Breeder: Weaver, Ammon
City, State Zip: Lititz, PA 17543
Year: 2005
USDA License: 23-A-0167
Date of CAPS Investigation: 2005-02-23
Approximately 20 dogs and five puppies. Breeds: Labradors, Cairn Terriers, Jack Russell Terriers
Ammon Weaver’s kennel building, about 40 feet long and 15 feet wide, had an interior constructed entirely of plywood, a concrete floor, and artificial lighting throughout. The kennel was accessible by a doorway on one 40 foot wall that faced away from the house.
Whelping pen
Two rooms were visible during the inspection. One room was a 40-foot-long, five-foot-wide hallway with a row of cages that had doggie-doors accessing outside cages. It was not possible to see inside these cages except for one wooden whelping pen in the row of cages.
This pen was about four feet wide, four feet long, and three feet high. The door accessing the pen was a foot wide and three feet high. Inside the pen were five Cairn Terriers about four-weeks-old
There was a space underneath this pen about four feet wide, four feet long, and a foot high. In this space was a heating lamp facing up towards the wooden flooring of the pen. A light bulb at the roof of the pen was connected to a dimmer switch near the pen door.
A metal food dish was on the saw dust-covered floor (3.9-Feeding). On top of the whelping box were more than a dozen medicine and cleaning bottles, as well as several plastic bags (3.1(b)-Condition and site).
Second kennel room
The second room was about seven feet wide and ten feet long with a vertical bank of three cages, each about 1.5 feet wide in all dimensions. The cages had metal water dishes and self-feeders. The walls, roofs, and floorings of these cages were made of untreated, thin-gauge metal (3.6(a)(2)(xii)-Primary enclosures). The top and bottom cages housed an adult Jack Russell Terrier about 15 pounds in weight (3.6(c)(1)(i) Primary enclosures).
Metal sheets were positioned a few inches under each one of these cages. There was several days’ accumulation of feces under each occupied cage (3.11(a)-Cleaning of primary enclosures).
Outside cages
There were ten outside cages in a row along a 40 foot wall of the kennel next to the kennel doorway. Each cage was about 3.5 feet wide, four feet long, and 3.5 feet high and made with wooden beams at the corners, untreated, thin-gauge wire for walls and roof, and treated wire for the floor. A door about two feet wide and three feet high accessed each cage from the outside. There was an adult Cairn Terrier in the outside cage. This cage was connected to the whelping pen housing the five Cairn Terrier puppies.
Several cages housing one to two adult Jack Russell Terriers or Cairn Terriers were too small for the dogs inside of them. One cage housed an adult Cairn Terrier and an adult Yellow Labrador weighing about 65 pounds (3.6(c)(1)(i)-Primary enclosures). Another housed an adult Jack Russell Terrier and two adult Chocolate Labradors, each weighing about 70 pounds (3.6(c)(1)(i)-Primary enclosures). The pen furthest from the doorway housed an adult Jack Russell Terrier and two adult Yellow Labradors, one weighing about 80 pounds and the other about 65 pounds (3.6(c)(1)(i)-Primary enclosures.) The ground under these cages sloped downhill from the kennel doorway. Thus the cage closest to the door was raised about two feet off above the ground on wooden stilts while the cage furthest from the doorway was raised about four feet above the ground.
Feces stains covered the metal siding of the kennel building under each cage, and a concrete slab four feet wide and 35 feet long under the cages was covered with clumps of fur (3.1(c)(3)-Cleaning). The concrete also exhibited more than a week’s accumulation of feces (3.11(a)-Cleaning of primary enclosures). The slab sloped away from the kennel building toward a wooden beam that contained debris from the grass beyond the cages.
A watering system of PVC pipes fed a spigot inside each cage. It was not evident if metal bowls in the outdoor cages were used for feeding or watering.
