Every day in America, someone somewhere buys a puppy. They may purchase the animal from their neighborhood pet store or from an Internet site that makes all the right claims or even from a dealer who advertises in the local paper. But how many of these buyers think about where their puppy comes from?

At The Humane Society of the United States, we too often hear from people after they learn the awful truth—after they've already taken home their adorable dog, become attached, and found themselves stuck with hundreds of dollars in veterinary bills. And sometimes we hear from them in the absolute worst-case scenario—after their new puppy, the one who has captured their hearts, has died just days after purchase.

These new dog owners learn the hard way: The main suppliers for pet stores are puppy mills, large-scale commercial breeders who annually crank out hundreds of thousands of dogs as mindlessly as an assembly line cranks out new SUVs. These breeding operations have also developed a whole new way to hawk their animals, via the Internet, with slick interactive sites that belie the dank mills that supply them with dogs.

Puppy millers don't think about dogs like an animal lover does. They think about dogs like a CEO thinks about widgets: produce as many of them as you can for as cheap as you can.

Even though federal and state laws are on the books to mandate minimum-care standards for commercially bred dogs, puppy mills have found ways to stay just beyond the reach of the law. As a result, dogs suffer. The breeding animals suffer short, lonely lives, condemned to producing puppies until they can produce no longer. The puppies have only a marginally better existence. The young dogs are often housed in cramped, elevated hutches that provide little to no protection from summer's scorching heat or winter's freezing temperatures. Neither parents nor puppies are provided with social interaction with people—a critical component to a happy dog's life.

The onus is truly on potential dog owners to protect themselves from puppy mills. We at The HSUS have been fighting these large breeding operations for decades, and we can help you find your perfect canine match while making sure you avoid lining the pockets of puppy millers. We've produced a new web site, to provide you with all the tools you'll need to safely adopt a dog—and help us in our goal to end puppy mills forever.

The site offers background on puppy mills, including behind-the-scenes video footage from actual mills. It also includes an audio interview with The HSUS's Director of the Stop Puppy Mills Campaign, a story about one woman's struggle to keep her puppy mill dog alive, and "Five Easy Steps to Avoid Puppy Mills." Just as important, it provides you with seven different ways you can contribute to our ongoing campaign to stop puppy mills. Some are as simple as typing a letter at home. Others will require you spread the word to the front lines, where potential dog owners and puppy millers face off.

After all, the more people who take up the cause, the more likely we'll be able to shut down this industry forever.