By now you know that Petland is the largest puppy-mill supporting pet store in the nation, but did you also know that the Amish people are the large majority of puppy producers in the nation? I can’t prove it, but I’m willing to bet that a substantial number of Petland puppies come from Amish mills.

When I first learned about the Amish and their puppy mills I was quite shocked. I mean, they are supposed to be a humble and gentle people, right? I don’t know why they torture dogs, and reasons don’t really matter, the fact is that the Amish are huge contributors to the problem. Their mills, mostly located in Pennsylvania, pump out about 200,000 puppies a year. 200,000 puppies! That’s just under the number of the current Amish population!

There are some really good websites containing more information than I do, I’ll freely admit that. Some good ones are http://www.religioustolerance.org/amish8.htm, and http://www.pixiedustpapillons.com/amish_puppy_mills.html

I’m sure the majority of you have heard of Petland, Inc. Petland is the largest pet store chain in the nation that sells puppies from puppy mills. Petland has over 200 locations across the U.S. (and more in Canada but I can’t speak for them). Since November 2008, the Humane Society of the United States has been taking legal action against Petland and their brokerage company for their unscrupulous practices. Not only for obtaining dogs from puppy mills, but also for lying to their customers about the origins of the dogs.

I haven’t personally been involved in taking action against Petland. My state, WA, is one of the few not housing their store, so I concentrate on local pet stores that sell puppies. But to many of you who undoubtedly do have a Petland near you, I encourage you to boycott Petland. There are plenty of pet stores to choose from, so also encourage others to find a new store with you.

For more info about HSUS vs. Petland, Inc., visit http://stoppuppymills.org/petland.html

We can all, as usual, thank the lackadaisical system for not putting more effort into shutting down puppy mills. Don’t get me wrong, I know that realistically, there are more important things going on: poverty, natural disasters, psychopaths roaming the streets, pedophiles preying on children.

But that doesn’t excuse that fact that the USDA has a habit of citing mills for all kinds of violations, often times repeatedly, without any further action being taken.

Technically, mass breeding facilities are legal, as long as they stay within regulation as far as the amount of dogs they house, and their adherence to the bare minimum of health standards. As you can see from the above, most of the time they get away with their reprehensible “business practices.” If you can recall from a previous post of mine, the majority of the seven ‘puppy mill states’ are in the Midwest. Located in the sprawling, rural areas with no neighbors for miles, it’s much harder to nail these guys. The biggest reasons the two puppy mills in my area were finally shut down were the constant complaints from neighbors about the noises and smells.

I say it again and again: boycotting pet stores that sell puppies, and encouraging others not to buy puppies from pet stores does make a difference. Buying puppies online is also a huge moneymaker for puppy mills, so prudence and research are very important.

Another ruse pet stores and puppy mills use is claiming their dogs are AKC registered. I have been investigating a pet store nearby, Pet Pourri, and so far I haven’t found any of their supposed ‘breeders’ to be AKC registered as they claim. It’s a shame that consumers are duped to the point that they are given fake papers that look official but mean absolutely nothing. The best way to find a reputable AKC breeder is to find one on their website, www.akc.org, where you will find listings of breeders right in your area. And a really good website to find more information about puppy mills is www.stoppuppymills.org, which is a website run by the Humane Society of the United States.

I saw a lot of this in the dogs from the Mt. Vernon puppy mill. Teeth and gums are so rotted the lower jaw has partially or fully disinegrated, allowing the tongue to loll out of the mouth.

Lots of anti-puppy mill groups don’t want to divulge the sordid details, or show pictures, of or about what really happens to dogs in puppy mills. They feel it would be crass to expose the general public to that sort of disgusting reality.

I do not like to sugar coat reality. How can you, as a consumer and animal lover, possibly be inspired to make a real difference if you don’t think things are really as bad as they are? I want to treat adults like adults and tell the real truth, not the less ugly version of the truth. I hope that you get angry and disgusted about what happens in a puppy mill. I hope you aren’t angry at me for spreading the message, but at the sick, twisted people who make nightmares a reality.

