The USDA inspected the Rabbit Ridge Kennel, owned by Donald Schrage, April 5th.
Rabbit Ridge was featured in HSUS’s Dirty Dozen. This kennel is a repeat offender, and has been a repeat offender since at least 2003. The April 5th inspection was a focus inspection, based on violations noted by the USDA inspector in March. The March inspection was a focus inspection, based on violations the inspector noted in November 29, 2010. The November inspection was a focus inspection, based on violations the inspector noted November 16, 2010, and so on. This one breeder has been inspected by the USDA nine times since January 1, 2010. The breeder repeatedly fails inspections, with items such as the following:
A female Maltese was very thin, with vertebrae, hip, and leg bones easily seen and palpable. She has an obvious waist and abdominal tuck. There were areas of skin on the bony prominences that were scabbed over.
A female, Shih Tzu was seen limping and holding the front left paw up. She was slightly weight bearing on the foot. An approximate pea-size opening location at the top of the foot was moist, reddened, smooth edged and oozing a clear, red discharge. The affected area seemed slightly swollen. There was an area of hair loss around the opening. Licensee indicated that he “was treating with hydrogen peroxide” and was unsure when this lesion occurred. No documentation of treatment by the licensee was available.
And the following:
A Shih Tzu male was seen hopping and leg flipping due to restricted movement from hair on hind leg matted to abdomen. Areas of matted hair had pulled away from the skin leaving large areas of red, irritated skin. These areas were oozing green pus and had a crusty appearance on both sides of the dog’s abdomen.
Two Scottish Terrier dogs were matted on the face, legs, and back. These matts were dangling off the face and legs, pulling at the skin.
Lhasa Apso had a left eye with a crusty, greenish-yellow discharge in and around the eye.
A male, Boston Terrier had a thin hair coat with generalized hair loss throughout the body. There was an open lesion on the rear leg and a scabbed over lesion on the scrotum approximately 1 inch in diameter.
A dog had an end portion of the tail (approximately 1 inch long) that was red, hairless, and oozing blood.
Since the Missouri General Assembly and Governor Nixon enacted SB 161 with an emergency clause, SB 161 is now immediately in effect and this breeder is in violation of state law.
First, we need to contact the Department of Agriculture and demand that it take action with this breeder. Operation Bark Alert isn’t the appropriate avenue, since Bark Alert is for unlicensed breeders, only. Instead, I recommend people send an email directly to the department responsible for breeder inspections, ACFA. Since the level of suffering these dogs are experiencing is quite high, you may also want to email the Director of the Department of Agriculture, Jon Hagler, directly.
I also recommend that you email the state senator for this breeder, Brian Munzlinger, and the breeder’s Representative, Craig Redmon. Both of these gentlemen felt compelled to override Proposition B, so I think it’s only fair that they accept some responsibility for the actions of this breeder.
In addition, I’ll be seeing if I can get recent Missouri Department of Agriculture inspection reports. If any of you have any additional information about this breeder, such as directions to the kennel, or photos or videos of the place, please send me an email.
Hopefully by the end end of summer, we’ll see definitive action on this breeder. If not, then we better have a damn good reason why not from those who felt that SB 161 was an acceptable replacement for Proposition B.
