Holiday shopping season begins, and the puppy-millers are ready!
By Gina Spadafori
November 1, 2007
I hate puppy millers.
Hate.
Yes, that’s uncharitable of me. I admit it. But knowing that there are people who profit from letting sick animals live in filth, exposed to the elements and producing puppies from their starved, sick bodies until they can produce no more (at which point they have been shot and fed back to the others) just makes me wonder about the ability of our kind to care about anything more than the almighty buck.
I wish these people an afterlife as miserable as the one their dogs live in now. Knowing that’s possible is one thing that gets me through this, the puppy-mill season.
See, all year long as a pet-care columnist I hear from people who cannot house-train their pet-store puppy (because the animal grew up in filth, and thinks it’s normal) or who cannot afford vet bills to fix congental defects (caused by careless, clueless greed-head puppy-millers) or who cannot deal with the temperamental nightmares these animals can be (because of more clueless, careless greed-head puppy millers and lack of proper socialization). I have no answers for these people because there are none. They were doomed from the minute they pulled out their credit card at the pet store.
Those puppies were doomed from birth. And their parents are doomed for life.
A couple years ago I wrote a reason for every day in the month leading up to Christmas why it’s important to not not not support this sick, sick industry with the purchase of a Christmas puppy. By Christmas I was feeling so little goodwill to all that it was scary. Not a good way to start the year, and I cannot repeat this particular endeavor because I have a gun and might use it. Lucky for puppy-millers, it’s really, really hard these days to fly with a gun to Pennsylvania (where the Amish, of all people, run puppy mills) or Kansas/Missouri (where the state governments encourage farmers to get into puppy farming.)
No, No. No. Instead, I will just say this: Don’t buy a pet-store puppy. Heck, don’t buy a Christmas puppy at all. Read the series, and find out more than 30 reasons why.
This morning, USA Today (geez, they do nice work, don’t they?) has a great feature on the misery these puppy-millers cause (thanks, Pat!):
The Humane Society estimates that at least 10,000 U.S. puppy mills, most of them unlicensed and unmonitored, are producing up to 4 million puppies a year. “That’s about twice as many as in the mid-’90s,” says the ASPCA’s Bob Baker, who has investigated such mills since 1980.
The spike, experts say, is the result of a confluence of factors: sales over the Internet, where some fictional Web pages emphasize home breeding and country surroundings; a major drift toward breeding by many in Amish and Mennonite families, who sell puppies at flea markets or to brokers who supply pet stores; and a recent surge of factory-style breeding in Maine, Ohio and other states previously not regarded as puppy-mill areas.
Often, Baker says, “they’re keeping breeding stock in squalid, horrible conditions for their entire short lives and producing unhealthy, substandard puppies with genetic, behavior and psychological issues.” And that, he says, makes this not only an issue of “inhumane care” but also of consumer fraud.
Some puppy mills are small operations: 20 or so breeding dogs live in basements, garages or sheds “in cages stacked to the roof,” and remain there, without exercise or sunlight, having two litters a year until they “wear out” at about age 5, Shain says. Others are huge. Hundreds of dogs producing thousands of puppies live in relative darkness and without stimulation so they rarely bark and attract attention.
In either case, the breeder dogs get little or no medical care, experts say. Most of the females are dissipated from the endless cycle of producing and nursing litters; many have chronic ailments, rotten teeth, and ear, eye and skin infections.
“You can just imagine how healthy and well-adjusted puppies born of these animals are,” [Stephanie] Shain [of the Humane Society of the United States] says. They have a high incidence of genetic disorders and diseases, and problems that emerge months or years after purchase, she says.
Females that no longer produce large litters are “let loose in the fields,” killed or starved to death or sold at auctions where for $20 to $200 other millers buy them to get one more litter, or research facilities take them, Shain says.
Here’s the rest.
Bob Baker, by the way, is an incredible man. He is the man who single-handedly brought the issue of puppy-mills into the public view in the ’80s, when he was working for the HSUS.
No laws will ever end puppy mills. After more than 20 years of covering this issue, I know that industry forces will water down anything that starts up to the point where even if it’s passed, it’s pointless.
The only thing that will stop this cruelty is for people to stop buying pet-store puppies.
So don’t. Please … don’t.
Thank you for this. We had a phone call at work yesterday from somebody asking about a specific kennel (read: puppy mill) because she was considering buying a mini goldendoodle from them (for a mere $1200). The receptionist who spoke with her listed a slew of reasons why this is a bad idea (everything from health problems to housebreaking issues to ethics) and suggested she check the shelter or a rescue. The lady was appalled at the idea- she doesn’t want a dog with temperament problems!
Sigh.
A quick google search brought up horrible stuff on the owner of the kennel, including convictions for animal abuse (starving animals were removed from the guy’s properties on two separate occasions). I dearly hope this lady had the same google results that I did.
Comment by katie — November 1, 2007 @ 10:59 am
Hallelujah, Gina!!!
