Breeder: Tim and Mary Feldman
Business name: Raspberry Creek Kennel
Address: 27690 South N Highway
City, State Zip: Sheldon, MO 64784
Year: 2015
USDA License: 43-A-5764
Date of CAPS Investigation: 04/22/15
Time of CAPS Investigation: 2:08pm
Approximate number of dogs observed at time of investigation: 40 dogs and 30 puppies.
Breeds: Australian Shepherds, German Shepherds, Pomeranians, Poodles, Yorkshire Terriers, Maltese
Mary Feldmann (Caucasian female, about 60 years old, 5’8”, 280 lbs., with short grey hair, glasses, and who moved assisted by a scooter) spoke to me about her business and showed me her kennel. Mary said that she breeds her dogs as often as they will go into heat and sells puppies as a business.
The kennel consisted of a metal building with eight indoor/outdoor runs on each of two sides. The runs had wire walls and concrete floorings with grated drains. The indoor pens had water pipes running to automatic nipples with water dishes below them to catch run-off and automatic feeders on the walls. The pens containing nursing puppies had wooden boxes filled with blankets and heating lamps. There were two to three dogs, or a nursing mother with puppies, in each pen. Plastic sheets separated indoor runs from each other; plastic sheets also covered the wire walls of the outdoor runs up to about two feet high.
A Pomeranian and a Poodle in a pen in the middle of the building had no access to the outdoors. This is not an AWA violation, but it is a MO state violation (2 CSR 30-9.030 (1) Facilities and Operating Standards (F) Primary enclosures 3. C. (2) (B) Exercise for dogs 4. Constant and unfettered access). The pen had wire walls, two partially and two fully covered by plastic sheets; a wooden box in this pen was covered in peeling black paint and had chewed surfaces (Sec 3.1 Housing Facilities, General (c) Surfaces (1) General requirements). There were three other pens, in a row, in the enclosure. These pens also had no outdoor access, but they contained nursing small-breed mothers and puppies. Mary told me that she was hoping the Pomeranian and Poodle would breed together in the pen they shared.
