Meet Max the Boxer, our unofficial Thorp Dog Auction "Poster Pup!" You may have seen Max on WTMJ's recent in-depth report on puppy mills in Wisconsin. About 9 months old at the time of the Thorp Dog Auction, Max is sweet-tempered and loving, and just look at those soulful eyes.

     Those beautiful eyes also show a condition called "Ventral Lid Bilateral Entropian," which means that his eyelids turn in toward the eyeball so that his lashes scratch his corneas. It is correctible by very expensive surgery (an estimated $275 - $350 per eye). For more information on this condition, please see the Animal Eye Care website

     Max the Boxer also suffers from a disease called Canine Brucellosis, a "canine STD." One effect in male dogs is sterility; in female dogs, it causes miscarriages.

      Since animals who cannot "produce" are of no use to commercial breeders, they will be discarded -- possibly through sale to an unsuspecting family looking for a pet -- with the "breeder" still unaware that the dogs are infected.

     Brucellosis is a "zoonotic disease," meaning, humans can catch it. Because of this, and because a cure in male dogs is very rare, the State of Wisconsin recommended that Max be put to sleep.

     We are adamant that Max will not have lived and died in vain. Brucellosis didn't start and end with him; it came from the mills, and we will not give up until Wisconsin has strong and concise laws to protect the health of pets and their human companions.

     For more about canine brucellosis, please click here.

Please note: Max was sold at auction by Ella Mae Brubaker, who has a kennel in Thorp, WI. She bought him at age 8 weeks from Edward Zimmerman. Recently, a SECOND dog purchased from Ms. Brubaker at the Thorp Auction tested positive for Brucellosis. If you have obtained a dog from either of these people within the past year, PLEASE get that dog to a vet and have him/her tested ASAP!