Breeder: Joseph and Leroy Detweiler
Business name: Sunset Ridge Kennel
Address: 28579 Kangaroo St.
City, State Zip: Princeton, MO 64673
Year: 2015
USDA License: 43-A-5447
Date of CAPS Investigation: 04/20/15
Time of CAPS Investigation: 10:46am
Approximate number of dogs observed at time of investigation: 40 dogs, 15 puppies.
Breeds: Huskies, Shar-Pei’s, French Bulldogs, and English Bulldogs.
The Detweiler’s kennel was a single building with indoor/outdoor dog runs on each of two sides. There were about ten runs per side, with the outside runs constructed of wire walls and plastic grating for floorings. The inside runs had ceramic tile floorings, ceramic tile and plastic walls, and wire doors. Wood shavings were on the floorings of the indoor pens. Metal doggie-doors allowed access from inside to the outside runs. Several outdoor runs had more than 24 hours’ accumulation of feces mashed into their floorings (Sec 3.11 Cleaning, Sanitization, Housekeeping, and Pest Control (a) Cleaning of primary enclosures). There were one to three dogs per run, and a few pens had whelping mothers and puppies in them. Paper records for the dogs in each pen were posted on the inside of the pen door.
Joseph Detwiler (Caucasian male, about 30 years old, 5’8”, 185 lbs., with brown hair, a long brown beard, and who identified himself as Amish) told me that he has more than 40 breeding dogs. He said that he breeds them as often as he can, though the dogs do not go into heat every cycle. He added, “But yeah, I don’t intentionally skip”—referring to breeding cycles.
I asked Joseph if the USDA writes him up for indirect violations, and he said that if he has a violation he can fix in a couple days that the inspector is “a lot slower to write you up. Just a little fix it here, or fix it there. Something like that, it’s what they call a teachable moment.”
Two Shar-Pei dogs, housed separately, had clear discharge running from their eyes. Their swollen eyelids were covered in a crusty substance. A black Shar-Pei dogs was black in pen 11 had kennel records on the door indicating the dog had “chip #7A1A.” A blonde Shar-Pei had records on the kennel door indicating the dog had “chip #0786.” Dog 7A1A was a nursing mother with four puppies in her pen. I asked Detweiler about the dogs’ eye infections, and he said “It’s probably kind of an irritation.” I then asked, “Is there anything you have to give them?” He responded, “I don’t.” (Sec 2.40 Attending Veterinarian and Adequate Veterinary Care (a) Adequate veterinary care).
