What is a puppy mill?
When you see all those cute little puppies in the pet shop, do you ever wonder where the puppy was born? Who his or her parents were? How the puppy was raised for the first weeks of his/her life? Do you picture a loving home where a healthy mother dog gives birth to a litter of puppies in a warm, soft place, where they are loved and treated well until they are taken to the pet shop where the employees are trained to give them proper care and put their health above profit?
Think again. Most all puppies sold in pet shops are not looked on as living feeling beings, but as merchandise. Puppy mills are assembly lines, pure and simple, and the mother dogs and puppies are not treated as living beings, but like so many widgets, only there to make a profit. Mother dogs are kept in small, often filthy cages, with wire floors, stacked on top of one another so that excrement drops from the top cages through to the lower cages. The mothers are continually impregnated beginning at an early age for years until they are too old and sick to produce, and then they are gotten rid of in often terrible ways. They are not given proper medical care, and they are certainly not given any affection or human attention. Their water bowls are often filthy with green scum and feces, and their cheap food often moldy and covered with flies. The puppies also are not given proper medical care, and are often very sick when they arrive at the pet shops.
Pretty picture? There’s more. Since very little attention is paid to the blood lines, congenital diseases and conditions are rampant in the puppies. They, too, are not given proper health care early in life. They are taken from their mothers and leave the mill. But this doesn’t mean their lives will get better. They are loaded on unheated/un-air conditioned trucks and hauled across the country like so much merchandise, the trips lasting for days sometimes with insufficient (or no) food and water, and forget rest stops (at least for the puppies–the drivers, no doubt, take plenty).
If you ask a pet shop there they get their puppies, very often they will tell you they come from The Hunte Corporation. This company, they will tell you, is not a puppy mill. And they are right, it is not. The Hunte Corporation is a puppy "broker." But their puppies are obtained from puppy mills. If you look on their website, you will see photos of sunny fields and children romping with adorable puppies. These are simply stock photos and have nothing to do with Hunte Corp puppies. Sure, their facilities are clean and healthy looking. But this is simply a short stop off for the puppies on their way from the horrors of the puppy mills to the horrors of the truck ride and then on to a small cage in a pet shop.
Below are some typical photos of puppy mills and puppy mill dogs.
It is not only the puppy mill dogs and puppies who suffer from this cruelty. Millions of dogs are killed every year in pounds across the country, simply because they have no one to give them a home. Many of these are overlooked in favor of these puppy mill dogs who often have health or behavior problems that are much less prevalent in mixed-breed dogs.
And you not only benefit the dogs by adopting rather than buying a dog. Adopting an adult dog has many advantages. You don’t have to go through the puppy stage of chewing and housebreaking, and adult dogs who have been in pounds or otherwise abandoned are so very grateful for a loving home.
But if, after considering all this, you still feel you must have a pure bred dog, please don’t go to a pet shop. It is, of course, tempting to "rescue" a dog from a pet shop, especially when one knows about the puppy mill industry. But think of this: every puppy who is "rescued" from a pet shop simply perpetuates the problem. It helps create the demand and the vicious cycle is continued.
If you have your heart set on a pure bred dog, consider adopting an adult. Pure bred dogs often end up in pounds and shelters, so if you are a little patient, you will most likely find the breed you seek there. And there are breed rescue organizations for just about every breed who rescue and adopt out dogs of that specific breed. For more information on this, please contact us.
And finally, if you will not be satisfied unless you have a pure bred puppy, and feel you absolutely must buy one, please do one thing first: go to your local public pound and just walk through and look at all the dogs in the cages, and keep in mind that many of them will not make it out alive. If after you do this, you still can find it in your heart to buy a pure bred puppy while so many dogs are dying, then please, at the very least, find a reputable breeder. For hints on how to find out of a breeder is reputable, please check out This link from Prisoners of Greed.
Do you want to get more involved in putting an end to puppy mills?
You can help put an end to puppy mills.
–Encourage anyone you know who is considering getting a dog to adopt rather than buy.
–Contact your local pet shops that sell puppies and request that they stop doing so and instead get involved with a local rescue to have adoptions at the store.
–If that fails, get some people together to leaflet outside the stores to educate potential puppy buyers about the horrors of puppy mills. If you are in Southern California and would like to work with The Poppy Foundation in stopping puppy mills, please contact us: poppyfoundation@earthlink.net.
Resources:
No Puppy Mills
If you have already bought a puppy from a pet shop and would like to find out his/her origin, go to www.petshoppuppies.com