You may have never heard of a puppymill before. That's because they are illegal operations, and with good reason. A puppymill is about 95% of the time, a place where female dogs are kept in small crates in or outside. Inside, dogs never see the light of day, and are crammed into tiny crates, so small that the dog cannot turn around. The floor is chicken wire, so that feces and urine drop into the cage below. Cages are piled up to 20 on top of eachother, and line the walls of the building. Outdoor cages are for larger breeds of dogs, such as labrador retrievers. Outside, they are placed in bigger, but still tiny cages, offered no protection from wind, snow, or the beating sun. Food is scarce and moldy, water is either frozen or unfit to drink. Often, food is full of maggots and other bugs.
Female dogs are force-bred up to several times a month (normally, they only mate once a year, if that). Mothers are left in the above conditions. Once the babies are a couple of weeks old, puppies as young as two weeks are ripped away from their mothers, and sold to pet stores and breeders. Once a breeder can no longer reproduce, she is either discarded to an animal testing laboratory, or killed(shooting and gassing are the most common methods used, both of which are inhumane).
Please do not support this industry. Rather than buying your dog from a breeder or pet store, go to a shelter, and save a life in need. You may want to buy a puppy from a pet store to "rescue" it and give it a loving home. But each time a puppy is bought from a pet store, the mill supplying that store increases production. Please, save a stray.
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Over-crowded conditions |
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Overcrowding causes stress and sometimes insanity... |
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Puppymill puppies are often infected with mange |
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Dead puppies are left to rot... |
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