For years, I have been perplexed by the fact that some rescue organizations attend dog auctions to purchase puppy mill dogs under the guise of "rescue." As I made clear in my blog yesterday, this practice simply enriches the puppy mills and auction houses. It is a dysfunctional kind of co-dependence. For years, I have been saying these rescues behave more like commercial brokers than rescues, the only difference being that they are buying dogs with other people's money rather than their own. That fact is almost certainly why they are willing to pay MORE for puppy mill dogs than commercial brokers will pay.
For all of these reasons, I have said that we should call the rescues that funnel dollars to puppy mills brokers, and they should be licensed, inspected and regulated as brokers. Now, I have learned, they are supposed to be. And, if they are not, they are likely breaking the law.
A technical note published by the USDA regarding commercial dog breeding and brokering licenses includes the following:
"Examples of activities requiring a USDA license include but are not limited to:"
"Dog acquisition from an auction for resale (including adoption) as pets;"
So, there you have it. If an organization's behavior is like that of a broker; if an organization's behavior requires the licensing of a broker; and if an organization is assuming role of the traditional commercial broker in the supply chain, then they ARE a broker.