Puppy Mills

This is a very important topic and one that is hard for a lot of people to hear. In the United States there are almost no laws governing where and how that sweet doggy in the window gets to that window. Even newer, online puppy mills are the newest version of this decades old evil. Unclean, over crowded, horrible conditions are the norm for these types of breeding environments. The sad truth is that unless you’ve met the breeder and seen all of their operations you really don’t know if the puppy you want to buy is from a puppy mill or not. The AKC has a list of breeders that they trust and that’s a good place to start vetting your breeder of choice. The USDA considers dogs livestock and therefore they can live in very deplorable conditions and you can get a very sick dog as a result. The breeding stocking (the mommy and daddy dogs) live in filth, make litter after litter after litter with no human contact or love. Puppies have serious health problems and inbreeding is fairly common furthering the health problems seen in puppies. Many of the puppy mill dogs contribute to the over population of animals in shelter because they are either too expensive to keep because of their health problems or are just so inbred they make terrible pets. There have been a number of excellent documentaries on this topic if you’d like to continue your research. In the meantime DDI encourages you to adopt from your local animal shelter or to do your research when getting a pure bred dog from a breeder. Remember, you cannot ever “rescue” a dog from a puppy mill – you’re simply purchasing a puppy mill dog which is what continues the cycle.