- Puppies – sure they are those cute little fur balls we see time after time in the pet store window, but do we ever stop to think where those puppies come from? People don’t do much research on puppies because it is so much more convenient to go to the nearest pet store and pick up their cute new puppy on a Saturday afternoon. And why should they? After all, we don’t go to the dairy farm to get our milk because we can get it at the grocery store. But why should we stop buying puppies from the stores? Most people are happily unaware of what is going on inside puppy mills. They think the puppies they buy have been raised on big farms with lots of space to run and play, and have been looked after by good people. But this is not the reality of the situation.
There are different kinds of breeders such as hobby and commercial breeders, but the worst kind is known as a puppy mill. Most people are surprised to learn many pet store puppies come from these puppy mills. What exactly is a puppy mill and how do dogs end up there? The answer is that they come from dog auctions.
The mid-west, and especially the state of Missouri, is infamous for its dog auctions. Dogs are sent here from all over the country, and many of them are even imported from poorer countries like Russia, Bulgaria and Rumania. Breeders in those countries are quite willing to sell their champion puppies to breeders in western countries since this is a fast and easy way to earn cash. The lies begin here as these people are often told that the puppies they sell are going to caring homes so they ship the dogs in good faith.
Most auctions are held in big barns or tents. Potential buyers are made aware that the puppies are expensive, but also how much money they can make by breeding them. Sadly, many dogs at the auctions are already in poor health. They can have missing teeth, tumors, infections and other diseases, but when it comes to potential profits; buyers are often willing to overlook these serious problems.
Auctions are very popular and the bidding is usually intense. Even poorer looking dogs sell like they were champions or beauty queens. After purchase the dogs will be taken to the puppy mills where they will spend the rest of their lives miserable, working as moneymaking machines for unscrupulous profiteers. Usually the bitches will suffer most. Already in their first heat cycle they will be bred continuously until she is four or five years old. After she is no longer “productive” she will be put to sleep. Often she is simply shot.
The horrible conditions present in puppy mills have been kept from the public for years. It was not until the 1990’s, after many sick puppies began to show up at the pet stores that people started to ask questions about the dogs’ backgrounds.
Animal rights groups investigated and were shocked to see how dogs at puppy mills lived. Tragically, one description fits most of the mills in this country. The whole property is a mess. There is trash everywhere and there has been no upkeep on the buildings for years. Everywhere one looks there are dogs. The odor of feces, urine and rotting dog corpses is so strong that you can barely breathe. In the summer some dogs suffer heat stroke, and in the winter many freeze to death.
The kennels are usually kept in one barn. Each kennel is small and contains several dogs. Some of the walls between the kennels have big enough holes to allow the dogs to move from one to the other. This can result in fighting among the males and uncontrolled breeding of the female dogs. The kennels are always filthy and there is no fresh water and never enough food. The dogs seldom get to leave the kennels, so when nature calls they have no choice but to do it in their own cage. Kennels are always stacked on top of each other so the dogs in the bottom cages not only have to stand in their own feces but also that of the other dogs as it leaks down from the kennels above. Puppies are sometimes eaten by their mothers and other starving dogs. Some of these puppies are already dead from sickness and starvation, while others are barely alive.
One puppy mill even had a separate barn for the dogs that did not survive. Found inside this barn were dogs in varying degrees of decomposition. From full corpses recently deceased to bare skeletons, they were all there. There were also foul smelling trash bags containing what once were loving little puppies. Many dogs die in these kennels, and it is sad to think that perhaps death is better for them than a life of misery in the mill where they are kept alive only to make money for their sick and greedy owners.
