Will Oprah exposure slow down cruel puppy mills?
By Gina Spadafori
April 1, 2008
We can always hope so!
Best Friends reports (thanks,Kathleen) that this Friday (check for local times), Oprah will do a show on puppy-mills, those cruel mass-production facilities that treat pets like factory-farmed livestock (which is sick enough for livestock!) and sell their often sick, unsocialized and often impossible to house-trained puppies through retail pet stores and Internet sites. (Why would these puppies by so difficult to house-train, you ask? Because they grow up ankle-deep in their own mess, and come to think of that as normal.)
But the puppies get out of the living hell of the mills. Their parents never do. They are bred again and again and again, until they can’t be bred any more. And then they’re auctioned off, or even killed and fed back to the other dogs.
Yes, this is the cruelty you’re often supporting when you buy a pet-store puppy. Read Dr. Patty Khuly, on what a good veterinarian thinks of this situation:
How horrible must it be to live 3/4 of your life in a glorified duffel bag? Not to mention the real crime: being born.
Teacups are big business. While undoubtedly cute and often surprisingly good-natured, most owners don’t know the trouble that goes into crafting these hamster-sized dogs.
For each pup conceived, we’ll never know the percentage that makes it to market. But I’d wager it’s not even 10%. Now you know the real reason for the $1000 minimum on these pups (in Miami the average is more like $1500). Supply and demand. (I didn’t go to business school for nothing, though my Wharton classmates might argue to the contrary.)
I could go on for a long time in this vein. The only other subject that gets me going quite so hotly is the sale of these teacup pups in retail outlets designed to lure the fashionable and uneducated (human traits not mutually exclusive, I’d hasten to opine).
As you probably already suspect, the puppy mill industry and puppy retailers are in cahoots. Sometimes, they are one and the same—vertically integrated, as it were. More often, a network of ambitious backyard breeders or faraway mill-style operation is behind the pristine storefronts on fashionable streets hawking pups at the rate of its other retailers` Gucci knockoffs.
Teacups bred in these conditions are not only intrinsically sickly for their teeny-tininess, they are often housed in unfriendly environments (among their many pseudo-brethren) in cost-effective conditions.
And here’s what Christie has written for her Your Whole Pet column on the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate.com Web site:
Seeing a golden retriever so scared of people that she shakes is sobering for anyone familiar with the breed’s usually happy-go-lucky, ball-chasing, people-loving nature. But Sunshine had reason to be afraid: Until that day, she’d spent her entire life inside a wire cage, pumping out puppies for the puppy-mill trade.
Puppy mills are the factory farms of dog breeding, big commercial operations that produce puppies that are then distributed nationwide to pet stores and sold directly to consumers on the Web. The dogs are kept in small cages — which USDA regulations require to be no more than a few inches bigger than the dog — and females have puppies every time they come in season for their entire lives.
The commercial mass breeding of dogs is not illegal, underground or small scale. Stephanie Shain, the outreach director of the Humane Society of the United States, says that of the 7 to 9 million dogs acquired in this country each year, between 2 and 4 million come from puppy mills. Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council figures suggest that around 300,000 to 400,000 puppies are sold in pet stores annually — a figure HSUS puts at closer to 500,000. A report from the American Veterinary Medical Association indicated that more than 200,000 American families bought puppies online in 2004.
I’ll be watching Oprah (I usually TiVo it). I hope a lot of people who are even now thinking about buying a puppy from an puppy-mill outlet or Internet site will be watching, too.
People who buy these dogs are the reason this cruelty continues. The only way to stop puppy mills is to stop buying the puppies.
Oprah, tell it like it is. And we’re sorry about Sophie. Save some dogs in her sweet memory.
***
Elsewhere: Mutts blogger John Woestendiek alllllmost gets taken in by a pet-related April Fool’s joke. Your laugh for the day. Me, I already got taken in once. But I’m not ‘fessing up. … Lance Mackey’s Zorro is expected to recover, but will likely never race again. The idiot who ran into Mackey’s team with a snowmobile had come forward. Turns out — what a surprise! — “alchohol was involved.” … When I first read the headline that Switzerland was to ban cat fur products, I figured the ban was would be on the importing of such things. But no: In Switzerland is is currently legal to hunt cats and sell their hides. Ugh. Story here.
Didn’t Oprah herself buy three Golden puppies from a puppy mill type facility? She had intended to buy one but when she went to the place there were SO MANY that she ended up getting three. It was on her show I believe.
Comment by slt — April 1, 2008 @ 8:48 am
I’m for anything that helps to shut down puppy mills. And Oprah has a tremendous reach into ‘middle America’ which includes many well meaning but clueless people.
