Breeders Club of America (now called Select-A-Puppy)
1839 NJ-35
Middletown, NJ 07748
(732) 706-3444
Date and time of CAPS investigation: 8/6/19; 1212
Approximate number of puppies observed at time of investigation: 40
Puppies were kept in cages on one wall of the store. Each enclosure had solid walls on three sides, including a glass wall facing customers, thick-gauge metal wire doors at their backs, and wire floorings. There were one to two puppies per cage, and about 28 cages total.
An employee (Caucasian female, about 40 years old, 5’4″, 125 lbs, with long curly brown hair) told me people from the store visit breeders, most breeders have indoor/outdoor runs, are families and kids playing with the puppies, have “big huge open spaces,” some have doggie treadmills, don’t have dogs in cages, all dogs have access to the ground, they only breed once a year, and they breed the dogs only for a couple years before retiring them. She said some breeders have hundreds of dogs but those breeders have staff to take care of the dogs. She told me the breeders are USDA-licensed and inspected in the Midwest so the kennels have open spaces for dogs, and aren’t from PA where she claimed kennels have bad regulations. She also claimed the USDA will shut a kennel down for having cobwebs.
The worker told me the store is a “kennel” and not a “pet shop” because they hand select puppies when they go out to breeders or breeders come in to them, and then verified when I asked again that someone from the store individually selects puppies.
She told me that animal rights extremists use old videos of breeders and put them onto different current breeders.
I asked to see a USDA inspection report for a Yorkie, and she went to get a folder containing the reports that wasn’t in the main area accessible to customers. She showed me the report for Kathie Blomberg, and said I can google that breeder but claimed google isn’t a good place to get information on breeders. I then told her that I noted AJ’s Angles was listed as the breeder for a Havanese puppy. After I asked if someone from the store had visited AJ’s Angels, the employee said a “breeder representative” has been to AJ’ Angels. She showed me paperwork, including USDA inspection reports, on AJ’s Angels, and confirmed the breeder would have a play area for dogs. I showed her a satellite image of the AJ’s Angels property on my phone on googlemaps, and she tried to tell me that part of the yard in the middle of the kennel was a play area. I then told her that I found some worrying information on Blomberg on google, as well as a satellite image of Blomberg’s kennel showing a row of concrete runs. The worker then told me all of the breeders she’s visited have play areas, and said the store has hundreds of breeders but breeder representatives make sure breeders are “doing the right thing” and socializing dogs.
Breeder info:
The following were obtained from cage cards in puppy enclosures at the stores:
- Dorothy Knapp, AR, 71-A 1335, Kennel: Select Puppies, 1215 215th Ave, West Point, IA, 52656, 42-B-0314
- Petite S Zook, 1623 Gentry Rd, Seymour, MO, 43-A-6169, Kennel: Select Puppies, 1215 215th Ave, West Point, IA, 52656, 42-B-0314
- Ajs Angels Inc, 24302 US Hwy 10, Cushing, MN IA 52656, 41-A-0484, Kennel: Select Puppies, 1215 215th Ave, West Point, IA, 52656, 42-B-0314
Evidence of false statements made by store employee:
- The employee’s claim that breeders give dogs “big huge open spaces,” that dogs have access to the ground, and that kennels are in the Midwest to have open spaces are false. Likewise, her claims that the store’s breeder AJ’s Angels has a play area for dogs is false. All of these claims are refuted by evidence CAPS obtained on 7/10/19 of AJ’s Angels facility having hundreds of dogs in elevated indoor/outdoor cages with no play area on the property evident. Dogs were seen pacing and circling in wire cages, stereotypies common for dogs lacking in socialization and never let out of their confinement.
