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Most people
don't realize that their new best friend, who seemed so innocent and adorable at the time of purchasing, were just a few weeks
earlier located at a puppy mill. What's a puppy mill? Here are just a few facts about these prisons for paws:
- Puppy
mills are breeding facilities that produce
purebred puppies in large numbers.
- The females are bred twice a year until they are six to eight years old. At this point, they often die
because they are too worn out.
- Puppy mill owners are intent on keeping costs down to maximize the profits of their puppy sales. Dogs
are kept in unsanitary cages, oftentimes with no room to move. In some of the worst mills wire cages are often stacked on
top of each other and feces fall from one cage to the next. In other mills dogs are kept in crates hanging from the ceiling.
- The dogs are fed just enough to keep them alive, and the food is the cheapest the owner can find.
- The dogs usually do not receive necessary veterinary treatment, so preventable diseases can run out of
control through puppy mills.
- Puppies bred in these mills often develop behavioral and health problems and have difficulty fitting
in to a family because of the lack of socialization they have had with humans.
- After 5-8 weeks, the puppies are either sold directly to the public or to a pet store/broker.
- There is federal law, the Animal Welfare Act,
and many states have laws that claim to regulate puppymills, but the fact is that those laws are rarely enforced.
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Oprah's 'Puppy Mill Special' Videos
Take A Pledge To Stop Puppy Mills Here!
Puppy Buying Tips
A Puppy Buyers Guide
Think About Adoption! Learn More Here!
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| (From stopypuppymills.org, copyright) |
Presently, animal cruelty laws offer little punishment for puppy mill owners. Many owners simply pay
their fine and return to work.
When buying a puppy, trace the registration records for any signs of cruelty or a mill.
Puppy buyers must remember that a registration does not guarantee the quality of the breeder or the health
of a puppy; it just certifies them as a purebred.
Although a pet store may sell a puppy for $500 or more, most commercial breeders can only get around
$35 per dog from a broker who in turns sells to the pet store for around $75.
There are 3500 mills currently in the country. In total, 500,000 puppies are sold each year.
There are seven states that are known as puppy
mill states because they have the majority of the puppymills in the country. They are Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas,
Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
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