Puppy Mills

Before I get to my normal update, I wanted to talk about puppy mills for a bit. I'd always figured that by now most people know about them, but I'm continually surprised by how many people don't. I was reading about them in Patricia McConnell's book, which is how I got to thinking about them today.

A puppy mill is basically a place that breeds hundreds or thousands of puppies for the sole purpose of selling them to pet stores or people for profit. Life magazine did a cover story on them back in, I think, the 90's. The authors accompanied animal control officers on a number of raids of puppy mills in the midwest.

In the puppy mills, they found cages stacked high on each other, which puppies and their mothers crammed in there. The feces and urine of the dogs above were left to fall on those below. Some dogs had feet or legs that were mangled from falling through the wire pens and being chewed on by the dogs below. They found large plastic bags filled with dead rottweiler puppies. Puppies and their mothers were filthy and slept in their own waste.

Puppy mill owners will breed a bitch every time she comes into season, basically using her up until she dies (responsible breeders won't breed a bitch in consecutive seasons, and often will only breed her once a year or even less frequently). They're kept penned up in cages their entire lives.

These puppies most often end up in pet stores, or are sold through newspaper ads or other dealers. I remember back in the 90's when this started coming out because people who were buying puppies from pet stores were finding that their dogs were becoming ill. No surprise given the conditions they and their parents were raised in.

I remember a friend of mine back when I was a kid whose parents had gotten them an "AKC-papered" dog from a pet store. It was supposed to be a cocker spaniel. This dog grew up to be big enough to put its paws on the fence gate, and looked nothing like a cocker spaniel. Puppy mills and pet stores forging papers for animals was common.

Luckily today, the number of pet stores that sell puppies seems to be diminishing (at least out here in California). There are still a lot of puppy mills out there, mostly in the midwest and the south. Unfortunately, even here in Pleasanton, there's a nasty little pet store that we know sells puppies (and this place is a dump too boot). The big chain stores like Petsmart and Petco don't sell puppies or kittens - they host adoption fairs for rescues and shelters instead.

What this all comes down to is this - please, please, please don't buy puppies or dogs from pet stores. No good, responsible breeder that cares about their puppies would ever, EVER, sell them to a pet store. Most of the breeders I contacted when we were looking for Bandit required that you sign a puppy contract, and they all included a clause that said that the breeder would take the dog back should we ever have to give it up. Those breeders care about what happens to their pups. Don't buy from a newspaper ad. Research for good, reputable breeders, or go to a shelter, SPCA, or rescue.

Okay, that's enough of me on the soapbox for now. :)