WHERE DO PET STORE PUPPIES COME FROM?
Most puppies sold in stores come from breeding "farms" called "puppy mills," where mother dogs and "studs" spend lonely lives in small filthy cages, producing litter after litter. They freeze in the winter and swelter in the summer. They never get out of their prisons. They are bred in inhumane, deplorable, and cruel conditions. They are bred over and over again until they die. The pets raised in these conditions are purchased by brokers and sold to pet stores and malls. Those discarded as class B pets (the mothers who are no longer able to produce a litter) are often sold to animal research laboratories.
Recently, PETA found dogs at one puppy mill living on hard wire with no bedding, little protection from the searing hot summers or the frigid winters, and little to no veterinary care. Crusted, oozing eyes, raging ear infections, mange that turned skin into a mass of red scabs, abscessed feet from the unforgiving wire floors—all were ignored or inadequately treated. Some dogs injured their feet by catching them in the wire of their cages, and they hobbled painfully around their small space, trying to keep their balance. The collar on one Labrador retriever had not been adjusted as the dog grew and had become embedded in his flesh. Even though the gangrenous skin fell away as the collar was removed, his neck was treated with nothing but a worm-repellant spray.
Timid dogs were terrorized by their more aggressive cagemates, who often prevented them from eating and drinking. Sadly, many of the old mother dogs had gone mad from confinement and loneliness. They circled frantically in their small cages and paced ceaselessly back and forth—their only way of coping with their despair.
These conditions are typical at hundreds of puppy mills across the country. Laws offer little protection and are poorly enforced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
SERIOUS HEALTH PROBLEMS
Unhealthy conditions, lack of veterinary care, and careless breeding lead to serious problems. By the time puppy-mill puppies are shipped to pet stores, many suffer from ear infections, bronchial illness, and serious congenital health conditions, such as hip deformities, epilepsy, and vision or hearing problems. People paying hundreds of dollars for puppies often find that they must spend thousands more for veterinary care.
OVERPOPULATION CRISIS
While puppy mills are churning out litters, millions of unwanted dogs are dying in pounds and shelters. If everyone who wanted a companion dog were to adopt from a shelter instead of buying from a pet store, tens of thousands of dogs would be spared and the puppy mills would go out of business—preventing thousands more breeding dogs from enduring lonely, miserable lives. If you have the time, resources, and love necessary to care for a dog properly, adopt one from a shelter or pound. If you must have a particular breed, you may be surprised to find that 25 percent of shelter dogs are purebred.
The only way to free puppy mill prisoners from their misery is to eliminate the demand for puppies by refusing to buy a puppy in a petstore and boycotting those stores that sell puppies. Until the public understands and purchases pedigreed pets directly from a quality breeder, shelter or humane society, this very lucrative and cruel industry will continue. When the demand ends, the misery will end. The state and federal governments do not enforce the laws to protect the dogs. Please join us in our fight to free the prisoners of greed. The only person who is going to make a difference for these dogs is you. You, the people, can free them. DON'T BUY A PUPPY FROM A PET STORE!!!
Fact: Over five hundred thousand puppies are born in puppy mills every single year.
Fact: Female dogs are bred when they are just six months old and twice a year thereafter until their bodies wear out and they die at about four or five years old.
Fact: The puppies born in mills often have diseases, genetic defects, and emotional problems.
Fact: Many kennels do not have climate control. The dogs freeze in winter and swelter in summer, often dying from exposure. Puppies are known to have "cooked on the wires."
Fact: Female dogs are bred so many time their internal organs grow together.
Fact: Dogs suffer malnutrition so severe that their hair falls out.
Fact: A combination of poor food, poor conditions and no veterinary care causes their teeth to rot at early ages. Often the dogs have such gum disease their jaws rot.
Fact: Dogs often get their feet and legs caught in the wires of the cages and in the struggle to free themselves their feet or legs are ripped off.
Fact: Dogs in mills are debarked by shoving a metal pipe down their throats to rupture their vocal cords.
Fact: When dogs are used up, they are often shot, hit in the head with a rock or dumped.
The conditions in the mills are unrelentingly brutal and terrifying. Many dogs eventually lose their minds. Their eyes glaze over and they withdraw. Frequently they develop repetitive behaviors like licking, biting their fur and going round and round in circles.
The dogs never get out of the wire kennels. They never touch the ground. They never run in the grass. Dogs are often trapped in cages with aggressive dogs and have no way to escape. Their bodies are often covered with scars.
THESE DOGS HAVE COMMITTED NO CRIME. THEY ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN YOUR BELOVED PETS. THEY LONG TO BE FREE, SAFE, WARM, AND LOVED. INSTEAD THEY ARE IN MISERABLE PRISONS SUFFERING HORRORS INFLICTED BY HUMANS - ALL FOR GREED.
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