What is a Puppy Mill

A puppy mill is any dog breeder where profit has priority over the health and well-being of the dogs and puppies produced. These breeders vary in size from — ten to twenty dogs — or very large breeders that have hundreds of breeding dogs.

Adult Breeding Dogs

Adult breeding dogs are confined to kennels and are bred over and over again so they produce as many litters and puppies as possible. They are not groomed, they are not given proper exercise nor do they know the touch of a loving hand. Worst of all, they are denied proper veterinary care. Most live with painful conditions such as urinary tract infections, ear infections, rotten teeth, infected eyes, tumors, infected mammary glands and sore feet from standing on wire cage floors. If a dog is suffering, it can legally still be forced to breed.

If Female dogs have issues delivering puppies or are not producing enough puppies and are no longer profitable are likely killed, sold to another puppy mill or maybe surrendered.

Males not producing a profit, have the same fate.

The dogs endure unmeasurable psychological abuse, neglect, loneliness, depression, sadness, disease, and misery. Plain and simple, these dogs are considered livestock.

Here are some examples of puppy mills.

The Puppies

The cash crop of puppies are legally pulled from their mothers at 8 weeks of age and sold to pet stores, puppy brokers and online websites. The puppies are shipped either directly to the pet store, the broker’s warehouse or to the consumer. The transportation process is very stressful on puppies this age and they can be exposed and susceptible to disease. Fear, stress, anxiety and behavioral issues that may affect and impair the welfare of the puppy for the rest of it’s life often occur in transport.

Examples of online puppy sellers and puppy broker websites are Greenfieldpuppies.com, Puppyfind.com, Puppies.com, Lancasterpuppies.com, Pawrade, Next Day Pets, Puppy Spot, and many others where breeders list thousands of dogs for sale in one location.

Puppy Sales

Online puppy mills also use social media pages and classified ad websites.

Unwitting consumers are unaware of the cruelty they may be supporting, which is why it is so important to visit the breeder, meet the puppy and mother dog.

Unless you see for yourself, you will never know where your puppy was born.

Learn about the many risks to buying a puppy from a picture.

Please consider adoption too.

There Are Two Types of Puppy Mills

1. U.S. Department of Agriculture – licensed, legal and inspected.

Breeders with USDA licenses are commercial dog breeders. In our opinion, you don’t want your puppy to come from a USDA “dog breeder.” These kennels are inspected by the USDA about once a year but many can go longer without being inspected.

USDA breeders are the breeders who are legally licensed to ship and sell puppies sight unseen over the internet.

There are an estimated 250,000 dogs in 3,000 or so USDA kennels in the U.S. where the dogs are viewed as livestock.

USDA breeders sell puppies to pet stores and puppy broker websites. They are only required to provide minimum standards of care set by the federal Animal Welfare Act.

For example; dogs can legally be kept in appalling conditions and kept in cages six inches longer and higher than their own size, for life. There is no limit as to how many times they can be forced to produce litters.

Every state has commercial dog breeders however, there are high concentrations in Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Indiana.

2. Non USDA, unregulated and backyard breeders.

These breeders do not hold a USDA license and depending on the state in which they are located, may or may not be subject to state licensing laws and inspections.

These breeders primarily sell their puppies through misleading online puppy ads in newspapers, and social media and classified ad websites where hundreds of breeders list thousands of dogs for sale in one location.

There are an estimated 8,000 plus such breeders selling over 1 million puppies online each year.

If you can’t meet the mother dog in person and see where she and all of the breeder’s dogs live, don’t buy the puppy.