Comment by 2CatMom — April 1, 2008 @ 9:16 am
I think Oprah possibly falls into that “clueless” category. She already had a couple adult dogs I think but somehow when she bought 3 PUPPIES AT ONCE she didn’t realize it would be a nightmare. She had Cesar Milan and other professionals to help her but she ended up hiring someone to care for the pups.
If you scroll down to the bottoms of this page
http://www.oprah.com/tows/slid....._201.jhtml
there is a video titled “Who can resist those puppy eyes?”
Comment by slt — April 1, 2008 @ 9:26 am
Here are a couple Lassie blog posts from 2007: the first one illustrates what the USDA considers “adequate” room for puppy mill dogs — be sure to click on the links — and the second has an excerpt from a NY Times article on Puppy Haven Kennel, a “1,600-dog compound” in Wisconsin.
For the mandatory spay/neuter crowd to equate puppy mill owners with responsible, hobby breeders — the dog lovers that understand genetics, screen homes, socialize pups, breed only the healthiest dogs with the best temperaments, and willingly take back any dog they’ve bred at any time, for any reason — requires a degree of stupidity, or dishonesty, that simply defies belief.
Comment by Luisa — April 1, 2008 @ 11:17 am
I’m glad to see that someone is bringing this issue to a large national audience. I hope it will really open people’s eyes. I adopted a dog that was rescued from a puppy mill in Missouri. He was used as a stud for 5 years. When he first came home, he was afraid of grass. He’d never walked on it before. He still has some remaining issues, but with the help of an animal behaviourist, he has overcome most of them.
Comment by Jen — April 1, 2008 @ 1:21 pm
My husband and I volunteer at the Panhandle Animal Shelter, Sandpoint, Idaho. This is a no-kill shelter, and I wanted to share a feel good story. We received two Dalmation mix puppies, one was deaf. He relied on the other one to help him out. At an Adopt-A-Thon both puppies were taken to the local mall and we were worried about the healthy one being adopted without the deaf one. A family came by with a deaf child and took both of them. Someone was watching out for them. Thank You.
Comment by Barbara Copley — August 29, 2008 @ 3:48 pm
Barbara, thank you for sharing that WONDERFUL story. Hooray for that family … and those puppies. :)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — August 29, 2008 @ 4:22 pm
What is a Puppy Mill?
By Legal definition there is no such thing as a Puppy Mill. Why? Because there is no legal definition. So basically there is no such thing as a Puppy Mill being that the definition is left to the individual. One must ask how legislation is being made against a term with no legal definition? And also ask what types of people commit themselves to groups who are against a term with no legal definition? One also must ask the professionalism and education of those who freely use a term that has no definition. A civil rights movement was made against similar hate terms.
The Term Puppy Mill is used to bring on emotion. Animals, especially our dogs can be almost like children to us. The thought of intentionally harming a child or defenseless animal brings on a knee jerk reaction of pure hatred in most humans. Unlike other terms used to divide, hate and caused dangerous finger pointing. The Term Puppy Mill can bring on almost dangerous responses, causing regular citizens to join in a battle against something they have never seen or witnessed first hand.
Like the Term Teacup when used to describe a smaller dog. The Term Puppy Mill is a marketing Term. Non profit rescues have learned that placing the term Puppy Mill next to their inventory, will cause it to be sold very rapidly. In all Honestly if the thousands of groups wanted to end the ideal of the term Puppy Mill to the supposed 10,000 of them residing in the USA. All the groups had to do with their hundreds of millions if not billions of un-taxable donations was to use the money to educate kennels and use the money in research to bring the living conditions to that of what they deem Humane. That said they should start firstly with their own facilities.
Many kill shelters euthanize puppies and dogs for a simple common cold many times labeled a Upper respiratory infection (URI) , or Kennel Cough. Instead of killing these animals for an infection that can be self eliminating a needed study could have been done to end it. As with leukemia in cats that helped discover a cure for leukemia in children. that study may have found and end to the common cold. Yet these organizations are against animal study even if it means saving animals themselves.
To say ALL pet stores buy from Puppy Mills. And that ALL licensed and inspected USDA commercial kennels are dirty Puppy Mills. Comes from a thought process that many Americans hoped would have been outgrown in today’s America. By Supporting your local Pet Store which sells Puppies and Kittens you are helping to eliminate the need for the Term Puppy Mill. But first Pet Stores need the billions of lost taxable income back into their hands so they can do the right thing . To once and for all end the 60 year battle against a term that has matured into a pure marking tool, to take jobs and taxable income away from hard working Americans.
Comment by concerned — August 31, 2008 @ 1:34 pm
“But first Pet Stores need the billions of lost taxable income back into their hands so they can do the right thing . To once and for all end the 60 year battle against a term that has matured into a pure marking tool, to take jobs and taxable income away from hard working Americans.”
The puppy-mill industry has never and will never care about “doing the right thing.” Going back half a decade of documented industry abuse, this has been very, very clear.
