A puppy mill
When you buy a puppy from a pet shop or over the Internet, do you know the origin of your pup?
Joan Reddy writes for Care2.com that every year, millions of puppies are born into horrific conditions and sold to unsuspecting people by pet shops or over the Internet. Most of the animals that are bought from these locations come from extremely cruel breeding places known as PUPPY MILLS – mass-breeding facilities that raise puppies for the pet trade with an emphasis on profit over the animals’ welfare.
Dogs from puppy mills are shipped to pet stores and sold to Internet buyers across America so that consumers never have a chance to witness the real conditions in which these dogs were born or raised.
- Puppy mill dogs often are confined to small, cramped, and filthy wire cages. As a result, they often suffer emotional and psychological problems.
- Most puppy mill facilities do not have access to heat in the winter or air conditioning in the summer, as this would be too costly to the mill operator.
- Many are injured and sick but are denied vet care because of the expenses.
- In many cases, the mill operators perform surgeries on these animals without a veterinary license.
- The breeding dogs spend their entire lives pregnant and delivering babies until finally they are too old or too sick.
- In very rare cases, the mills surrender unwanted pups to animal rescue groups. Those are the lucky ones; usually the unwanted dogs are shot and killed.
The non-profit, no-kill organization National Mill Dog Rescue, (NMDR), recently rescued 75 surrendered breeding dogs from puppy mills in Kansas and Missouri.
30 of the rescued dogs were transferred to Arizona Animal Welfare League & APCA (AAWL & SPCA), the largest and oldest no-kill shelter in Phoenix, Arizona, where they will be cared for, receive the veterinary care and socialization they desperately need, until they are ready to be adopted into their ‘forever’ homes.
These rescued dogs had never walked on the ground in their entire lives until this weekend. The rescuers took this video of the dogs’ very first moments when their little feet first touched the earth, experiencing the joy of freedom.
There are millions of dogs being euthanized in shelters and pounds every year. The safest and most humane way to adopt a dog or a puppy is from a shelter, pound, or rescue group. Do not buy puppies from pet stores, off an Internet website, or a farm, as they are more than likely products of a puppy mill. Purchasing an animal from these places is ultimately contributing to the support of their inhumane practices, methods, and facilities.
H/t FOTM’s josephbc69
~Eowyn