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What Is a Puppy Mill?And why should you care whether the puppy you buy comes from one?
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.
In rescue, we are sometimes fortunate enough to rescue breeding dogs from mills. These dogs always—without exception—have health problems, most of which have been chronic and neglected for years.
So why should you care whether the puppy you buy comes from a place like this? Because the chances that the puppy you buy will have genetic defects that will cause disease are extremely high. Because puppies in mills are so poorly socialized that they often develop severe fearfulness and shyness. And because the money you pay for that cute puppy in the window will go right back to the mill owner, who can use it to buy and mistreat more dogs.
The Numbers
· There are over 4,000 Registered Puppy Mills Nation-wide
· The average puppy mill has 60 dogs
· Approximately 3,500 pet shops sell puppies all over the United States
· Over 500,000 puppies are sold in pet shops annually
· The puppy mill industry is valued at $40M in Missouri
· The puppy mill industry is valued at $4M in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
· 90% of the dogs in pet shops come from puppy mills
· 50% of the dogs in pet shops are incubating disease or genetic problems such as hip dysplasia.
· There are approximately 90 USDA inspectors actively making excuses about how they can’t do their job.
The Abuse
· It’s common practice to debark dogs in puppy mills. This is often done by ramming a metal rod down their throat and hitting it with a hammer.
· Dogs are often times injured by fights that break out in tiny cages where there’s no escape.
· Many (probably most) dogs in puppy mills go “cage crazy”. This is a condition in which the dog spins constantly in circles. This is the only “exercise” and “mental stimulation” many dogs will ever see.
· The food in puppy mills is designed to keep the dog alive. That’s it. There’s no nutrition value in it. Often times it’s bought by the truck load from pet food manufacturers and is comprised mainly of the floor sweepings.
· Few puppy mills have adequate ventilation, heating in the winter or air conditioning in the summer. The dogs freeze in the winter and cook on the wire cages in the summer.
· Due to lack of nutrition, many dogs lose their coats and have no way to keep warm in the winter.
· Female dogs are first bred at six months of age (when they first come into season), and every heat cycle thereafter until their bodies wear out and they’re killed.
· The two popular ways to kill “unproductive” dogs are 1) bashing their skull in with a rock, and 2) shooting them.
· Dogs are often times beaten for losing their own litter, or killing another dogs litter because it costs the farmers money.
DON'T BUY - - ADOPT - - You are SAVING a LIFE!