Puppy Mill Owner Says He Gets Thousands Per Puppy

On November 12, 2017, Wayne Sensenig called my NYS Puppy Mill team member.

He wanted to explain his breeding operation in Barrington, New York. He asked that we put information about the conversation on FaceBook.

So we taped the conversation. It is legal in NYS to record calls if one party consents, which my team member consented.

On November 14, 2017, my work stopped Mr. Sensenig's request for a permit to sell 500 dogs from his property.

This tape was never released before, nor was it used to stop his operation. It shows Sensenig admitting to 55 adult dogs that he breeds on his property.

He provides numbers about his operation, including his prices of $2-5,000 per dog.

A conservative calculation using his numbers results in his profiting an estimated $300,000 in income from dog sales.

IF YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES WITH HIS OPERATION, YOU CAN CONTACT THE BELOW AGENCIES:

-NYS Workers' Compensation Board
328 State Street, Schenectady, NY 12305-2318
(877) 632-4996
FAX 1-877-533-0337
EMAIL [email protected]

-NYS Office of the Attorney General
The Capitol
Albany, NY 12224-0341

1-800-771-7755 and press 1.

email form: https://ag.ny.gov/questions-comments-...

Below is a transcript of the Wayne Sensenig recording segments regarding his operation.

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Wayne:

…I have 55 adult dogs.

…It's our livelihood. This is not something we're doing just for money, you know.

… These people want pets. They don't want rescue dogs that got bred in the backyard, and their mutts. They're not trained or anything. They want a dog that is well behaved, that they can love for years and years.

… Okay, so these dogs are now going way expensive. I mean, you're talking about two thousand, three, five thousand dollars for dogs that they're willing to wait for months ahead of time. And most all my dogs actually get sold for around the two thousand dollar mark, some are under, some are over. So I don't feel we're adding to the burden of the shelters. We are giving the people what they want, and we're trying to do our very best, which we can provide for the dogs if they're willing to pay that price.

...If they're not willing to pay the high dollar price, there is no way I would stay in business if I would have to accept Two or Three Hundred Dollars for a puppy. Because I could not properly care for them. There's no way I could pay my people. So, it kind of works hand in hand. The more you get, the more you can actually do it right.

...And the mixed breeds are not mix breeds. They’re just simply the backyard breeders, and they've bred their dogs to their neighbor's dog. There's nobody wants them. They’re couple hundred dollar dogs. And sure, you got a certain class of people that can't afford two thousand dollar dogs, and they're willing to spend, you know, settle for $200 dogs.

…We've got, I've got people paid just to socialize puppies. All they do is they come and they hold the puppies. They bring them in the house. They socialize them, get ‘em nice. And this is a real operation, it is not just, I'm not doing this alone by all means. All I do is manage it and make sure things are happening correctly. So I just think it would make a lot more sense to if you would actually see it. But I'm not going to tell you have to come. I want to invite you and, kind of explain, that we're not what you're saying we are, and I don't want you to ruin my livelihood if you don't know what you're doing.

…You can't determine the puppy numbers. You know, you can breed her, and she might have two and she might have twelve. But, we're not breeding them every month, we're not bring breeding them every two months. Our dogs love to have they're puppies. It actually makes the dogs sad to see the puppies go. But we can't keep the puppies obviously. But the dogs are absolutely, they love to have puppies. So it's not like we are breeding them and they're not liking it. They're liking to be bred and they're liking to have puppies, and they like to nurse puppies. And at eight weeks of age, when they’re typically ready to leave for their new home, usually the mother is kinda glad to see them go because they're getting so aggressive.

…You know, at times I have more puppies if there are dogs that cycle say in groups. Maybe you have six or eight mothers that are cycling at the same time. Okay, so that’s a lot of puppies in one shot, and then all of a sudden, for maybe two months, you have no dogs cycling. So at times you have hardly any puppies, and at times you might have a lot. But, being there's so strong demand, that's not a problem if there's not a lot because people are waiting.