As you know Farms of Shame sometimes take up the story of an individual dog in a puppy farm. I was sent a picture of a puppy, not a happy and confident puppy but a puppy just about to have puppies herself for her puppy farmer owner,. Looking into her eyes I felt that we should try to tell the story of this sweet and shy puppy that was bought not to love but just to make money, given a sketchy pedigree and described as an Australian Labradoodle.

Here she is

Sunsethills Crimson Aurora was born on the 4th of December 2003, the result of a mating between a poodle and a cocker spaniel crossed with a labrador (or so they said). Of course puppyhood is just an inconvenience to a puppy farm and she was mated at 7 months old by Melinda Radus to a poodle and had her first litter at only 9 months old on the 25th of September 2004 at Sunset Hills Puppy Farm. She shed hair so in order to carry on the pretence of breeding “hypoallergenic ” dogs she was bred constantly from then on to poodles or dogs that were well over 80% poodle according to our researchers..

51/2 months later on the 2nd of March 2005 poor Rorie had another litter to a poodle. Her little body couldn’t cope and she had an emergency c-section almost a week early We have a picture of her looking thin and miserable and shaved to the skin. She has some tiny puppies that Sunset Hills fought hard for as they had big money waiting for them and export deals.

You would think this 15 month old puppy had now done enough for her owner but sadly that was not all.

5 months later again on the 11th of August 2005, Rorie had her 3rd litter after another difficult labour. The fact that she had only recently had a caesarean was not enough to give her a rest from producing puppies for sale. Rorie wasn’t fit to have a picture taken and photoshopped to the desired gold/red colour and anyway she wasn’t important, only the puppies mattered. as some were kept for breeding and sold for a minimum 25, 000 AUD as breeding stock. All this from a puppy bitch who had no real pedigree, just another mongrel. Rorie’s bitch puppies Elly, Abi, and Crimson were kept on to produce more puppies in America and Australia for Sunset Hills.

Only 5 months after her last litter at the beginning of January 2006 Rorie was exported to America. She was 7 weeks in whelp and had her puppies at Alpenridge, Sunsethills’ American branch on the 23rd of January. This branch was first set up with Melinda’s mother Sue Broady described on the website: Sue is a wonderful and caring person who has been involved in animal breeding programs for over 30 years now. She has a great love for animals and a talent for developing breeding programs.

Note the picture of Sue Broady

http://web.archive.org/web/20050221165128/http://www.sunsethills.biz/sunsethills_cascades.htm

By the time Rorie was sent heavy with pup for the long and uncomfortable trip to her new “home” at Alpenridge there had been some changes, Sue Broady is now called Crystalyn Widic but with an identical description: Christalyn is a wonderful and caring person who has been involved in animal breeding programs for over 30 years now. She has a great love for animals and a talent for developing breeding programs.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060429075628/http://www.sunsethills.biz/about_alpen_ridge.htm



Click on the picture of the 2006 website and you can see the Sue Broady picture now labelled Crystalyn.

This is Sunset Hills new Breeding Center located in the USA. Our Center is operated by Christalyn Widic recently relocated from Crooked River Ranch, Oregon to Elko, Nevada, the home of the anual National Cowboy Poetry Contest!

Sunset Hills is like most puppy farms, nothing is quite what it seems, names are changed at will and we are all expected to believe everything we are told. These farms trade on the gullibility of the public who after all only want a puppy to love.

I don’t know whether life was better or worse for little Rorie in America, but I do know that she was still not allowed to just be a young dog given freedom to have fun and love with a family.

5 months later on the 2nd of July 2006 after finally having some health testing done, Rorie had her 5th litter in America at Sunset Hills new breeding centre Alpenridge. After that we do not know what happened to her. I hope she was finally retired as they claim and allowed to have a life, not just litter after litter of puppies until her poor body could take no more. Rorie, a cheap little cross breed puppy, earned hundreds of thousands for her owners, she deserved a wonderful life after being sentenced to Hard Labour every 5 months. Rorie’s life was not exceptional at Sunset Hills, it was typical for any bitch unlucky enough to remain in the kennels.

I believe that loyalty is a virtue we should all respect, but there comes a time when we need to look carefully at what demands our loyalty and judge if it is worthy of it. In this case Sunset Hills has clearly got a number of loyal friends but it is time they took stock. I know many already have.