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The Tragedy of Puppy Mills
I am in part of the Puppy Mill Capital of this country. Conveniently located in the midwest, puppies can be sent out all over the country to be sold in pet stores to unsuspecting impulse buyers. I am not an advocate of any kind, I am simply an animal lover who has personally seen how devastating puppy mills can be and want to do something about it. I have heard that you can go to the Des Moines airport early in the mornings on Tuesday and see hundreds of puppies being shipped out. I can't say that this is true, because I have never had the guts to go and see if such a malady is actually happening. But even if you can't see the puppies at the airport, you can see them at pet stores, and at the well hidden puppy mills that are all over Iowa. Last year a very large puppy mill (150+ dogs) was raided in Iowa and all the dogs had to be put in temporary homes such as vet offices and shelters until homes could be found for them. I saw 2 of the bitches and litters that were taken from this place. One was a litter of Dalmations that was taken to a shelter in Des Moines. The other was a pregnant German Shepherd bitch taken to my own vet in Ames, Iowa where she would have I believe 10 puppies. They were all adopted. A news anchor in Des Moines adopted the mother, but she ended up having to be put down months later because no matter what they did, they couldn't get rid of the internal parasites she was infested with from living at the puppy mill.
The pups that come from these mills are far from the AKC standards and a misrepresentation of the breeds. People see a cute puppy in a pet store and buy it on impulse. They don't understand where these pups actually come from, or what health problems they will have to endure. The congenital birth defects and health problems are too numerous to name, but in all cases will cause the owner to have vet bills higher than they could imagine, emotional stress from taking care of a sick animal, and a high potential to have to put the animal down at a VERY young age due to the birth defects it could not have avoided inheriting. I think this only attributes to the overpopulation of animals in shelters. An impulse buyer sees a cute puppy, buys it, finds out it has something wrong and doesn't want to pay the bill, so they give them to the shelter. It's a never-ending cycle.
If Only Things Could Have Been Different...
A story from a puppy's point of view.
A TRUE day by day account of one litter and it's emotional and physical costs.
Please visit these links to learn more about puppy mills:
If you don't remember anything else from this site, remember this one thing--No matter what anyone tries to tell you, NO REPUTABLE BREEDER would EVER allow their puppies to be sold in a pet store.
The song you are listening to is "Another Day In Paradise" by Phil Collins. The lyrics say perfectly people's reaction to puppy mills.
Thank you for visiting this site. Please send the link to others. You can help stop this tragedy.