There is no way, and no how that the folks behind this blog will ever sign on to the idea of raising puppies as livestock, no matter how much the puppy millers clean up their kennels, no matter how many white frocks and name tags they put on their kennel staff. U.S.D.A is the United States Department of Agriculture, and a “clean” puppy mill is nothing more than a factory farm for the production of pets to be shipped and sold to a public that doesn’t know any better.
A cleaned-up puppy mill still will not give a rip about congenital diseases. Still will not give a rip about socializing. Keeping costs of production down will still be the primary goal, not producing healthy, well-socialized pets. A reputable, ethical breeder isn’t in it for the money; a puppy-miller always will be. There’s a definition for you.
I cannot and will not ever recommend a pet-store puppy to anyone looking for a family pet. Ain’t never gonna happen, so take your “concern” about all those “hard-working Americans” who are puppy-mill scum or puppy-mill outlet scum somewhere else.
“By Supporting your local Pet Store which sells Puppies and Kittens you are helping to eliminate the need for the Term Puppy Mill.”
But you’re not eliminating puppy mills. Sell it elsewhere, sister.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — August 31, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
Comment by concerned — August 31, 2008 @ 1:34 pm
“To say ALL pet stores buy from Puppy Mills. And that ALL licensed and inspected USDA commercial kennels are dirty Puppy Mills. Comes from a thought process that many Americans hoped would have been outgrown in today’s America. “
Except that you’ve mis-stated it here. Let’s try again:
NO Responsible Breeder will sell their animals to pet stores or through other commercial outlets. A Responsible Breeder accepts the *responsibility* of finding a home for each and every life they have had the *responsibility* of bringing into existence. And that rules out letting someone who’s being paid to run a cash register and run credit cards be the one who sends puppies to their new homes.
So, to fix your statement above - by definition - NO Responsible Breeder will sell their animals to pet stores or through other commercial outlets. And as for all the other kinds of breeders - well, they don’t need to be bringing animals into this world at all.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — August 31, 2008 @ 4:28 pm
Oh, my! This is almost funny!
By Legal definition there is no such thing as a Puppy Mill. Why? Because there is no legal definition. So basically there is no such thing as a Puppy Mill being that the definition is left to the individual.
I live next door to a bodega. There is, as far as I know, no legal definition of “bodega.” And yet, somehow, no one seems to be confused about whether or not I live next to one, or perhaps might live next to a greengrocer’s, or a butcher shop, or a supermarket, or a deli. Even without a legal definition, everyone seems to be able to agree that it’s a bodega.
One must ask how legislation is being made against a term with no legal definition?,/i>
Shockingly enough, legal definitions do not need to be handed down from On High during the Dawn Times. They can be, and typically are, written into the legislation that uses them. This is done even when the term and its definition are already in common use, even in other pieces of legislation, to prevent confusion as language and usage evolve.
And also ask what types of people commit themselves to groups who are against a term with no legal definition?
People who are concerned abou the issue, and don’t suffer from the confused belief that a definition has to be pre-existing in the law before they’re allowed to be concerned about it.
Definitions of things get into the law because people are concerned about them.
One also must ask the professionalism and education of those who freely use a term that has no definition. A civil rights movement was made against similar hate terms.
Once upon a time, not very long ago, “spousal abuse” and “child abuse” and, yes, “cruelty to animals” were terms without legal definition. They acquired legal definitions because concerned citizens worked to give them legal definitions, and make them illegal.
“Cruelty to animals” came first, by the way. Legislation to regulate the care and living conditions of domestic animals is relatively venerable now, compared to the more recent origins of laws regulating how you can treat your children or your spouse.
The Term Puppy Mill is used to bring on emotion.
It’s being used to describe the factory production of dogs as if they were mass market consumer goods, rather than living beings.
Animals, especially our dogs can be almost like children to us.
You’ve come to the wrong place, if you expect anyone reading the Pet Connection to be either embarrassed or appalled by such a statement.
The thought of intentionally harming a child or defenseless animal brings on a knee jerk reaction of pure hatred in most humans.
Your use of the pejorative “knee jerk reaction” is, um, interesting in this context.
Unlike other terms used to divide, hate and caused dangerous finger pointing.
Was there supposed to be more to this sentence?
The Term Puppy Mill can bring on almost dangerous responses, causing regular citizens to join in a battle against something they have never seen or witnessed first hand.
Lots of people have seen it first-hand, and more have seen many, many videos from diverse sources.
But be that as it may, I didn’t personally witness the genocide in Rwanda, or the ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia, or for that matter the Battle of the Bulge. That doesn’t mean I don’t have ample evidence that these things happened.
Like the Term Teacup when used to describe a smaller dog. The Term Puppy Mill is a marketing Term. Non profit rescues have learned that placing the term Puppy Mill next to their inventory, will cause it to be sold very rapidly.
