Causecast

by CLAIRE GRINTON, Contributing Writer

You love playing in the sprinklers with your puppy, or taking your dog on a long walk, but how much do you really know about your animal’s life before you came into the picture? Many of our furry friends spent their first few months in horrific conditions and many others may never find a happy home of their own. It’s time for the truth. Here are ten things you should know about puppy mills:

1. Puppy mills are defined by the ASPCA as a large-scale dog breeding facility in which profit is given priority over the well-being of the dogs. Most spend their entire lives held in small cages with a number of other dogs, with hardly any room to move about. They get no exercise, no affection, and no training. They are forced to sleep in the same place where they relieve themselves, and often suffer from skin, medical, and behavioral problems due to inbreeding and poor living conditions.

2. The Animal Welfare Act does require large-scale commercial breeds to be licensed and regularly inspected by the USDA. However, that rule only applies to puppy mills that sell to pet stores or other commercial resale operations, as it makes them a “wholesale vendor.” Puppy mills that sell directly to the public, either in person or online, are therefore exempt from these regulations.

3. Many puppy mills use a broker, or a middleman, to protect themselves from lawsuits and further distance themselves from the sale of unhealthy animals. These brokers often “ensure” pet stores of false breeding practices, fake purebred registration, and incorrect lineage information.

4. Anti-cruelty laws may not be enough to help these dogs. First, the law requires little more than the basics: food, water, and shelter. Additionally, investigating puppy mill conditions can be tricky; local authorities cannot enter these facilities unless someone has come forward with a formal complaint having witnessed first-hand substandard conditions. As most puppy mill owners do not allow customers into the facilities and instead prefer to sell the animals to pet stores or online, making these claims proves to be difficult.

5. Untreated illnesses and injuries lead to high euthanasia rates in many puppy mills, where unapproved methods such as poisoning, bludgeoning, shooting, and drowning often prevail. Puppy mill owners are more like farmers than breeders; if a “crop” is insufficient, the land is plowed and the spoiled crop is disposed. Puppy mills operate on a similar plane, driven by profit instead of compassion.

6. Sometimes worse than untreated illnesses, puppy mill owners will practice rudimentary veterinary medicine and even perform surgery on the animals. Due to fudged lineage and health information the puppies are often sold in their fragile state to unsuspecting individuals. These individuals end up responsible for treating any number of medical problems the dogs may have.

7. Puppy lemon laws may offer some consumer protection. These laws often require the party who sold the animal to pay for the medical expenses of the animal, refund the purchase, or offer to exchange the animal for a different puppy. Often, the mills euthanize the returned puppies as it is not in a puppy mill owner’s financial interest (nor ability) to treat the dog.

8. Puppy mill owners aren’t the only ones under fire; pet stores like Petland are also getting heat for selling unhealthy or dying puppies in their stores, thanks to the extensive eight month investigation of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

9. For the dogs that survive the trip to the pet store (where many die due to heat and smothering), many will ultimately end up at shelters due to families who couldn’t take care of the sick dogs, or pet stores who couldn’t sell the animals. There they are joined by the unwanted leftovers straight from the puppy mills. Groups like the Humane Society and the SPCA strive for 100 percent no-kill facilities, but even the most responsible of shelters typically have at least a two percent kill rate. Currently, four to five million dogs and cats are euthanized each year and that number is on the rise.

10. Despite horrific crimes, the puppy industry is a booming market. The puppy market in Missouri alone is valued at 40 million dollars each year. About 3,500 pet stores sell an estimated 500,000 puppies in the United States from over 4,000 licensed breeding kennels and countless unregistered and unlicensed puppy mills.

The only way to ensure you’re not increasing the demand for puppy mill pups is to adopt animals from licensed shelters like your local SPCA or rescue group.

Photo by kimbospacenut, flickr.