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PUPPY MILLS are VERY CRUEL to all DOGS! They kill and abandon all the dogs that can’t be bred anymore. The people who sell them in pet stores just kill them when there is no more room or no one buys them. That is right, the dogs you get from pet stores are really from puppy mills. In my speech, I will be talking about puppy mills, from what is wrong with them to how they sell them to everything else in here. To end the cruel treatment of dogs in mass breeding operations. In puppy mills, mother dogs spend their entire lives in cramped cages with little to no personal attention, this also means all the other dogs like puppies and male dogs can also spend most of their lives in cramped cages, with no room to play or exercise. Female dogs are bred at every opportunity with little to no recovery time between litters. When, after a few years, they are physically depleted to the point that they no longer can reproduce, breeding females are often killed. The father dogs are just abandoned or killed when they can no longer breed. Due to poor sanitation, overbreeding and a lack of preventive veterinary care, the puppies from puppy mills frequently suffer from a variety of health issues, creating heartbreaking challenges for families who should be enjoying the delights of adopting a new family member. What is so wrong with puppy mills? Puppy mills are dog breeding operations that put profit over the health and well-being of the dogs. Puppy mills may be large or small. They may be licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture or unlicensed. In order to sell to a pet store, the breeder must be licensed, though many still sell to pet stores without a proper license. Puppy mills can house hundreds or thousands of dogs. Smaller does not necessarily mean better. The conditions in small facilities can be just as cruel as larger ones. Puppy mills are everywhere, though there is a large concentration in the Midwest. Missouri has the largest number of puppy mills in the United States. Amish and Mennonite communities (particularly in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania) also have large concentrations of puppy mills. Puppy mills breed all types of dogs – everything from Labrador Retrievers, Boxers, and English Bulldogs to teacup Yorkies – you can find nearly every breed. Breeding parents spend their lives in 24-hour confinement to cages. It is common to see wire cages stacked on top of each other. They generally do not have protection from heat, cold, or inclement weather. Dogs in puppy mills live in dirty, unsanitary conditions. Dogs living in puppy mills receive little to no veterinary care (and puppy mill owners often provide veterinary care without anesthesia or veterinary training). Mothers are bred every heat cycle and are usually killed when they can no longer produce. Many puppy mills do not practice humane euthanasia. Dogs are killed in cruel ways, including shooting or drowning. Puppies are taken from their mothers too young and can develop serious health or behavioral issues due to the conditions in which they are bred and shipped. This leads to expensive veterinary bills, heartbreak, and stress for their owners. The bottom line is that puppy mills are all about profits. Any money spent on veterinary care, quality food, shelter, or staff to care for the dogs cuts into the profit margin. What are puppy mills? A puppy mill is a commercial dog-breeding facility that focuses on increasing profit with little overhead cost. The health and welfare of the animals is not a priority. Puppy mills are inhumane high-volume dog breeding facilities that churn out puppies for profit, ignoring the needs of the pups and their mothers. Dogs from puppy mills are often sick and unsocialized. Most puppy mills have no veterinary care, climate control, or protection for the animals from the weather (hot, cold, rain, or snow). Puppy mills commonly sell through internet sales, online classified ads, flea markets and pet stores. In fact, the majority of puppies sold in pet stores and online are from puppy mills. Responsible breeders will be happy to meet you in person and show you where the puppy was born and raised—and where their mom lives too. Where are puppy mill puppies sold? There are two primary sales outlets for puppies bred in puppy mills: (1) pet stores, and (2) the Internet. Nearly all puppies sold at pet stores come from puppy mills. Pet stores are the primary sales outlet for puppy mills and are essential for keeping puppy mills in business. Both licensed and unlicensed mills sell to pet stores (many mills sell to pet stores without the required license and are not held accountable). Puppies are bred in mills and then shipped all over the country. For example, puppies bred in the Midwest may be shipped on trucks to southern California or Florida. The shipping conditions are inhumane. They can be forced to go up to 12 hours without food or water, and they are confined in a small space where diseases can be easily transmitted. Many puppies do not survive. Did you know? 10,000 PUPPY MILLS Are estimated to be currently active in the United States. (this includes both licensed and unlicensed facilities). Fewer than 3,000 of these are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 500,000 DOGS Are kept solely for breeding purposes in all puppy mills. An estimated 167,388 breeding dogs are currently living in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-licensed commercial facilities for breeding purposes at this very moment.