• Anywhere from 5 to 10 million healthy pets are killed in shelters every year.
• Puppy mills farm dogs in tiny wire cages
• Puppy mill mother dogs are kept pregnant for life until they become useless then killed, thrown out or sold to rescue for hundreds
• Buying a puppy at a store supports the cycle of cruelty at the farm
• Buying a puppy at a store is not "rescuing it." It is condeming the breeding dogs to another generation of torture.
• Would you lock your new cute puppy in a cage for life? That's what you do to it's mother when you buy from a puppy mill store.
• Adopt from a shelter.

Adopt from rescue.
Start your dog search at www.petfinder .com
Never buy from a store.

"There is no such thing as a Puppy Mill"

This is what a puppy store owner recently said to me. I guess that since there is no word for it, it is easier to justify to yourself that your business is based on the torture of breeding dogs in wire cages. Doesn’t matter what name is attached to it. It still exists and the store owners and the people who patronize them are the reasons why they exist.

By the same token, what about “labradoodle” “schnoodle” and all the other cute combinations that are proudly posted on the store fronts and websites? According to AKC there is no such thing as a labradoodle. What they do recognize is an $800 mutt.

Just because it is legal to do something, doesn’t mean that you SHOULD do something. It is completely legal to take away an old lady’s home and life savings if you were clever enough to convince her sign the right papers.

DO NOT BUY PUPPIES FROM PET STORES
It supports the cycle of cruelty.
Adopt for a shelter
Adopt from a rescue group (start your search at www.petfinder.com)

By the way, “puppy mill” has been consistently defined by several reputable sources:
www.merriam-webster.com
Main Entry: puppy mill
Function: noun
Date: 1973
: a commercial farming operation in which purebred dogs are raised in large numbers

www.dictionary.com:
Main Entry: puppy mill
Part of Speech: n
Definition: See puppy farm (next entry below)

Main Entry: puppy farm
Part of Speech: n
Definition: a place where puppies are bred for profit; also called puppy mill
Example: Snoopy was born and raised at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm.
Etymology: 1946

www.wikipedia.org:
A puppy mill, sometimes known as a puppy farm, is a commercial dog breeding facility that is operated with an emphasis upon profits above animal welfare and is often in substandard conditions regarding the well-being of dogs in their care. Similar types of operations exist for other animals commonly kept as pets or used as feed for other animals. The term can be applied to operations involving other animals commercially bred for profit, e.g. "kitty mills." There are an estimated 4,000 puppy mills in the U.S. that produce more than half a million puppies a year. Commercial kennels may be licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture which may inspect the kennels routinely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppy_mill

Responsible breeders do not sell to puppy stores

Puppy Mill Breeder:
Runs a puppy farm where they breed as many dogs as possible for profit. Dogs are treated as livestock and in the eyes of the law, they are. As such, puppy farms can get away with keeping their livestock in wire cages with absolute basic essentials such as poor food and dirty water. And these are the “good ones” who periodically clean the cages. Typically the cages are not cleaned until an inspector shows up. Breeder dogs are kept in the cages, permanently pregnant. The day they are released from the cages is the day they can no longer breed. They are then shot (or drowned if the bullet is too expensive), thrown out or sold to a rescue group for the full price of a healthy dog.

Backyard Breeder:
Someone who has a good looking dog and sees it as an opportunity to make a few thousand dollars. Any dog can “have papers” and even be registered with AKC or other group. If you want some, ask me, I’ll print some papers out for you. They will mate the dog with another good looking dog. When the pups arrive, they will sell them to anyone with the cash. Backyard breeders are total amateurs and are in it strictly for the money. There is no guarantee of breed quality or healthcare pre- or postnatal.

Responsible Breeder:
Someone who has a dog of good quality breeding. The dog has been shown to judges and doesn’t just look god, but is good through and through. Both breeding dogs are selected carefully. The mother dog’s progress is monitored carefully by veterinarians. Pups will have guarantees against genetic defects. Responsible breeders will take back one of their own dogs if there is a problem with it. A responsible breeder breeds the dog because they have a love of that particular breed and want to maintain the purity of the breed. They will interview the new owners and will not sell to anyone. Most responsible breeders will not advertise. They work strictly by word-of-mouth and recommendations.

Responsible breeders DO NO SELL TO PUPPY STORES
Responsible breeders DO NOT PUT SIGNS AT THE CORNERS

Anywhere from 5 to 11 million dogs are killed at shelters annually, we don’t need puppy mills or backyard breeders, there are too many dogs already.

Prisoners of Greed

Hundreds of thousands of dogs suffer in puppy mills in this country. The dogs are prisoners of greed. They are locked in small cages. They freeze in the winter and swelter in the summer. The dogs never get out of their prisons. They are bred over and over again until they die. The only way to free them from the misery of these horrid puppymills is to eliminate the demand for puppies by refusing to buy a puppy in a pet store and boycotting those pet stores that sell puppies. When people stop buying puppies in pet stores, the puppy mills will go out of business and the misery will end. The state and federal governments do not enforce the laws to protect the dogs. The commercial breeders and brokers have huge well-funded lobbying efforts. Please join this fight to free the prisoners of greed. The only person who is going to make a difference for the dogs suffering in puppy mills is you. You, the people, can free them from their puppy mill prisons.

Here is a website that exposes Puppy Mills and the stores that they supply:

www.animalfolksmn.org/index.html