Mange

Overgrown and matted, very painful for the dog because the fur pulls the skin taut

Malnourishment, mange, eye infection, overall little or no care

More rotten teeth and gums

Starvation is a common ailment in puppy mill dogs

Okay, I’m refreshed and ready to continue my story.

Once all the dogs were rescued, accounted for and settled in the volunteer rescues, the time came to divvy up the doggies into their designated foster homes. John and I volunteered; we were originally going to foster two different breeds who came in together and were inseparable. I signed up for them and went to go get my crates, planning to be back later in the day. By the time I got back, one of the dogs had been fostered! I know it was chaotic so it was an unfortunate mistake. Instead I found a mom chihuahua and her two babies and volunteered to foster those guys instead. On my way out the door, I turned and saw the other half of the duo I was originally planning to take home, and he looked so lonely and forlorn that I had to take him as well! I’m glad I did because he is now a part of our family (you can see his picture in my dog training blog).

In a period of about 4-5 months, all the foster dogs from the mills were adopted out to homes. Once a week our local rescue, S.P.O.T., arranged meets at pet stores to bring dogs in and advertise them to hopeful dog owners. Our foster puppies were adopted right away, but our two adults, Mama and Teeth, were hardly being looked at. They were quite beat up and ugly: Mama had lost most of her hair and was older, and generally people don’t like adopting older ugly dogs. We adopted Teeth, and we gave Mama� o a chihuahua rescue who had an easier time finding an appropriate family.

All in all, it was a happy ending for everyone. The puppy mill owners were taken to court, lost all rights to their animals and faced large fines. The dogs that didn’t have to be put down found great homes, and even the dogs that did have to be put down had their moment of freedom and proper care and love.

Thank you for reading my story, it was all very emotional for me and an experience I’ll never forget. If you would like to see a short news clip about it, the video is below. Our dog Teeth is in the video, he’s featured somewhere in the middle and someone is holding him up in front of a whiteboard showing his overgrown nails.

Puppy Mill Clip

I’m going to take a little detour here and share my personal puppy mill story. I live in Marysville, WA, about 30 miles north of Seattle. Not exactly a place where puppy mills should exist, right? I mean, puppy mills are out in the middle of nowhere. In fact, there are seven states that do house an inordinate amount of puppy mills, known as the Puppy Mill States. They include Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. So, back to the main point: puppy mills in my state?

Certainly two that I know of, the two that I became involved in. They were a mother/daughter operation of sorts. The mill in Goldbar, WA belonged to the daughter, and the mill in Mt. Vernon, WA belonged to the mother. Between the two mills almost 500 dogs were rescued, mostly Chihuahuas, Poodles, Shih Tzus and Yorkies, although there was a good sized group of Mini Aussies from Goldbar.

Some chi's from the Mt. Vernon mill

Fortunately, I wasn’t involved with actually going to the barns and taking the dogs out. But some close friends of mine who were had sinus problems for a while because of the extremely concentrated ammonia and feces smell. My husband and I entered the scene as the dogs were arriving at various kennels and rescue groups who were volunteering their space. We, along with countless other volunteers, spend days feeding, washing, clipping nails, letting out to potty (I doubt the dogs had ever been outside before), cleaning kennels and accidents and throw up, medicating, socializing, assessing behavior problems. Special care was needed for all the fresh litters and pregnant mothers.

One dog in particular haunts me, she was a tiny little Maltese and her mouth and gums were so rotten and infected that she literally had no lower jaw, it had disintegrated, so her tongue just lolled out of her mouth. She was so sweet and friendly and couldn’t wait for the next person to pet her. She was one of many that had to be put down, so extreme were their afflictions.

