What Is a Puppy Mill?

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What Is a Puppy Mill?

A puppy mill is a place where dogs are bread unethically. This kind of practice is not humane because it treats dogs and puppies, which are living beings, as bad as or even worse than objects on an assembly line. The dogs are kept in unsanitary conditions and small cages with little room for movement. They are put there at a young age and the contact with other dogs or humans is kept to a minimum, which is very traumatizing for any animal.

Dogs kept in puppy mills are not offered exercise, quality health care and some are even malnourished. The animals that grow in puppy mills are emotionally scarred and physically damaged. Most of the puppies that grow here will develop behavioral problems later on in their lives. Potty or behavior training becomes very hard for them because of the inhumane conditions the animal was kept in. This type of activity is quite common in many kennels unfortunately, and it should be permanently stopped. But this is a much harder thing to do than initially expected, because the shady practice of puppy mills is a very profitable underground business that produces millions of dollars each year all over the world.

No true animal lover can stand idle to such a barbaric practice, however, and something must be done! Fortunately, there are ways for any person that loves dogs to join in on the fight. One of the best things you can do is to learn to identify such places and refuse to buy pets from these ?mills?. In order to do so, you must learn what separates a professional breeder (which is a person that takes good care of his dog and puppies) from a puppy miller.

If you want to buy a dog and are visiting a breeder for the first time, one of the first things you should do would be to ask him about vet references. You can also tell him that you want to see where the dogs are kept. If he refuses one or both of these requests, then you should be very cautious when it comes to this breeder. And these are just starter questions.

You can also ask to see the registration papers, ask for references, inquire about the location of the kennels and go there yourself, make a ?surprise? visit to that place, ask for veterinary records, contact the vet that takes care of the dogs there, check the physical condition of the dogs, ask for the numbers and names of previous buyers, and so on.

You can also help people become aware by helping organizations like the Humane Society of the Unites States or The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) to spread their campaigns around town or on social media.

If you have solid evidence that a puppy mill exists somewhere in your vicinity, call a humane animal society today and put a stop to it once and for all!

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