Puppy Mills

Animals are extremely important to me, especially dogs. Having bought two of my three dogs from a pet store, I was completely unaware of the possible places they could have come from. About a month or two after I bought my husky from PassPets here in Lafayette, I was shocked to see their store was closed. For months I have been wondering the reasons why they could have closed and assumed it was a financial problem that plagued so many other businesses. However, I found out today PassPets was closed due the purchase of puppies from a Puppy Mill. A part of me was shocked, but another part of me was not entirely surprised. Shortly after buying Jada, my husky, she became extremely ill. I took her to the vet and was told she had a sever sinus infection which required prescribed medicine and antibiotics. A month later, I was forced to take her to the vet again due her having hookworms, tapeworms, and round worms. Before today, I had no prior knowledge of Puppy Mills and the abuse they have inflicted on our furry friends. Like many others, I assumed the puppies came from a breeder who took their wellbeing and health into consideration. When deciding on a puppy, make sure you do your research! I am not saying do not buy purebreds, but look carefully into the people you are buying them from.

More about Puppy Mills: Dogs Abused for the Pet Trade

It can be hard to resist the cute puppies and kittens for sale in pet store windows. But a closer look into how these stores obtain animals reveals a system in which the high price that consumers pay for “that doggie in the window” pales in comparison to the cost paid by animals who are sold in pet stores or forced to produce them. That adorable little scamp in the store probably came from a “puppy mill,” a breeding kennel that raises dogs in cramped, crude, filthy conditions.

The majority of these facilities are in the Midwest, but kennels can be found throughout the country, and some dealers even import puppies from other countries. Constant confinement and a lack of adequate veterinary care and socialization often result in animals who are unhealthy and difficult to socialize. As a result, many are abandoned within weeks or months of their adoption by frustrated buyers—further exacerbating the tragic companion animal overpopulation crisis.

Cages, Filth, and Neglect
Puppy mill kennels can consist of anything from small cages made of wood and wire mesh to tractor-trailer cabs or simple tethers attached to trees. One Arkansas facility had “cages hanging from the ceiling of an unheated cinder-block building ….” Female dogs are bred twice a year and are usually destroyed when they are no longer able to produce puppies. Mothers and their litters often suffer from malnutrition, exposure, and a lack of adequate veterinary care. Puppies are taken from their mothers and sold to brokers who pack them into crates for transport and resale to pet stores. Puppies who are shipped from mill to broker to pet store can travel hundreds of miles in pickup trucks, tractor trailers, and/or airplanes, often without adequate food, water, ventilation, or shelter. Two men faced charges after 38 puppies were found to be confined to a feces-filled van without food, water, or space to exercise. The men were transporting the animals from Oklahoma to Florida when a passerby noticed the dogs’ distressed barking and the foul stench emanating from the van, which was parked at a Daytona Beach motel. In Tennessee, 150 overheated puppies, who were traveling from a Missouri puppy mill to pet stores on the East Coast, were found in a cargo truck without air conditioning; four died. Even if a store claims that it doesn’t buy from puppy mills, there is a good chance that it buys from a broker who does.
Young puppies who survive the unsanitary conditions at puppy mills and endure the grueling transport to pet stores have rarely received the kind of loving human contact that is necessary for them to become suitable companions. Breeders, brokers, and pet stores ensure maximum profits by not spending money for proper food, housing, or veterinary care.

Conditions don’t improve much when the puppies reach pet stores. Dogs who are kept in small cages without exercise, love, or human contact tend to develop undesirable behaviors and may bark excessively or become destructive and unsociable. Unlike many humane societies and shelters, pet stores do not screen buyers or inspect the future homes of the dogs they sell. Poor enforcement of humane laws allows shops to continue selling sick animals, although humane societies and police departments sometimes succeed in closing down stores where severe abuse is uncovered.

Farms and Brokers Do Big Business

When PETA conducted an undercover investigation at Nielsen Farms, a puppy mill in Kansas, PETA’s investigator found that the dogs had no bedding or protection from the cold or heat. Some dogs were suffering from untreated wounds, ear infections, and abscessed feet. Confinement and loneliness had caused some mother dogs to go mad. PETA’s investigator witnessed one USDA inspection, during which the officer glanced at the cages but did not examine the dogs. Our investigation led to the Kansas facility’s closing and a $20,000 fine from the USDA. The Nielsens are also “permanently disqualified from being licensed” by the USDA.
There are thousands of breeders and dealers across the country. In Missouri alone, there are more than 1,400 licensed dog-breeding operations, although so many illegal breeders are in business that a state audit advised that the program designed to regulate commercial breeding was ineffective. The nation’s largest puppy broker is the Hunte Corporation in Missouri, which also exports dogs overseas. The company has been linked to numerous negligent pet stores and breeders and has sponsored American Kennel Club (AKC) meetings. The USDA has loaned the company more than $4 million for expansion and upgrades in recent years—taxpayer money being used to bring more misery to dogs and puppies.

http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=45