Facts About Puppy Mills

Image © The Humane Society of the United States.

THE TRUTH ABOUT PUPPY MILLS

Every year, millions of puppies are mass-produced at puppy mills. Most of these dogs are shipped to pet stores across the country. Many more are sold directly to the public, either through the Internet or newspaper ads. Pet stores are not required to inform their customers that their new dog came from a puppy mill, and classified ads are not obligated to tell potential buyers if the puppies they’re selling were born and raised in dismal conditions.

Even though most puppy mills are inspected and licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, loopholes in the system allow many mills to get away with poor living conditions for their dogs. The facilities where these puppies are bred are often filthy and overcrowded. Their construction usually consists of a number of small wooden or wire crates and cages that are stacked one on top of the other or cramped side by side. Some of the larger dogs in puppy mills, like those used only for breeding, are barely able to turn around in their tiny cages.

Because the dogs are often underfed and lack proper veterinary care, there are a number of medical issues commonly found in mill dogs, including epilepsy, cataracts, personality disorders, periodontal disease, and mammary tumors. Also, because the dogs receive little in the way of human companionship, their social skills are often lacking, making them problematic house pets.
Unfortunately, the shocking level of neglect and carelessness in puppy mills goes on mostly unhindered. The plight of mill dogs has yet to be resolved.

RESOURCES ABOUT PUPPY MILLS:

Last Chance for Animals

The Human Society of the United States

North Shore Animal League America

North Shore Animal League America, the world’s largest animal rescue and adoption organization, has rescued, rehabilitated and found permanent homes for many victims of these cruel puppy mills, and offers a free Puppy Mill Behavior Profile and Pet Rehabilitation Guide.

Puppy mills thrive because they exist out of the public eye. Though they are legal, it's a breeding factory for puppies that has been the cause of many behavior and medical problems. Learn more about the undercover world of puppy mills.

Puppy mills are factory-like facilities that produce large numbers of purebred puppies.

Puppy mills use the internet and newspaper ads to sell directly to the public, as well as selling their puppies through pet stores.

According to The Humane Society of the United States, exhaustive documentation on the problems surrounding puppy mills include the following: “overbreeding, inbreeding, minimal veterinary care, poor quality of food and shelter, lack of human socialization, overcrowded cages and the killing of unwanted animals.

Buying a dog from a puppy mill, either directly of indirectly, may likely lead to having an animal that will need urgent veterinary care or caring for whatever genetic diseases the animal may be carrying. These symptoms may not surface for several years into the animal’s life.

The greatest victims in the puppy mill problem are the breeding parents, because they will live their life in that cage and it generally ends fairly brutally.

There are about one to two hundred thousand dogs in puppy mills at any given time in the United States.

All breeds of dogs are at risk of being bred in a puppy mill; even larger ones like Saint Bernards.

It’s common to see chronic infection in puppy mills, such as chronic eye infections, chronic ear infections that lead to blindness and deafness. Dental disease is a also huge problem.

© The Humane Society of the United States.

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