3 minute read
Puppy Mills: Not a Pretty Picture
by Expert Contributor Donna Dybus, Director of The Spayed Club Veterinary Clinic
We’ve all seen the photos strategically printed on the right side of magazines so that when the pages are flipped they are always visible. Those photos of sick, matted puppies and dogs with sad, pleading eyes are known to all as photos of puppies who need to be rescued from horrible puppy mills with idyllic sounding names like “Pet Resort” or reputable-sounding names like “Such and Such Kennel.”
Many people fall in love and buy the adorable, fluffy, healthy puppies pictured in the puppy mills’ ads. And many people can’t resist the puppy mills’ cute fuzzballs that nap on shredded paper in the pet store windows.
Sadly, puppy mills are places of pain and misery for those fuzzballs and the dogs that parent them. As the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) puts it, “A puppy mill is an inhumane high-volume dog-breeding facility that churns out puppies for profit, ignoring the needs of the pups and their mothers.” Adult males and females are kept in dirty, rusty cages, often never seeing daylight, deprived of veterinary care, and bred over and over. And when they can no longer be bred, they are tossed out or killed.
Although the puppies may be vaccinated one-time for distemper by the puppy mill owner or by a veterinarian for rabies, that’s simply because it’s good advertising; those puppies are not thoroughly vetted. They’re frequently sick with congenital diseases and loaded with parasites that may not be obvious until the new owner has taken the puppy home and the kids have fallen in love. Those not-so-obvious health conditions eventually surface in the form of physical abnormalities, heart conditions, chronic diarrhea, etc., causing challenges, heartaches and veterinary expenses.
Consider these statistics compiled by the HSUS:
• In the US, there are an estimated 10,000 puppy mills.
• 194,000+ dogs are kept solely for breeding in USDAlicensed facilities. This license is required for breeders with four or more breeding females and who sell puppies, sight unseen, to pet stores, brokers or online.
• Every year, 2 million puppies are sold that were born in puppy mills.
Jane Goodall, the primatologist and anthropologist, has said of her study of chimpanzee behavior and habitat, “It’s not a pretty picture, but there are reasons for hope.” We believe HOPE means Hold On, Pain Ends. To help end the suffering in puppy mills, make the puppies your reason for hope, by Adopting rather than Shopping.
Millions of healthy puppies and adult dogs are waiting in shelters and rescues everywhere for their forever homes. The advantages of adopting are many — lots of choices, pup may already be trained, dog's personality is known, much less expensive — but the primary advantage is that you are saving two lives by giving a dog a home and freeing up a spot for another one to be saved.
Expert Contributor Donna Dybus, Director of The Spayed Club Veterinary Clinic
484-540-8436
The Spayed Club is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity organization.
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