Um. “Sold” implies at least a remote chance of making a profit, rather than a remote chance of breaking even. There is a real, practical difference between sale and adoption.
In all Honestly if the thousands of groups wanted to end the ideal of the term Puppy Mill to the supposed 10,000 of them residing in the USA. All the groups had to do with their hundreds of millions if not billions of un-taxable donations
Oh, my. Such lovely delusions! To get those numbers, you’re counting the donations to PETA and other Animal Rights extremist organizations, which have no interest in fighting puppy mills, or educationg anyone on how to produce healthy, happy pet puppies.
was to use the money to educate kennels and use the money in research to bring the living conditions to that of what they deem Humane.
You can’t achieve those conditions in any facility organized around the mass production of puppies as consumer goods. Healthy, happy, well-adjusted puppies, suitable to be family pets, need to be raised in conditions that allow them to be socialized in those conditions—which means small-scale, responsible, hobby breeders, and the higher-end, more responsible kind of backyard breeder. Puppy mills can’t do it; most BYBs have no interest in working that hard.
That said they should start firstly with their own facilities.
Many kill shelters euthanize puppies and dogs for a simple common cold many times labeled a Upper respiratory infection (URI) , or Kennel Cough.
This is all too true, and has no bearing on how puppy mills operate, or whether they’re good or bad.
Instead of killing these animals for an infection that can be self eliminating a needed study could have been done to end it. As with leukemia in cats that helped discover a cure for leukemia in children. that study may have found and end to the common cold. Yet these organizations are against animal study even if it means saving animals themselves.
You are conflating Animal Rights and Animal Welfare organizations—perhaps intentionally, perhaps from ignorance. Animal Rights groups oppose any use of animals in research, even to help animals. Animal Welfare groups do not. Animal Welfare organizations do want animals used in research to be treated humanely, but with that proviso are generally okay with animal research even if the “only” goal is helping humans.
You have contradicted yourself; you’ve noticed that research was conducted on cats, on feline leukemia, to help humans with leukemia—and yet claim research is not being conducted on kennel cough and the common cold because animal welfare groups are hypocrites. No, sorry, animal welfare groups don’t have the resources to conduct advanced medical research. It needs to be funded and conducted by other organizations, that have the resources and the knowledge—and those concentrate most of their resources on things that kill humans. Feline Leukemia and Feline Immunodeficiency Syndrome are interesting to researchers because they are related to things that kill humans. Kennel cough “only” resembles the common cold. The common cold, at least by itself does not kill humans. No one who could do so is interested in researching the common cold.
To say ALL pet stores buy from Puppy Mills.
They do, or from the worst kind of BYBs. Responsible breeders and even the best BYBs won’t sell to pet stores, because they care what happens to the puppies, and don’t want the sold to whoever walks in with enough space on their credit cards.
And that ALL licensed and inspected USDA commercial kennels are dirty Puppy Mills.
Oh, no, I freely concede that some of them are clean puppy mills. They’re still puppy mills, designed for the mass production of puppies as mass market consumer goods.
Comes from a thought process that many Americans hoped would have been outgrown in today’s America. By Supporting your local Pet Store which sells Puppies and Kittens you are helping to eliminate the need for the Term Puppy Mill.
How? That’s a serious question. I’d be genuinely fascinated to read your reasoning on that, in the unlikely event that you’ve actually stuck around and are reading this.
But first Pet Stores need the billions of lost taxable income back into their hands so they can do the right thing . To once and for all end the 60 year battle against a term that has matured into a pure marking tool, to take jobs and taxable income away from hard working Americans.
Nothing is stopping Pet Stores from doing the right thing—ceasing to sell live animals, selling supplies and services only, supporting adoption, and perhaps providing some guidance on how to find responsible breeders. Many pet stores, in fact, have made this switch—and not just the two Big Name Chains that have done it, really, only for dogs and cats. Independent stores have done it, too, some of them more completely than the PetSomethings.
It’s not a term we’re battling; it’s the reality of conditions in puppy mills.
(I realize that, in terms of reaching “concerned”, this is a complete waste of our precious phosphor resources. However, I have typed it anyway, in the hope that it may reach someone else.)
Comment by Lis — August 31, 2008 @ 4:49 pm
Exactly, Lis.
We write for others, for people who may see those puppies in the window of “concerned“‘s puppy-mill outlet store, that they may NOT set a foot inside that store to support her delusions of how wonderful a clean factory farm for puppies can be.
That they may not support a sick and cruel industry that treats dogs like widgets on an assembly line.
Ugh. And I suppose when she’s cradling the puppies she sells to anyone with a credit card she believes she “loves” animals.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — August 31, 2008 @ 4:59 pm