Breeder: Yoder, Vernon
City, State Zip: Millersburg, OH 44654
Year: 2005
USDA License: 31-A-0114
Date of CAPS Investigation: 2005-03-03
Approximately 16 dogs and no puppies. Breeds: Cairn Terriers, Shiba Inus, Boston Terriers, German Shepherds, Pomeranians, Toy Fox Terriers
Yoder’s kennel consisted of several outdoor German Shepherd pens, an outdoor Shiba Inu pen, and a kennel building for smaller breed dogs.
Kennel building
The kennel building was about eight feet wide and ten feet long with single door. It had five cages on each of its longer walls. Windows provided some lighting, and there was a heater inside the kennel. The cages were adjacent in rows and raised about 2.5 feet above the ground. One row had outdoor and indoor cages, connected by metal doggie-doors. The other row had only indoor cages. Each cage, indoor and outdoor, was about 1.5 feet wide, two feet long, and 1.5 feet high and made entirely of treated wire. Metal feeders were attached to the inside walls of the cages, and water spigots were directed into each indoor cage.
Two of the cages each housed a single Shiba Inu, about 18 inches long. These cages gave the dogs less than six inches of space between the tops of their heads and the tops of the cages (3.6(c)(1)(iii)-Primary enclosures).
Two of the indoor cages each housed a single Toy Fox Terrier. The remaining cages housed dogs measuring about 15 inches long: one housed a single Boston Terrier, another housed a Cairn Terrier, and another housed both a Boston Terrier and a Cairn Terrier (3.6(c)(1)(i)-Primary enclosures).
The plastic walls at the backs of the indoor cages and the doggie doors were stained with feces (3.1(c)(2)-Surfaces). Plastic sheets were about four inches below each row of indoor cages. These sheets had feces stains with mucous and blood, indicative of coccidiosis (2.40-Vet care).
The outdoor cages each had more than two weeks’ accumulation of feces below them (3.11(a)-Cleaning of primary enclosures).
Wooden boards, a plastic stepping stool, a plastic shelf, and various medicine bottles were stored on top of the indoor cages (3.1(e)-Storage).
Outdoor Shiba Inu pen
The outside Shiba Inu pen was about three feet wide and 15 feet long. It had a dirty floor (3.1(c)(3)-Cleaning) and untreated, thick-gauge wire walls about 3.5 feet high (3.6(a)(xii)-Primary enclosures). The pen housed a single Shiba Inu. There was a water dish full of ice (3.10-Watering) and a food dish placed on the pen flooring in a manner that did not minimize contamination by excreta (3.9(b)-Feeding). The dog house was a plastic barrel about 1.5 feet wide and three feet long; it had no windbreak on its entrance (3.4(b)(3)-Shelter from the elements).
Outdoor German Shepard pens
There were two outdoor German Shepherd pens, each about eight feet wide and 20 feet long. These pens had dirt floors and untreated, thick-gauge wire walls about five feet high (3.6(a)(xii)-Primary enclosures). Each pen had a single German Shepherd. The dogs had plastic water buckets full of ice (3.10-Watering) and a food dishes placed on the ground in a manner that did not minimize contamination by excreta (3.9(b)-Feeding). Each pen had a wooden dog house about three feet wide, four feet long, and three feet high that lacked windbreaks on the entrances (3.4(b)(3)-Shelter from the elements).
