Dear Whoopi,

This morning on The View, you made a statement defending your right to purchase a puppy from a pet store. 
I would support your right to buy a puppy from a pet store IF 99% of those puppies did not come from puppy mills. You and all consumers have the right to buy a puppy whose parents are not neglected and suffering in these horrible mills. When that puppy in the window's parents are no longer suffering and are being raised and loved in a home setting, receiving proper veterinary and grooming care, and know what it is like to be part of a family rather than refered to as a # amongst breeding stock, then I will agree with you. When animals INCLUDING PUPPIES are not being routinely euthanized in shelters all over the US, then I will agree with you. For now, we stand far apart.
I see animals from these large facilities in such deplorable condition.  They come into my office with matted coats, teeth literally rotting out of their heads, interdigital cysts between their toes caused by irritation from living only on wire flooring, eyes burned dry from environmental conditions that have high concentrations of ammonia due to volumes of urine and feces, urine scalding from sitting in their own urine and feces, coats permanently stained from sitting in their own urine and feces.  The odor cannot be washed from their fur, so they must be shaved. 
US shelters are routinely euthanizing dogs, cats,  AND puppies, and kittens by the millions per year.  In an economy when people's lives are being abruptly changed due to job losses, divorces, and evictions, the shelters and rescues are inundated with animals with which even loving owners tearfully have to part.  Many of these animals never find homes.
Here is a well done educational video, The Truth About Euthanasia!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emGZBLVJmGI
Yet these commercial breeders/puppy mills are still producing their product.  In Iowa alone there are approximately 400 puppy mills, many of whom have hundreds of dogs breeding within them.  The number of puppies produced are staggering, and they are sold in pet stores and on the internet. 
Here are a few videos you can watch to see what puppy mills are:
http://www.caps-web.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=169&Itemid=207&report_id=37
http://www.caps-web.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=169&Itemid=207&report_id=114
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m58VZkB_wKw
When buying that puppy from the pet store, you are sentencing that puppy's parents to sit in squalor and breed until they no longer produce.  You are saying that what those parents are suffering is OK. 
What happens when they no longer produce?  Let's ask a breeder...
http://www.caps-web.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=169&Itemid=207&report_id=36
Please remember, the puppy sold today from that pet shop window, may be the dog that is euthanized in the shelter in 2 years when no one adopts it.
(My apologies to my regular readers, I had to interrupt in the middle of a blog series, but could not resist speaking out when I heard about Whoopi Goldberg's remarks.  Thank you to Companion Animal Protection Society for their videos and more importantly, for their continued investigations and enlightenment.)
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