That’s where I leave off for tonight, it’s hard dredging up these yucky memories…

You may have read my previous posts and seen the video and shook your head while thinking to yourself, ‘I know my pet store isn’t getting puppies from one of those mills.’ In theory, you could be right. After all, 1-2% of pet stores in the nation don’t buy their puppies from puppy mills. Those are usually the stores who house dogs from the humane society or local shelters and adopt them out.

Just in case you want to dig a little deeper, here are some red flags:

• The store owner won’t offer you the breeder’s information until after you purchase the dog
• The store procures dogs from out of state
• A middle man, or broker, is hired to transfer dogs

But the #1 red flag that a pet store is getting it’s puppies from a mill is the fact that it sells puppies at all! A reputable breeder would NEVER sell his dogs to a pet store. A reputable breeder wants to know where the puppies are going and is willing to take them back if there is a problem. In fact, reputable breeders typically have homes lined up for their litters before the dogs are even born.

One more plea to anyone wanting to buy a puppy rather than adopt: did you know that almost half the dogs in shelters and rescues are purebred? Often there are litters of abandoned puppies as well. There are rescues dedicated to every breed of purebred dog, so chances are you’ll find exactly what you were looking for without giving the pet shop a second thought!

A mama with her huge litter in a shelter

The video below depicts the harsh world that dogs are forced to live day in and day out in cruel puppy mills. View at your own risk, the video is quite graphic. (Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with PETA)

www.youtube.com

Overcrowded cages in a puppy mill

 Who are the real victims of puppy mills? I know you want to say puppies, right? I would classify puppies as secondary victims. Their first four weeks or so are spent at the mill where they get no proper socialization, leading to behavioral problems later on. Poor and inconsistent breeding practices often cause birth defects, stillbirths, long-term genetic problems and diseases, most of which are largely unknown to unsuspecting shoppers who only see a cute puppy in a glass case.

Yes, puppies are victims, and so are the animal lovers who buy them without being properly informed of their background. However the real victims here (drum roll please) are the breeding parents of these puppies. See, the puppies are lucky enough to leave the mills in a short time, while the parents live out their entire sad (and usually short) lives in a mill.

To say mill conditions are poor would be an incredible understatement. Whether the dogs are outside or inside, there’s no temperature control, so they freeze in the winter and bake in the summer. As for the indoor mills, the smell of ammonia and feces is overpowering. Dogs are often kept in tiny rabbit hutches, sometimes multiple dogs in one cage. They get virtually no vet care; if a dog is sick enough the mill owners will just kill the dog. It doesn’t matter if a dog’s leg is chewed off, or a collar has grown into his skin, or if his eyes are gummed shut from infection; if he (or she) can physically breed, than he will be bred.

 I could go on and on describing the horrors, but the bottom line is: the real victims of the sickening world of puppy mills are the breeding parents, who are virtually tortured to death. Until next time remember, knowledge is power, spread the word about puppies in pet stores!

As my debut blog, I feel the pressure of starting off with a bang. What would catch your eye? Truthfully, just putting my topic in those terms makes me a little sick. The reality is, this is not a fun topic, a cool or even exciting topic. This topic is guaranteed to be a heart breaker.

Puppy mills: the ugly side of commercial dog breeding and one that many consumers and doting pet owners know nothing about. The side which I suspect is also widely ignored. Ignorance is bliss, perhaps? Let us delve…

My definition of a puppy mill is a place where irreputable breeders house far more dogs than are allowed by law, often in the hundreds. It is here the dogs are bred continuously until they die, or until they are useless and killed. The dogs never leave their tiny wire bottom cages and don’t get veterinary care. The litters of puppies produced are shipped all over the country to be sold in a pet store near you, consumers purchase the puppies and the cycle starts all over. My definition.

The actual definition is…well, the actual definition coincides with my own and can be found in the above paragraph.

 In my upcoming posts I will be sharing my own personal experiences, from picketing puppy-selling pet stores to helping shut down mills in my area.