By the formal definition, a puppy mill is a large-scale breeding operation that produces large numbers of puppies for profit.
What the formal definition overlooks is that most puppy mills are inhumane in their treatment of breeding dogs and puppies.
Many are filthy, and are run by people who have no idea about or concern for the genetic implications of breeding or about what dogs require in terms of basic health care and socialization. Many are simply hellholes in which the breeding dogs are kept in the most deplorable conditions - dogs confined to small wire cages for their entire lives, fed inadequately, kept in unheated buildings, denied basic veterinary care. The breeding dogs are sick, wounded, and malnourished. And their lives are miserable.
When their breeding usefulness is over, they may be killed or dumped.
Large-scale mills do not take their older dogs to shelters, as a rule, because they don’t want to draw attention to themselves.
from: http://www.almosthomerescue.org/puppymill/puppymill.htm
When you buy a puppy from a pet store or puppy mill you support a cruel industry, subjecting the mommy to more torture, as they will just breed her more.
Every time a puppy is bought from a puppy mill or pet store a shelter puppy dies.
Please consider these facts On Puppy Mills:
1- Dogs are bred & rebred every time they come into heat.
Female dogs are bred as soon as they can bred and twice a year thereafter until their bodies wear out and they die at about four or five years old or are destroyed.
2- They live outside most of the time in cages with wire bottoms where they get caught and tear they legs or worse.
3- Sometimes these are stacked where the feces & urine goes down into the cages below.
4- Outside in hot or cold temperatures. Rain, snow, burning sun... it doesn't matter.
They are not protected.
5- Many times there are several in one cage crowded and crapped The filth is enough to make them sick and there is no vetinerary care for those who are or are injured.
6- They are never left out of their cages - never loved or handled. They never know love or human companionship. The conditions in the mills are horrible and terrifying.
Many dogs eventually lose their minds. Their eyes glaze over and they withdraw.
Frequently they develop repetitive behaviors like licking, biting their fur and going round and round in circles. The dogs never get out of the their cages. . They never run in the grass.
Dogs are often trapped in cages with aggressive dogs and have no way to escape.
7- Babies are born with defects from the abuse and emotional problems.
8- They are inter bred which can lead to more defects.
9- They are feed only enough to keep them alive. Most of the time the food bowls are empty and no water. Dogs suffer malnutrition so severe that their hair falls out.
10- Some places ram pipes down their throats to keep them from barking, causing the rupture of their vocal cords.
11- Puppies are taken from the mothers long before it is time. They are shipped in trucks sometimes across states overcrowded and not taken care of.
12- Brokers take them to pet stores to sell. They have not been checked for defects or any diseases.
13- When a puppymill puppy is bought - the owner can end up paying thousands of dollars because of the conditions they were bred and transported in.
14- A lot don't even make it. They die before they ever get to the pet stores.
15- If they are deformed and not good for more breeding they are killed in inhumane ways.
16- They are never socialized. They never get out of they cages.
17- Many of these puppies are born with genetic conditions of the heart and lungs, seizures which sometimes don't show up for years.
18- Many of them have parvo, worms, mange, and various other disorders. The combination of poor food, poor conditions and no veterinary care causes their teeth to rot at early ages. Often the dogs have gum disease and their jaws rot.
19- Even if they come with registration papers - it does not mean they came from good breeding conditions.
20- The AKC receives revenue from the millers for these registrations. When the parents are no longer useful to the millers they are disposed of- (shot- beat or what ever methods they want to use.)
Remember this for every puppy sold at a pet shop - A shelter puppy dies.
What You Can Do
If you have any compassion at all for the animals bred and raised under these miserable conditions, stay out of pet stores. Each puppy purchased from a pet store,
a back yard breeder, via the Internet, in newspaper ads, or at the mill itself, serves an industry with no conscience. Thousands of unwanted animals of all ages and breeds are euthanized at shelters every day. Adopt and spay or neuter a shelter animal or rescued companion animal to help break the cycle of suffering, misery, and death.
In this way, you will do your part to help end the plight of unseen thousands housed in puppy mills throughout the world.
from: http://www.idausa.org/campaigns/puppy/puppymills.html
- 10 Ways You Can Help Fight Puppy Mills
- Sign the 'Stop Puppy Mills Pledge'
Find out more on Puppy Mills & How to Stop it:
- Stop Puppy Mills
- Prisoners of Greed
- HSUS - Get the Facts on Puppy Mills
- Last Chance for Animals
- CAPS - Companion Animal Protection Society
- Puppy Mill Rescue
- ASPCA on Puppy Mills
- Learn about Puppy Mills
- PETA - Puppy Mills facts
- Puppy Mill Awareness Day
- United Against Puppy Mills
- IDA USA - The Horror of Puppy Mills
- IDA USA - Puppy Mills Facts
- Geocities on Puppy Mills
- Puppy Mill Protest
- MySpace - Don't Shop, Adopt!
- MySpace - Ban Puppy Mills
- MySpace - No Puppy Mills
