ website claimed, ”Puppies are brought to The Barking Boutique via private transportation by owner David Boelkes or other trusted puppy lovers.”   

On April 22, 2017 the owner of The Barking Boutique spoke with WZZM13, “ Owner David Boelkes said he has spoken with protesters since closing last July. He said he has cut out the middle man or puppy broker in which he once was linked. We go and inspect our breeders and work with our breeders,” Boelkes said. “We’re seeing our breeders that we pick up our dogs from every week. "There’s no middle man now. We’re going straight to the breeder.”



On April 27, 2017 the owner of The Barking Boutique told WOODTV, “Most of the dogs are bought from breeders in Iowa and then driven back to Michigan by Boelkes and his parents.” 


Seven months later the owner continued to claim he and his father transport puppies from the breeders once a week. During an interview outside theGrandville storefront, the owner would not confirm whether brokers are involved or not. Below are quotes from the interview with Pam Sordyl Founder of Puppy Mill Awareness of SE
Michigan:

Sordyl: “How often do you travel to your kennels?”

Owner: “Every month.”

Sordyl: “You don’t go once a week?”

Owner: “My father picks up puppies, so sometimes I don’t go, so no.”

Sordyl: “So once a week you get a delivery?”

Owner: “Correct.”

Sordyl: “Do you use any brokers or transporters?”

Owner: “My father is a transporter.”

Sordyl: “So you don’t work with brokers?”

Owner: “My father is a transporter.”

Sordyl: “Do you…”

Owner: “This is all I am going to say. This is not getting me anywhere. “




Earlier that day, a Barking Boutique employee stated “Yes, him and his father go and personally pick up the dogs. He visits them every single week. It is a two day trip.”

In January 2018, The Barking Boutique distributed brochures throughout the Grand Rapids area stating “100+ trips to personally transport our puppies to the store”., yet the store was only open for 40 weeks with weekly deliveries in 2017.

Let’s take a closer look at some weekly puppy arrivals…

Each week approximately 6-11 puppies are posted for sale on the The Barking Boutique’s Facebook page.

During one week in June, public shipping records show The Barking Boutique ordered six puppies from six different breeders - five located in Iowa and one in Missouri. This would take 11 hours to drive from Grandville and stop at each of the six breeders and then another 7+ hours back to Michigan.



The chart below lists (6) puppies that were included on Certificates of Veterinary Inspections records dated 6/15/17 and 06/16/17. These certificates indicate that these puppies were seen by the breeder’s veterinarian in the breeder’s state about one week prior to arriving at The Barking Boutique. 
           
The following Wednesday, The Barking Boutique posted only (3) of the (6) puppies that were signed off by a veterinarian the prior week. Three other puppies were posted for sale but did not have corresponding certificates. It is unclear if the female Newfoundland, male Siberian Huskey or male Maltese arrived at the store or were available for sale.

Certificate Date
State
Breed
Sex
DOB
Thursday
6/15/2017
Samuel R. Mast
IA
Siberian Husky
M
4/16/2017
Sheree Bonnette
MO
French Bulldog
M
8 weeks

Midwest Newfound
IA
Newfoundland
F
4/18/2017

Stoney Creek
IA
Pomsky
M
4/22/2017
6/16/2017
David Troyer
IA
Siberian Husky
M
4/22/2017

Shadow Valley LLC
IA
Maltese
M
6/16/2017
Facebook Post




Wednesday
6/21/2017


Australian Shepherd
F



French Bulldog
M




Golden Retriever / Poodle
F




Mini Schnauzer
M




Pomsky
M




Siberian Husky
M


Another week in September shows similar discrepancies. On 9/13/17 and 9/14/17, thirteen (13) puppies were approved by a veterinarian to be shipped to The Barking Boutique. This involved 7 breeders across Iowa and Missouri.

The following Wednesday, The Barking Boutique only posted 8 of the 13 puppies for sale. Two puppies that were posted for sale did not have corresponding certificates.

Certificate Date
State
Breed
Sex
DOB
Wednesday
9/13/2017
Daniel Yoder
MO
Mini Schnauzer
M
8 weeks


Poodle / Schnauzer Mix
F
8 weeks

Shady Oak Frenchies
MO
Australian Shepherd
M
8 weeks



Golden Retriever / Poodle
F
8 weeks




M
8 weeks
Thursday
9/14/2017
Melvin Miller
IA
Wheaten
M
7/15/2017
Cedar Gove Kennels
IA
Boxer
M
7/10/2017

Stoney Creek
IA
Pomsky
F
7/21/2017




M
7/13/2017





7/13/2017

Triple Y Kennel
IA
Dachshund
F
7/2/2017

Walnut Ridge
IA
Havanese
F
7/2/2017



Poodle
M
7/4/2017
Facebook Post




Wednesday
9/20/2017


Australian Shepherd
M
11 weeks


Boxer
M
10 weeks


Dachshund
F
11 weeks



Golden Retriever / Poodle
F
10 weeks




M
9 weeks



Havanese
F
11 weeks



Newfoundland
F




Pomsky
F
9 weeks



Poodle
M
11 weeks



Yorkie
M
11 weeks



The father of The Barking Boutiques owner lives in Illinois. If he is making weekly trips -the logistics are quite impressive! Using the September puppy order outlined above, the trip would take 24 hours and span over 1,327 miles.

Puppies are posted for sale on Wednesdays – one day after arriving.



Every Wednesday, The Barking Boutique’s Facebook page posts 6-13 new arrivals, and the Admin of the page has stated puppies arrive on Tuesdays.

~Is it just a coincidence that the Neosha Missouri distribution hub has a similar puppy delivery schedule?~


The Neosha, MO distribution hub sorts out puppies on Monday for Tuesday transport. It seems unlikely, the owner of The Barking Boutique and his father would be conducting parallel transports, especially when 76% of the puppies were purchased through broker Levi Graber.


Learn more about The Barking Boutique’s bad breeders on our boycott website.





If you purchased a sick puppy, had warranty issues, genetic problems, were sold the wrong breed, discovered the puppy is not a purebred or were misled by the financing package, please contact Pam Sordyl at 734-718-7100.