The puppies seized from a Hamilton Place pet store that a city judge ordered returned to the business have been sent to a puppy broker in southwest Missouri that received an F from the Better Business Bureau in that state.

According to a highly critical Missouri BBB report released in March 2010, The Hunte Corporation in Goodman , MO – where The Pet Company sent the returned animals – “buys and sells 90,000 puppies per year, transporting them by 18-wheeler to pet stores across the country.

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The puppies released by Chattanooga City Court Judge Sherry Paty were among an estimated 90 animals seized from The Pet Company on June 15 by McKamey Animal Services representatives after they discovered temperatures in the store exceeded 85 F because its air conditioning system was broken. Subsequent veterinary tests revealed that more than half of the dogs taken from the store were suffering from Giardia.

The fact that the puppies were sent to Hunte was revealed during a court hearing last week by Andy Pippinger, attorney for The Pet Company and its parent organization: United Pet Supply of New York.

The March 2010 Missouri BBB report, prepared by researcher Robert H. Teuscher of the organization’s St. Louis office, is entitled “The Puppy Industry in Missouri: A story of the Buyers, Sellers, Breeders and Enforcement of the Laws.”

The report was a joint project of BBB Serving Eastern Missouri & Southern Illinois in St. Louis; BBB of Greater Kansas City; and BBB of Southwest Missouri in Springfield, Missouri.

“One of the largest sales outlets for breeders in Missouri and other states is The Hunte Corporation, located in Goodman, Missouri,” Mr. Teuscher noted in his executive summary.

“According to news reports, Hunte buys and sells 90,000 puppies per year, transporting them by 18-wheeler to pet stores across the country. Hunte’s 25 trucks logged 2 million miles in 2007, according to the Department of Transportation. Hunte refused to verify the sales figures,” he noted.

According to the Missouri BBB report, many of the puppies sold by Hunte are ill.

“The former owners of three Petland stores in Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio, in separate suits, charged that they received sick puppies from Hunte,” it noted.

“One franchisee said that prior to his grand opening on Aug. 5, 2006, he received 60 to 65 puppies from Hunte (and) more than half of them (were) sick when they arrived. Another said three puppies in the initial shipment for his opening on March 31, 2007, died within weeks and others were sick.”

Hunte’s operation is so huge that it has led to a proliferation of breeders in and around Missouri who sell their puppies to the company once they are eight weeks old, according to the report.

“Because the largest wholesaler of puppies is located in Southwest Missouri, dog breeders proliferate in Missouri and other states in the area . . . Rightly or wrongly, the policing of dog breeders and sellers seems to be a lower priority in Missouri and elsewhere,” the summary explains.

“There are about 4,000 breeders licensed by the USDA nationally,” Mr. Teuscher wrote in the report. “About 30 percent of these (1,200) are in Missouri , and more than two-thirds are in five contiguous states including Missouri . . . (W)ithin Missouri , the southwest corner of the state is the hub of the puppy industry. The largest wholesaler of puppies is located in Goodman, a small town in Southwest Missouri . . . near the Oklahoma and Arkansas borders, two states which, with Missouri , are among the top five in terms of breeders licensed by the USDA.”

According to Hunte’s website, “All Hunte puppies come from USDA licensed and AKC inspected professional breeders and hobby breeders.”

However, classified ads inviting breeders with animals to sell to contact company representatives spell out no such stipulations.

"ATTENTION DOG BREEDERS," an ad in an Ohio newspaper read, for example. "Hunte Reps will be in for final meeting before starting to pick up pups in our area. Thursday evening, Jan. 12, 7 p.m. at Farmstead Restaurant in Berlin. They are starting to book pups now, first pickup in March.”