WASHINGTON -- The excitement of bringing a new puppy home often turns to heartbreak – and financial stress – when behavior problems and severe illness or disease surface days or weeks later. Often, this is the result of inhumane conditions where your new puppy was bred – most likely a puppy mill if you purchased your dog from a pet store. Current laws are inadequate or poorly enforced, leaving the animals to routinely exist in squalor where cruelty and neglect abound.
This morning, NBC's Today Show reported on the national tragedy of puppy mills, putting this critical issue in the spotlight. "The best way to bring an end to this horrendous problem is to educate the public about where pet store dogs come from, as the Today Show reported. The knowledge will save consumers thousands of dollars and severe heartache, and ultimately put puppy mills out of business," says Stephanie Shain, director of outreach for companion animals for The Humane Society of the United States.
Irresistible puppies in pet store windows – and in photos at websites disguised as "reputable breeders" – are most likely from puppy mills. Mills are commercial breeding facilities churning out massive numbers of puppies in a factory setting -- in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions that can lead to genetic disorders, stress and disease. In addition, the "breeding dogs" (the moms) at these facilities spend their entire lives in cages, with little or no room to deliver a litter, without adequate vet care and with no hope of escaping the mill alive.
Pet stores usually buy their "merchandise" from puppy mills because, unlike small responsible breeders, mills supply a constant, massive inventory of puppies. But these puppies pay the price for being mass-produced -- suffering the effects of inbreeding, overcrowding, and the stress of being shipped long distances at only a few weeks of age – long before any puppy should be separated from his or her mother. Last week, a truck hauling 60 puppies was en route to pet stores when it caught fire on a highway in Massachusetts, killing all of the animals inside. Truckloads of puppies are on our highways every day going from puppy mill to pet store.
Shain explains, "Consumers can avoid supporting this type of commerce -- and animal cruelty -- by being more careful about where they find their family pet. If you buy a pet store dog, you support a vicious industry that abuses animals and sells sick and dying puppies to the public. There are better ways to get an animal – a purebred or a mixed breed."
Consider adopting one of the many purebred dogs or one-in-a million mixed breeds available at your local animal shelter. One in four shelter dogs are purebreds. If you still choose to purchase a puppy, avoid pet stores and the internet and find a reputable breeder. A responsible breeder will NEVER sell a puppy to someone they have not personally met and interviewed. No one should ever buy a dog without physically visiting where the puppy was born and raised.
For more information on adopting, rescuing or finding a reputable breeder visit www.puppybuyersguide.org; for more information on puppy mills visit www.stoppuppymills.org.
###
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization with more than 9.5 million members and constituents. The HSUS is a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in companion animals, disaster preparedness and response, wildlife and habitat protection, marine mammals, animals in research, equine protection, and farm animal welfare. The HSUS protects all animals through education, investigation, litigation, legislation, advocacy and field work. The nonprofit organization is based in Washington and has field representatives and offices across the country. On the web at www.hsus.org.
