How much is that doggie in the window ?? Woof Woof !!

So you are wanting to buy a cute little puppy and you take a trip to a pet store to see the puppies.

The first thing that comes to mind is wow!! they are so cute but their price tag is a little bit pricey Ha ! Why?

Because most likely those cute puppy's are coming from puppy mills. 95% of puppy's sold in pet stores are being delivered to the stores from puppy mills

What is a puppy mill?

Think about how you felt physically and emotionally the last time you were limited to a small area for only a few hours--say a long car ride, flying on an airplane, sitting through a day-long conference. Antsy? Claustrophobic? Like you would scream if you had to sit there for another day? Now think about having that sensation FOR YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. That is the horrible fate of breeding dogs confined to small cages virtually from birth till death in thousands of commercial breeding facilities, commonly known as puppy mills.

A puppy mill is a facility, large or small, that breeds dogs for profit. These facilities are notorious for ignoring the dogs' physical and emotional needs. The dogs go crazy from boredom, and their bodies waste away. Dogs are usually prized for their boundless enthusiasm and zest for life, but in puppy mills, they receive no compassion, and their spirits are broken. They live and die in pain and misery.

They don't always get to eat and if they do it's never enough, they never see a vet, so if they get injured, or get in a fight with another dog or become sick they are not treated. Most likely they are put down by the breeder and depending on the breeder how humane he or she is their death can be very painful. Some breeders will throw a live dog into a burn barrel to get rid of it

The majority of commercial puppy mills come from back east from Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvannia, however we do have them out west. They are required to have a USDA License......Oh and did you know the reason commercial breeders can exist is because dogs are considered LIVE STOCK

The USDA requires that anyone with 4 or more breeding dogs who sells animals to pet stores be licensed. It has minimal requirements regarding food, water, sanitation, and space, but enforcement of the USDA's regulations is extremely lax. For example, the USDA requires that the commercial breeders have an exercise plan for the dogs, but they do not make sure that the plan is ever carried out. If more than one dog is housed in a cage, the dogs are not required to ever be let out at all. The USDA's head veterinarian, Ron de Haven, admits that only about half of the roughly 4,000 USDA-licensed facilities even meet USDA's minimum regulations, a disgraceful example of the USDA's failure to enforce existing animal-protection laws

They do have kennel inspections however the breeders are notified prior to the inspection giving them time to clean barns and cages and hide whatever it is that they don't want the inspectors to see

I first became aware of puppy mills in 1999 and have throught the years adopted 4 grown dogs that came from mills in Missouri. I know first hand what they had to endure for years the abuse at the hands of the breeders, sickness and etc. There is so much to be written about puppy mills I could not put it all in this blog.

You will see more blogs from me talking about dogs that come from puppy mills and who some of these breeders are and who is it that delivers them to pet stores