The Dog Merchants by Kim Kavin

Author:Kim Kavin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2016-08-14T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

THE UPSTART COMPETITOR

“Hell, there are no rules here. We’re trying to accomplish something.”

—Thomas Edison

Bill Reiboldt is the kind of guy who can be counted on to wear a plain tie. He carries himself as one might expect from a Republican representing a conservative, agricultural district in the Missouri State House of Representatives: dark suits, neatly combed hair, and a frame that fits right in at American Legion steak-and-potato suppers.

Reiboldt is as much of a homegrown local as people can be in this part of Missouri, born in 1948 in Neosho, one of the communities he now represents in the southwest corner of the state. Like a lot of his constituents, he’s a farmer with years of experience in dairy, beef, and crops, and his farm today spans about five hundred acres. Reiboldt is a husband, father, and grandfather. He attends the local Hillcrest Church of Christ, and he signs off on his own website with “May God bless you.” He’s chairman of the committee on agriculture policy, whose work affects all kinds of farms, including those where dogs are bred in large quantities for sale. Part of his district is McDonald County, home to the Hunte puppy distribution company. If the community of Wheaton were a stone’s throw west of its current borders, then Reiboldt would represent Southwest Auction Service, too.

Reiboldt won his first two-year term in 2010, the same year a lot of people who share his political leanings took a beating at the polls in the form of a statewide ballot initiative, one put before voters based on petition signatures instead of by lawmaker action. It was known as Proposition B, the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act, and this is how it was explained to voters:

A “yes” vote will amend Missouri law to require large-scale dog breeding operations to provide each dog under their care with sufficient food, clean water, housing, and space; necessary veterinary care; regular exercise and adequate rest between breeding cycles. The amendment further prohibits any breeder from having more than fifty breeding dogs for the purpose of selling their puppies as pets. The amendment also creates a misdemeanor crime of “puppy mill cruelty” for any violations.

Quite a few of Reiboldt’s constituents were outraged that the words “puppy mill” appeared in the ballot measure’s title and the text. They would have preferred something more neutral, perhaps along the lines of “commercial breeding facility” or “large-scale kennel,” which is how they describe the farms they run. After all, nobody calls the other farms in this region “cow mills” or “pig mills” or “chicken mills.” Calling some farms “puppy mills,” to them, seemed wholly biased, like a slur being made part of the official voting process.

Unfortunately for Reiboldt’s fellow farmers, they were up against a trend in syntax that, by 2010, extended far beyond Missouri’s borders. In just the two years before Proposition B made it onto the ballot, more than a dozen other US states had passed laws devised to crack down on large, substandard kennels, with headlines describing them as anti–puppy mill initiatives from coast to coast.

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