MCALLEN - People selling pets don't want others to know about the dark side of the animal business.
A NEWSCHANNEL 5 investigation exposes what many pets go through. But we also discovered there are almost no laws protecting them.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) took undercover video of what they call a puppy mill. The technical term is "substandard breeder."
The video showed dogs packed in rusty wire cages, covered in their own feces, with almost no food or water. Breeders can crank out hundreds - sometimes thousands - of puppies a year.
They're the same puppies you buy at the pet store.
McAllen Petland owner Cesar Cepeda says his animals come from only the best breeders.
"They're mom-and-pop operations, where you can see the pictures of grandkids sleeping on top of the dog," he tells us.
The HSUS tells a different story. The organization says many of the puppies sold at some Petlands come from puppy mills. They tracked the sale of nearly 17,000 puppies over eight months.
In some cases, the people providing puppies kept them in small cages, gave incorrect medications, and violated animal welfare.
Petland's corporate office released a statement to NEWSCHANNEL 5. In it, they called the HSUS a "radical animal rights group."
They go on to state, "Petland does not support substandard breeding facilities."
State Representative Eddie Lucio III tells us substandard breeders are a problem everywhere.
"What I'd like to do is create standards," he says.
The state representative wants to license and regulate breeders. Lucio joint-authored a bill to give pets more legal protection.
Right now, there are virtually no laws in Texas protecting pets before they make it to your house.
Lucio explains, "We really don't have a lot of folks looking out to provide protection for animals."
That means no one is watching over Joe Anthony, who has a chihuahua business in Alamo. Tina Magee called NEWSCHANNEL 5, because she was concerned about the dogs she saw there.
"They wanted to be held. But you couldn't hold'em, because they were covered in feces," she says.
NEWSCHANNEL 5 took our undercover camera to the business. On the video, the person undercover asks Anthony, "So they're all your little babies?"
He replies, "They're a major headache."
Anthony says he has 120 puppies right now. Twenty of them are pregnant. Magee tells us she's worried about them.
"They can't have the proper care that they need. There's no way," she says.
Anthony tells NEWSCHANNEL 5 he has one part-time helper.
"My puppies are in $9,000 worth of stainless steel kennels," he adds.
The animal store owner wouldn't show us where the dogs are housed.
"No. If you go back there, it will cause a miscarriage," he tells us. "Are you gonna pay for all those puppies?"
Anthony did bring out 10 puppies in a crate. All of them were clean and seemed to be in good health.
"I've been doing this 27 years. I have an impeccable reputation," he says. "This isn't a puppy mill."
At the Alamo flea market, our undercover camera found a man selling puppies out of a wire cage in the 100-degree heat.
In Mexico, we found puppies panting in their cages. There was no food or water in sight.
We were told the animals were healthy. It was only when we started asking questions that the dogs get a drink.
NEWSCHANNEL 5 then found Reynosa veterinarian Alcibiades Lopez selling puppies a few blocks from the bridge. He says 90 percent of his customers are American.
He says many people load up their cars with puppies and sell them in the United States in flea markets or even on the side of the road.
"You buy a puppy from them. If it gets sick, you don't know where to go back," explains Shannon Ponce of the Palm Valley Animal Shelter.
She says animal abuse is a huge problem in the Valley. She showed us pictures she took of several Valley breeders she considers puppy mills.
But Ponce adds there's really nobody cracking down on them.
"We don't have any staff that does out and does investigations specifically," she explains.
She tells us if you have a complaint, you can call animal control in your city or county.
Lucio says the laws are just not enough.
"Animals are completely helpless," comments the state representative. "They don't have someone looking out for them."
Lucio's pet protection bill never made it to a vote last session. He's says he'll try again next year.
NEWSCHANNEL 5 did an earlier investigation into Jesse Vasquez, the owner of Jesse's Pet Shop.
We exposed the shop was selling dozens of puppies that appeared to be healthy, but the animals quickly got sick and died.
Five months after our investigation, the Texas Attorney General's Office shut down his McAllen business.
Former employees of Vasquez told us he bought the animals in Mexico.
The pet shop owner was ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines and refund his customers. As far as we know, Vasquez is no longer doing business in the Valley.
