WASHINGTON — They're known as "bunchers," and animal rights activists say they travel country roads and suburban side streets picking up cats and dogs or answering want ads for "free to good home" pets.
They're part of a shadowy underworld network of people who supply licensed dealers with pets and strays that are in turn sold to research laboratories, the activists say.
And while the activists believe it's a lucrative business, an Agriculture Department official says federal investigators have failed to uncover organized, widespread pet thievery.
"We find, in general, that the dealers are complying very well in the movement of animals and that they are complying with the act," said Morley Cook, associate deputy administrator of regulatory enforcement and animal care at USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
But in the field, there is talk of an animal slave trade, of bunchers who pack animals into vehicles coined "serum trucks" because they think the dogs are headed for research labs to be used in vaccines and serums.
And the money is good. Mary Beth Sweetland, a caseworker with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said a buncher can easily get $50 for each dog. Dealers, in turn, can sell the animals to research labs for about $125 to $200 apiece, sometimes much more.
By her estimates, 1.5 million animals are stolen and another 1 million are obtained through the want ads every year. Not all may end up in labs--others may be used in dog fights or as guard and hunting dogs.
The Agriculture Department questions those figures since only about 200,000 cats and dogs a year go to research facilities.
Rich Meyer, staff associate with the American Humane Assn. in Denver, investigated dog auctions and swap meets in Missouri.
He said one man would come in from Pennsylvania with a specially equipped semitrailer and pick up 300 to 400 dogs in a weekend. They were bound for sale to a researcher.
At the auctions, Meyer said, he saw hunting dogs being traded and dogs that looked like pets, with collar marks and fine coats, ending up in the hands of dealers.
"I don't think I ever saw anyone question the source of those animals," he said. "It was: 'I've got a dog, give me my cash, and I'm gone.' "
Numerous complaints about the dealings at auctions and flea markets in Missouri and Arkansas prompted the Agriculture Department, which enforces the Animal Welfare Act, to send in a "stolen dog" task force.
