How To Help (Concluding Post)

I am sure some of you are wondering how you can help. The best way to help is to not buy puppies or kittens from pet stores and to encourage others to avoid these purchases as well. Puppy mills thrive because of the profits that they make. Without a profit they cannot continue and they will lose their enjoyment. This will also discourage others from starting people mills. Lancaster County, PA by the way is the puppy mills capital of the United States. You may think that when you buy a puppy you are saving it but in fact you are endangering many other puppies and helping to continue the breeding cycle. If you think about a puppy mill as a business, the best thing to do is in fact to cut out the profits and not buy anything that they are selling. Also please never purchase a dog off of the internet. Puppies are a huge responsibility and owning one is not something to be taken lightly. However, if you decide to you would like to own a puppy one of the best places to get a puppy is from a shelter. When you adopt a puppy from a shelter you are giving that puppy a second shot at a good life. In shelters you can find both mixed breeds and purebreds. If you would like to adopt a puppy the best website to use in order to find one for adoption in your area is petfinder.com. You could also volunteer at your local shelter which most likely will have some puppy mill dogs or if adopting and volunteering are not your thing you could always send a letter to your local senator with suggestions on how to stop puppy mills. Spreading awareness is also a good way to help. When people are better informed they can ultimately make better decisions. I hope you enjoyed my blog and thank you for reading!

Laws Concerning Puppy Mills

There is a set of laws that concerns puppy mills. However, these laws provide many loopholes. There is an act called the Animal Welfare Act, which is overseen by the USDA, that protects dogs sold through stores. However, this act fails to protect dogs sold through the Internet which is another common place for puppy mill dogs to be sold. Unfortunately, violations of this act regularly go unpunished.  An act, called, The 2008 Puppy Uniform Protection Statute that would protect all dogs and require that all dogs receive regular exercise was introduced in 2008. Unfortunately, the act was not passed. The act was reintroduced in 2010 and was again denied. On March 1st, 2011 that same act was reintroduced again and is waiting to either be accepted or denied. If you would like to help by contacting your local legislators please click here. State laws varying as far as laws concerning puppy mills and some state are doing a lot more than others to help the cause. If you are interested in the laws in your state please click here to be directed to a chart. Some states also have "lemon laws" that protect the consumer from losing money when they buy a puppy that has a sickness the consumer was unaware. If you are curious what the "lemon laws" are for your state feel free to click here. The ASPCA has been very actively involved with helping to create laws concerning puppy mills and deserves recognition. One of the most important tools to help with a cause is knowledge so if you have the time please look over the resources provided above.

An In Depth Look At Puppy Mills

Puppy mills are breeding facilities run by people who do not care about dogs. The only thing that they do care about is profit. There is no companion among these people and dogs in puppy mills are treated as manufactured items instead of loving, breathing, adorable beings. Genetic disorders run rampant in this breeding ground because genetics are never given a second thought. Instead of considering health, they consider the amount of puppies that they can get out of each bitch (proper term for female dog). In puppy mills dogs receive very minimal vet care, tiny amounts of food, and small amounts of water. These dogs are forced to live in cramped, filthy, wire cages and rarely receive human attention and affection. According to the SPCA, In order to maximize profits, female dogs are bred at every opportunity with little to no recovery time between litters. Most of the bitches and dogs (male dogs) die in the puppy mills and never get to experience any sort of happiness. In other words they die alone in misery. It is a very sad cycle and one that must be stopped. The following two videos will provide you with an insight on puppy mills. These are videos that puppy mill owners would not want you to see. I hope that these videos make you want to take action. Puppy mills cannot be stopped until we band together.  Both of these videos were found on YouTube and the first video comes from the Humane Society of the United States. Just a disclaimer the second video may be viewed as graphic.

My Volunteer Experiences

The House at Animal Rescue Inc.

For several years I volunteered at an animal rescue shelter called Animal Rescue Inc. My primary responsibility was to socialize, groom, and walk the dogs. Some of the dogs were somewhat fearful of people. They were abused, neglected, and abandoned so based on their past experiences with humans they had every right to be fearful. However, we would never hurt them. We wanted more than anything to show them what love was and find them proper homes. Throughout the next couple days, weeks, months, and possibly years they would learn this fact. For you see, Animal Rescue Inc. is a no-kill shelter. For some dogs it is also a forever home.

At Animal Rescue Inc. most of the dogs were free to roam a large fenced yard and had a house that they were free to enter and leave. The others were in large kennels. They were walked at least once a day if not more.

The most difficult task that I encountered at the shelter was to socialize the puppies from puppy mills. The dogs from puppy mills were the dogs that I was the most drawn to. They were also the most fearful because they had never had any type of human interaction before coming to the shelter expect for food or water that was sometimes given to them if they were lucky.

I was determined to let them see the love of a human. However, this goal took a lot of patience. Due to their past history they were quite reluctant to socialize with humans. If they were pushed into human interaction it would only damage them further.

I would arrive at the rescue shelter some days at 8:30AM and sit in the room that most of the puppy mills dogs were at. I would pet the non-puppy mill dogs as they come up to me wanting the affection they had come to know and love from being at the shelter. The puppy mill dogs would look at me and some would stare but they did not want come near me. I understood that and respected them enough to let them do their own thing. Then, around 3:00PM some of the puppy mill dogs would wander up to me and want petted. I would pet them and then when they had got enough they would walk away.

Through this process some of the puppy mill dogs eventually decided that they really liked humans and started coming up to the other volunteers to receive attention. Some of them also received wonderful homes.



How Much Is That Puppy In The Window?

Many people walk into pet stores each year and walk out with a puppy. How much is that puppy in the window? Well, the price of a pet store puppy is much more than what the price tag says. A world of filth and broken hearts is hidden behind that puppy and price tag because those puppies come from puppy mills. Just what is a puppy mill you ask? According to the Webster dictionary, a puppy mill is a commercial farming operation in which purebred dogs are raised in large numbers. Due to these large numbers most dogs in puppy mills receive little to no human interaction and experience major health problems. Most of the time adult female dogs in puppy mills will have nipples that hang down to the ground and most dogs once they are no longer able to produce puppies are tossed away like trash such as bottles, containers, and broken items.

Dogs need love and compassion. They are man's best friend and loyal even when others are not. They deserve the same in return. A lot of people ask why puppy mill owners treat dogs the way they do. Unfortunately, nobody has the answer for that question. I think it may because they never experienced love. However, no reason or excuse will ever make up for what puppy mills have done to those poor animals. In these blogs I will post information such as a more in depth description of what puppy mills are, my personal experience with dogs from puppy mills, some statistics about puppy mills, how the puppy mill world tries to hide from being exposed, and how to help shut down puppy mills. I will then post a concluding video.