Island farmer Annette Stollman takes up the cause of ‘puppy mills.’

Annette Stollman has adopted some of the sorriest little dogs you’ve ever seen.

There’s the Sirius Black, a shivering little Yorkie who has no teeth to hold his tongue in his mouth, so it hangs out like a noodle. He’s got inflammatory bowel disease and is afraid of noise, but he loves to be held.

There’s the maltese named Hope, a limping fluff ball who takes glucosamine for arthritis and is so fearful of people, she can’t be picked up.

There’s Cricket, the miniature pincer with the shakes, who hides under tables and has had so many babies that her uterus and bladder came loose from her belly and had to be surgically reattached.

And there’s Gracie the Pomeranian, a crouching, nervous little critter with big eyes who can’t be petted or touched and doesn’t know how to play.

“When I got her,” Stollman said, “she peed and defecated and bit me. She still won’t let me get near.”

After years of neglect and perhaps worse, these four are living their final years on Stollman’s north-end farm, where they are lavished in love and attention, to the extent that they will accept it.

All were rescued from puppy mills, places where dogs typically live in cages, are bred repeatedly and suffer from neglect.

“Those cute little puppies at the pet store are offspring of dogs like Hope and Gracie,” said Stollman, who has added the rescued animals to her menagerie of four other dogs and sheep on six acres near Bloedel Reserve.

Most people wouldn’t dream of bringing home such mangy, poorly socialized, ill-behaved dogs.

But after reading one day about “puppy mills” – commercial breeders decried by animal welfare agencies for their often poor treatment of dogs – Stollman, a former Bainbridge city councilwoman, couldn’t sit still. She felt called to adopt the rescued pets, and to educate others about the plight they faced in their former life.

She found her rescue dogs on the nonprofit website www.puppymillrescue.com.

“I was so appalled that I adopted Sirius first,” she said, noting that she had four other dogs at the time. “They had their pictures and their stories, and I am such a softie. I wanted to take the dogs that were the neediest.”

Unlike repu­table breed­ers who strive to further a particular breed, puppy mills breed dogs repeatedly in poor conditions, without regard for the animals’ health and welfare.

Puppy-mill dogs often spend their lives in cages, are not house-trained, and frequently suffer from poor health near the end of the their lives, animal welfare advocates say. The puppies that result from the mills are sometimes used to stock pet stores.

“It’s an industry, which is guilty of churning out babies,” Stollman said. “Some dogs never see the light of day. The cages are often stacked on top of one another. They get poor food, and no dental or health care. When (the owner) is done with them, they shoot them or send them to auction,” which is how the dogs Stollman adopted were obtained by Puppy Mill Rescue.

Local animal control officials agree that puppy mills are a terrible scourge, more typical in the Southeast, but some people who breed dogs in Kitsap County can be just as bad, they say.

“We have more of a ‘backyard’ puppy mill problem here,” said Rance McEntyre, supervisor for Kitsap County Animal Control. “Typically it’s an uneducated and irresponsible pet owner. We don’t see a lot of dogs kept in pens and bred repeatedly, but we do get poor things that come in to us all worn out and skinny.

“Typically, we don’t catch people like that, because they just end up dumping the female when they are done with her.”

There’s also the problem of unwanted puppies that come to animal control because the owners thought it would be “cute” for their female to be pregnant and have babies so the children can see how it’s done.

People who want to adopt a pet should do so through reputable breeders, who typically interview potential owners and require references.

Or people can contact the local humane society or a rescue organization, such as petfinder.com and Bainbridge Island PAWS, to obtain help locating a suitable pet.

“No one who cares about their puppies would sell them to a pet store,” Stollman said, as she cradled Cricket. “Here I am on fenced acreage. As you can see, these dogs have a good life.”

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Puppy pals

People interested in adopting a pet can contact Kitsap Humane Society, (360) 692-6977, or PAWS of Bainbridge Island 842-2451.