Once the puppies are “ready,” they are sold to a broker. This broker is a person who buys the puppies from the mills and sells them to pet stores. The dogs are shipped by truck or in planes. When the puppies arrive at the pet stores they are filthy. Covered in feces and dehydrated from spending days on a 100-degree truck without water or food, it is not unusual that one or two puppies are already dead. Once at the store their life will not get much better. They are put in tiny cages, often aquariums so the consumer cannot touch them. Even here they are still fed far less than what is necessary to stay healthy. Also they will defecate less and the store clerks will have more time to sell the puppies instead of cleaning cages. These salesmen attend seminars to learn how to sell puppies. They are even taught to sell sick puppies by convincing the buyer that the puppy is “just right” for then since it is so “calm”.
These puppies might appear to be healthy when they leave the store, but often the diseases they contracted at the puppy mill will soon catch up with them. Many will become sick and the clueless puppy owner will spend lots of money on trips to the veterinarian for the rest of the dog’s life. Other puppies will simply die shortly after they are brought into their new home. When the buyer returns to the pet store they will not get their money back, but instead be offered a new puppy or store credit. There is no guarantee this new dog will not be sick as well. Then the pet store will turn to the broker and get a credit for the dead dog.
Puppy mills should not be allowed to put dogs through such a holocaust. One way to shut down puppy mills is for people to simply stop buying puppies from pet stores. This way puppies would become unprofitable and puppy mills would be forced out of business.
In the last couple of years many dog rescue organizations have emerged and tried to educate the public about what is really going on inside a puppy mill. They believe this knowledge will help people decide to go to a hobby breeder instead of a pet store. A hobby breeder sells only one or two breeds, breeds they have personally treasured for years. They will breed the bitch only a few times, and when she is done having puppies she will stay in the family as their loving pet. These puppies are usually raised in their homes and have lots of room to exercise and develop into healthy dogs. A hobby breeder rarely makes a profit, but they breed the dog for the only love of the animal.
Some rescue organizations are dedicated to only one particular breed. These are often the most rare breeds that hardly ever are seen at it to the pet stores, and these rescue groups work to keep it that way.
According to the list of broker prices for puppies, the Bernese Mountain Dog is by far the most expensive. This is because the Berner is one of the most rare dogs in the United States. In February 2001 BARC inc. (Bernese Auction Rescue Coalition) was established. Their job is to rescue Bernese Mountain Dogs from auctions, brokers and puppy mills. The rescue team is called the “A-Team.” This team goes to auctions here in the mid-west and tries to buy all the Berners there, in order to prevent them from ending up in puppy mills. Bernese Mountain Dogs are expensive and can cost from \\$1100 up to $2300. The female Berners go for the most since they are the ones that will generate the most money for the puppy mills in the long run.
Since their start earlier this year BARC has rescued more than one hundred berner puppies in Missouri alone. This has cost them a lot of money and their funds are rapidly decreasing. Fortunately BARC has a few good sponsors who are willing to help out financially. The sponsor will loan \\$1200 to BARC so the rescue team has enough money to buy puppies off the auction. After rescuing the puppies the A-Team will take them to a quarantine facility where they are examined by a vet, and after treatment they are ready to be placed in their new homes. Luckily for these puppies they will never know what a puppy mill is. Once the dogs have been placed in a carefully screened new home, the sponsor will get their money back. BARC are overwhelmed to see how many people are willing to help and thanks to these sponsors they can continue to rescue this precious breed.
So it becomes obvious that it is the responsibility of all people looking to adopt a dog or puppy into their home to understand that these loving creatures are not like the milk in their refrigerator or the car in their garage. Puppies are not commercial products. They are not produced in factories out of parts along an assembly line. Puppies are living and feeling creatures that depend on people to keep them healthy. In return they give unconditional love and are called “man’s best friend.” People who run puppy mills do not deserve such good friends. It is an extreme comparison, but puppy mills are to dogs what Hitler was to the Jews and other enemies of the Third Reich. Like the concentration camps, puppy mills are hellish places where once a living being is no longer useful, it is killed.
Other organizations like BARC exist in many pure-breed dog clubs. As long as they keep trying to rescue dogs from the auctions and mills, and as long as we continue to educate the public about the horrors in the puppy mills, we can put all these diabolical places out of business – one by one.
