Hunte Corporation: Pushing AKC Puppy Mill Pets

What's the Hunte Corporation?

Simple: the Hunte Corporation is a "puppy bundler" business which gathers together very young puppies (typically 6 or 7 weeks old) from puppy mills in Missouri and around the mid-West.

These very young dogs are too young to have full immunity, and are too young for shots, but time is the enemy of the puppy industry, and so they are gathered up at a very young age and mixed together, helter-skelter, in trucks.

The dogs are then sent to a Hunte facility where they are given shots, looked over, groomed and washed, and moved out the door, as fast as possible, to a pet store near you.

Why the rush to collect such young dogs and get them out the door so fast?

Simple: puppies are like fruit; they go rotten with age.


Most people want a puppy; they do not want a dog.

An eight-week old puppy is very saleable commodity. A 12-week old puppy is not.

A 16-week old puppy will be marked down 90 percent.

And the result of this push to gather up young dogs?

Well, think about it.

Parvo and distemper do not incubate overnight, and so it should come as no surprise to learn that a significant percentage of puppy mill dogs supplied by Hunte end up coming down sick.

The problem here is the same one as occurs with hamburger: take one pound of Listeria-infected beef and mix well with 500 pounds of "clean" beef and what comes out the other end is a lot of sickness.

It only takes a one parvo- or distemper-infected dog from a puppy mill to infect every other dog in the truck going to Hunte.

It takes only one dog at the vaccinate-and-sort center run by Hunte, for a lot of disease to spread and then shoot out to five or six states over a three-day period.

And does this happen? Almost every day.

Remember the dogs are not being held at Hunte long enough for them to do much more than give the puppies a cursory look-over, quick grooming, and a first vaccination shot. Then it's out the door.

Everyone in the business understands that puppies "go rotten" with age.

To the credit of the British Kennel Club, their web site tells you what the Hunte Corporation and the AKC leave off:

Puppy farms are like factory farms where dogs are bred purely for profit. The dogs are normally bred too often, many are unhealthy, and often live in unbearably poor conditions. The puppies are generally removed from their mothers far too early and sent by rail or van to ‘dealers’ or pet shops in the big cities to satisfy the public’s demands. Many are severely traumatised by the transition, and some do not make it alive. Do not buy a puppy or a dog from these sources, as they will have had the worst possible start in life, and are far more likely to have health and temperament problems.

Many ‘puppy farm’ puppies come with complete pedigrees, however, a pedigree in itself, is not necessarily an indication of quality.

‘Dealers’ are agents for puppy farms. They buy puppies and sell them on, advertising them in newspapers and magazines, often masquerading as breeders. If an advert lists more than one breed of puppy for sale, then the person placing it is probably a dealer....

Does this mean the UK Kennel Club refuses to register puppy farm dogs? No. They too pocket the money. That said, they at least are not a cheering squad for puppy mill misery like the American Kennel Club is.

For the record, the Hunte Corporation's web site is co-branded with AKC on every single page. Check it out at the bottom of their home page.

The Hunte Corporation's web site also features a picture of a Border Terrier. Is Hunte puppy farming Border Terriers now? Apparently.

As the Hunte web site notes:

Hunte routinely offers over one hundred different breeds to pet retailers who understand the importance of providing a broad selection of breeds to families in search of the ideal companion.

For a complete list of AKC breeds, click the link below [the link is to the AKC's web site].

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