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 Shadow Valley
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.”
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 Michigan
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
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 Missouri 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
Certificate Date
|
State
|
Breed
|
Sex
|
DOB
|
|
6/15/2017 |
Samuel R. Mast
|
IA
|
Siberian Husky
|
M
|
|
Sheree Bonnette
|
MO
|
French Bulldog
|
M
|
8 weeks
|
|
IA
|
F
|
||||
IA
|
Pomsky
|
M
|
|||
David Troyer
|
IA
|
Siberian Husky
|
M
|
||
Shadow Valley LLC
|
IA
|
Maltese
|
M
|
||
Facebook Post
|
|||||
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 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
|
|
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
|
||||
9/14/2017 |
Melvin Miller
|
IA
|
Wheaten
|
M
|
|
Cedar Gove Kennels
|
IA
|
Boxer
|
M
|
||
IA
|
Pomsky
|
F
|
|||
M
|
|||||
Triple Y Kennel
|
IA
|
Dachshund
|
F
|
||
Walnut Ridge
|
IA
|
Havanese
|
F
|
||
Poodle
|
M
|
||||
Facebook Post
|
|||||
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
|
|||
F
|
|||||
Pomsky
|
F
|
9 weeks
|
|||
Poodle
|
M
|
11 weeks
|
|||
Yorkie
|
M
|
11 weeks
|
|||
The father of The Barking
Boutiques owner lives in Illinois
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.