* 2.6 MILLION PUPPIES Are sold each year after originating from a puppy mill. Every year in America, it's estimated that 2.11 million puppies are sold that originated from puppy mills, while 3 million are killed in shelters because they are too full and there aren’t enough adoptive homes. Act as a publicist for your local animal shelter to encourage your community to adopt shelter pets. An estimated 1.2 million dogs are euthanized in shelters every year. Sign up for Shelter Pet PR! Pet Store Puppies: Why You Shouldn't Rescue One Since it is sad to see pet store puppies in cages, many people want to “rescue” them by buying them. While the intentions of these people are good, buying dogs helps pet stores stay in business, perpetuating the cycle of thousands more puppies being raised in puppy mills and then sold in stores. In short, “rescuing” a puppy from a pet store helps puppy mills thrive. Every puppy sold means more puppies will be ordered. Pet stores operate like any other retail business; they have inventory and puppies are part of that inventory. If you walk into a store and see a sad-looking dachshund puppy and decide to buy her to get her out of the store, the store places an order for another dachshund puppy. Your kind-hearted gesture of purchasing pet store puppies is interpreted by the store as a demand for that breed. Without intending to do so, you’ve helped keep another commercial breeder, broker, and pet store in business all pet store puppies come from. These dogs live in tiny, cramped cages for most of their lives, for the sole purpose of producing puppies to be sold in pet stores. You can help put puppy mills out of business by never buying a puppy from a puppy store for any reason. What happens to pet store puppies who aren’t sold? As with other unsold inventory, they go on sale. Stores buy puppies for a fraction of what they charge their customers. An eight-week-old puppy may have an initial price tag of $1,500 in a store. If no one buys the puppy, the store will lower the price, and continue to mark it down as the puppy grows larger and gets older. Eventually, puppies are marked down to the price the store paid the puppy mill broker — usually a few hundred dollars. If the puppy still doesn’t sell, stores will often cut their losses and give puppies away to employees, friends, or rescue groups. I cannot stand the thought of those puppies in the store. I still want to rescue one. That is why I recommend a “do not enter” approach to compassionate people like you. Don’t go into pet stores that sell puppies; don’t buy supplies there; don’t even go in just to look. If you want to help puppies and dogs, walk away from the pet store and head to your local shelter to adopt. Oftentimes, the water and food provided for the puppies is contaminated, crawling with bugs. Puppies can even be malnourished. Puppies in mills are found with bleeding or swollen paws, feet falling through the wire cages, severe tooth decay, ear infections, dehydration, and lesions on their eyes, which often lead to blindness. In most states, puppy mills are legal. What's important is that future pet owners must seek rescue dogs from their local shelter or buy pets from a trusted breeder in order to put mills out of business. With limited or no regulations or enforcement, puppy mills have no cleanup control. This means that dogs can be living in urine and feces for indefinite periods of time. It's common to find dogs in puppy mills with collars that have been fastened so tightly that they have become embedded in a dog’s neck and must be carefully cut out. Shedding light on the horrors of puppy mills The Humane Society of the United States presents the following reports on puppy mills for reference by animal advocates, members of the media, and researchers. Puppy mills are inhumane commercial dog breeding facilities that may sell puppies in pet stores, online, or directly to the public (in flea markets or via classified ads). Puppy mills disregard the dogs' health—both physical and emotional—in order to maximize profits. Puppy Mill Statistics Thousands of commercially-bred puppies are shipped into Illinois and sold from Illinois pet stores each year