Hope Springs Kennels: Puppymills

The Horrors of Puppy Mills

What is a Puppymill?

There is no clear cut definition of a puppymill. In our opinion anyone who breeds dog with profit as the main motivation and without consideration for the health and well being of the dogs and puppies is guilty of ethical crimes.

There are two kinds of these people - backyard breeders and puppy millers. They should both be driven out of business.

Anyone who has so little concern for the well being of the puppies that they have caused to be brought into the world that they sell them to someone else who will resell them qualifies as a mill in our opinion.

These facilities vary in quality - bad, worse and horrible.

BAD

These are photos from a breeder in Nebraska. The cages are fairly new and in good repair. The dogs have water and food. They are still in prison. One of the Chihuahuas rescued from this kennel was only 4 years old but he had gum disease so serious that his jaw had rotted. He had to have a plate surgically inserted into his jaw to hold the pieces together.

WORSE

This photo is from B & J in Missouri. The dogs are out in the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter. The owner acknowledged that there were many litters of puppies born in the summer that died out on the wires of the cages - they cooked. Those little boxes were sweat boxes out in the Midwest sun. The dogs walked on uncoated wires. Many of the female dogs who were rescued from this mill had so many c-sections that their internal organs had grown together. One of the dogs rescued from this kennel had gotten his leg caught in the kennel wires and it had been ripped off. He only had three legs.

HORRIBLE

The top four photos are from a mill in Missouri. The conditions were horrible. The dogs were in small cages with bare wire and the cages were falling apart. Mud was everywhere. The bottom two photos are from a Collie breeder in Nebraska. This facility only bred Collies and did not keep hundreds of dogs. She claimed to breed top quality dogs. Some people might call this breeder a back yard breeder but whatever you call it, it's wrong.

All of the facilities shown above sold puppies that were registered by the AKC. The AKC says that they inspect facilities when more than six or seven litters are born in a year. Did the AKC inspectors see these places? These kennels were both covered under federal and state laws. Did the federal and state inspector see these conditions? Did all of the people who should protect the dogs walk away from the dogs who were suffering?

Although people may differ on what exactly constitutes a puppy mill, I'm sure we can all agree that any of the facilities shown above are not the way that we want our companion animals to be treated. If you buy a puppy from a petstore, the parents of that puppy most likely came from a place like the ones shown here.

FACTS

Hundreds of thousands of puppies are raised each year in commercial kennels.

Puppymills are distinguished by their inhumane conditions and the constant breeding of unhealthy and genetically defective dogs solely for profit.

Very often the dogs in puppymills are covered with matted, filthy hair, their teeth are rotting and their eyes have ulcers. There are many dogs whose jaws have rotted because of tooth decay.

The dogs are kept in small wire cages for their entire lives. They are almost never allowed out. They never touch solid ground or grass to run and play.

Many of the dogs are injured in fights that occur in the cramped cages from which there is no escape.

Many dogs lose feet and legs when they are caught in the wire floors of the cages and cut off as the dog struggles to free themselves.

Very often there is no heat or airconditioning in a puppymill. The dogs freeze in the winter and die of heat stroke in the summer. Puppies "cook" on the wires of the cages in the summer.

Female dogs are usually bred the first time they come into heat and are bred every heat cycle. They are bred until their poor worn out bodies can't reproduce any longer and then they are killed. Often they are killed by being bashed in the head with a rock or shot. Sometimes they are sold to laboratories or dumped. This is often by the time they reach five years old.

Puppymills maximize their profits by not spending adequate money on proper food, housing or veterinary care.

The food that is fed in puppymills is often purchased from dog food companies by the truck load. It is often made of the sweepings from the floor. It is so devoid of nutritional value that the dog's teeth rot at early ages.

Dogs in puppymills are debarked often by ramming a steel rod down their throats to reputure their vocal cords.

Puppies are taken from their mother when they are 5 to 8 weeks old and sold to brokers who pack them in crates for resale to pet stores all over the country.

The puppies are shipped by truck or plane and often without adequate food, water, ventilation or shelter.

Innocent families buy the puppies only to find that the puppy is very ill or has genetic or emotional problems. Often the puppies die of disease. Many others have medical problems that cost thousands of dollars. And many have emotional problems because they have not been properly socialized in the mills. Don't bring this misery into your home.

There are over 4000 federally licensed breeding kennels.

Approximately 3,500 petstores in the United States sell puppies. They sell approximately 500,000 thousand puppies a year. It is estimated that the puppy industry in Missouri is valued at 40 million dollars a year. The puppy industry in one county in Pennsylvania - Lancaster - is valued at 4 million dollars a year.

There are seven states that are known as puppymill states because they have the majority of the puppymills in the country. They are: Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

There is federal law, the Animal Welfare Act, and many states have laws that report to regulate puppymills, but the fact is that those laws are rarely enforced.

Pet stores often tell customers that their puppies come from local breeders or quality breeders. Don't believe them, ask to see the paperwork and find out where the puppies really come from.

If the people of the United States refused to buy a puppy in a pet store, the misery of puppy mills would end. Please tell everyone you know about the puppymill and petstore connection.

Buying a puppy in a pet store has significant risks for the purchaser and their family. A state funded survey in California found that nearly half of the puppies sold in pet stores were sick or incubating diseases. This doesn't count the ones suffering from genetic diseases. Imagine bringing a puppy home from a pet store only to have it die from parvo or cost thousands of dollars in vet expenses because of genetic problems like hip dysplasia.

Some dogs are so psychologically scarred from the mind numbing boredom of being imprisoned in a small cage for year and years that they have developed repetitive habits like going round and round in circles for hours and hours or barking at the wall for hours.

Meet the Dogs

(Warning: The following images may be difficult to look at.)

These are a few of the thousands of dogs who have been liberated from puppymill prisons.

Look at their faces. These dogs are just the same as the dogs in your family. They want to love and be loved. They were subjected to horrible tortures in puppymills.

Look into their eyes and remember:

NEVER BUY A DOG IN A PET STORE. MAKE A PROMISE TO THESE DOGS THAT NO DOG WILL EVER SUFFER THE WAY THAT THEY DID. PROMISE THEM THAT THE MISERY WILL END. BOYCOTT PETSTORES THAT SELL PUPPIES.