Comment by Lynn — November 1, 2007 @ 11:05 am
Sickening, just sickening. Why are these people exempt from cruelty laws?
Comment by Carol — November 1, 2007 @ 11:28 am
In our area the Mennonites run these filthy hell holes called puppy mills. Many of these people are fleeing Pennsylvania either to escape the changing laws and attitudes there . Or they have been shut down by the Pennsylvania dog law bureau, if they surrender there APHIS license they can reaplly for it when they settle in a new state.
A few miles away in another county the puppy mills are run by the Amish. Some of the people who transport the Amish and Mennonites are also getting into the puppy mill business.
IMHO we need to have more enforcement of existing laws . We need to pass tougher laws such as laws to outlaw keeping dogs on wire. WE need to get people elected on alocal , state and national level that care about animals and how they are treated. In our are the Mennonites and Amish use the farm groups and farmers that serve in offices on town boards to their advantage. They want less inspections or zero inspections . They want to call dogs farm animals . They want to place dogs under the right to farm act. Please people get involved in what is going on in your community!
Comment by thomas — November 1, 2007 @ 11:48 am
“The only thing that will stop this cruelty is for people to stop buying pet-store puppies.”
Not just pet-store puppies, but Internet vendor puppies as well. It’s no longer necessary for these puppy farmers to land a contract with a pet store. These days they just find a few idyllic pastoral (and completely fictional) pictures to pop on a website and Voila! - they’re in business!
Comment by The OTHER Pat — November 1, 2007 @ 1:42 pm
Thank you for the article and link! I will be forwarding it often to many people on the Christmas puppy quest. We had an internet bought bulldog pup turned into rescue yesterday because the people suddenly realized that a puppy is alot of work! We have thousands of these guys being shipped in from Eastern Europe and South America and sold over the internet and by brokers and I am sure they are ramping up big time for the holidays.
If you cut off one source, another moves in. It is all market driven and until people DECIDE not to purchase from these sources rescue will be busy and the scum bags will make money.
Comment by Jennifer J — November 1, 2007 @ 1:53 pm
I am in the process of adopting a dog from a shelter (final step is tomorrow, when she meets my dog) who was a puppy mill rescue, and I’m wondering if crate-training will be effective to house train her, as she seems to be very accustomed to standing in her own waste. If anyone has any tips for me, I would appreciate it - please drop a line to john@johnsibley.com.
Comment by John — November 1, 2007 @ 7:22 pm
John, I had a similar situation with my second dog who was a mill rescue. It takes awhile longer, but going back to basics with crate-training, treating the dog like a little puppy that needs to learn appropriate behavior, and having an existing dog as a role model, should help.
Comment by shibadiva — November 2, 2007 @ 7:41 am
Thank you for this. I reposted this on myspace, and I hope I can spread the word. Thanks!!!!
-ttap
myspace.com/thetruthaboutpeta
Comment by thetruthaboutpeta — November 2, 2007 @ 6:27 pm
Well for one i have bought a pet store puppy and it is THE most healthiest dog around. All dogs can be trained and treated. I know because i have been raised with all sorts. So should we punish the puppies that are just nearly victims to this heinous crime? Should we leave them in this 3’x3’ cages in these store because we want to make a stand against them instead of giving them a good home?! If that is the case then we are basically setting these dogs up to be put to sleep, is that really fair? No matter where they come from, i believe in doing what is best for the dogs, and that is giving them homes instead of cages or needles…
Comment by Nonya — November 3, 2007 @ 12:20 pm
If you believe in “doing what is best for the dogs” how do you feel about the fact that in buying your dog you doomed more dogs to a life of utter hell as unloved breeding machines in a commercial kennel?
The only thing that will stop puppy mills is educated animal-lovers who refuse to support this sick industry.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 3, 2007 @ 12:49 pm
Nonya, your pup’s mom would love to have a home, too, instead of living in a cage, being bred every heat, pumping out puppies twice a year, never knowing kindness or affection or getting a chance to play, having her puppies taken from her too young so that they arrive at the pet store during their maximum puppy cuteness period, probably living in filth, and being killed or dumped in a field or sold to another, more down-scale miller to pump out one or two more litters before being killed.
The money you paid for your puppy helped keep her and many other dogs living that hellish life.
The only way to stop those evil people, at least until HSUS and other big players see the light, is to dry up the market for their “product.”
Comment by Lis — November 3, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
There’s a second way: enforce existing laws against animal cruelty and promote better legislation to drive them out of business.
Comment by John — November 3, 2007 @ 7:16 pm
I don’t have any pets and must confess to not being an animal lover, but this is an appalling story. I had no idea the situation was this bad. Aren’t there laws against inhumane treatment of animals? What suggestions do you have for someone like me, who has no pets and isn’t going to buy one, to help stop this disgusting business?
Comment by Nancy — November 7, 2007 @ 12:13 pm