Alvin Herschberger from CAPS on Vimeo.
Breeder: Alvin Herschberger
Business name:
Address: 490 Hannan Trace Rd
City, State, Zip: Patriot, OH 45658
USDA License:
Date of CAPS Investigation: 7/16/19
Time of CAPS Investigation: 1542
Weather at time of investigation: unknown (high of 91.9°F and low of 69.1°F on that day) and sunny
Approximate number of dogs observed at time of investigation: 40
Breeds: Chihuahuas, Dachshunds, Maltese
The facility had eight elevated outdoor cages on one side of the kennel, with doggie-doors allowing access to indoor portions of the enclosures. The cages had doors made out of thick-gauge metal beams, plastic walls, and thick-gauge treated wire flooring. The cages were about five feet long, three feet wide, and with three-foot-tall walls, though they had no roofs. Each enclosure had three to four dogs in them.
Across from the cages were four outdoor pens, each about eight feet wide and long, with chain-link walls, rock floorings, and roofs partially covering them. The pens had three to four dogs per pen. Alvin Herschberger (Caucasian Amish male, about 50 years old, 5’8”, 160 lbs., with grey hair down to his ears, a receding hairline, and a long grey beard with no mustache) told me the pens were playpens that he let his dogs into every day.
Alvin told me that his dogs have six to eight litters per dog before being retired and that he never intentionally skips breeding cycles of his dogs. He said the USDA gives unexpected visits to his facility, and while he said they will write him up for some violations, he said that if he has “just a little bit less space” than required, his inspector “probably wouldn’t do anything about it.”
