What Really Happens in Mills

This video gives the public a good idea about what really happens within a puppy mill and exactly how these innocent creators are being treated. This video is graphic but I feel it is important for the viewers to see the cruelty. This was taken from the Oprah show when she did a segment on puppy mills. She truly captures the poor conditions and over breeding of the dogs.

Ethical Breeders

Ethicical breeders are concerned witht the welfare of the dogs. They only breed their dogs once a year. Not every heat cycle like puppy mills. Ethical breeders are not breeders for the money, they do it for the love of the breed and to improve the breed blood lines. Many of these breeders are involved in competions. These breeders only want the best blood lines. Ethical breeders mantain their dogs well and are sure that they recieve the proper nutrtion and veternary care.
Ethical breeders will not sell their puppies to anyone. Many of times there is a background check done on the individuals that are interested in purchasing a puppy. Another good way a knowing if your breeder is an ethical breeder is if they only have one litter at a time and do not have more dogs then they can handel. It is very important when wanting to get a puppy to get it from a reputable breeder or shelter and never pet shop or from off line 98% of puppies in those pet shops came from puppy mills.

Q&A with Leah Kithcart

Leah Kithcart has worked on regulating puppy mills in Pennslyvania. Leah is an Associate for Government Relations in the Harrisburg, PA office of the Bravo Group, serves as the Fund Chair for Humane USA PA PAC.Leah assisted in achieving passage of the puppy mill reform bill in Pennsylvania and has worked to end the practice of using live animals for trap and block target shoots in the Keystone Satate. At the Bravo Group she assists in the implementation of a variety of client services, including legislative research and analysis and building key client relationships within the political community. Leah graduater from Penn State University.

Question One
What are Puppy Mills?
There’s a difference between puppy mills and responsible breeders. Puppy mills are mass breeding facilities that lack in care for the dogs themselves. They’re typically stocked with hundreds to thousands of dogs and generally the dogs are bred more than twice a year. In a responsible breeding facility, the owner puts the care of the dogs over the profit. These breeders still make a profit however they have vet care, healthy environments and chose the homes for their dogs based on a critical set of standards. Basically, as long as there is a demand for purebred and mixed breed dogs i.e. puggles, labordoodles there will be puppy mills across the country

Question Two
What kind of laws are there about Puppy Mills?
Pennsylvania passed a law last year regulating puppy mills by creating standard by which we believe all breeders should operate under. The bill that we passed has these requirements:
➢ Cage space must be double the size of the dog from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail
➢ All dogs must have unfettered access to outdoor runs
➢ All kennels must have solid flooring
➢ The dogs must see a vet twice a year or at every pregnancy
➢ Heating and cooling requirements include that the kennel must not go below 50 degrees or over 85 degrees

Question Three
How can people help stop the animal cruelty in puppy mills?
Citizens can help stop the cruelty in puppy mills by not buying dogs in pet stores or from irresponsible breeders. There are so many rescues and specific breed rescues overwhelmed with dogs that are purebred. If someone must have a puppy of a specific breed, we suggest they do their research and only buy from someone that applies the critical standards of adoption.

Question Four
Do you feel there should be fines or even jail time to those who own the puppy mills and miss treat the dogs?
Yes, we encourage states to apply severe penalties in their cruelty codes to those offenders of animal abuse.

Question Five
What do you think would happen if puppy mills were shut down in the US?
If puppy mills were shut down in the US I believe we would save a lot of tax payer money. For some of the farmers who breed dogs, this is a constant crop for them even when the weather is bad. I think they could find other means of gaining profit instead of breeding dogs. I believe the US would still manage to thrive in other areas nonrelated to animal abuse.

Question Six
Do you think that making puppy mills illegal can become a reality in the future?
I don’t think we’ll ever be able to make puppy mills illegal. I think we will be able to set higher standards that may even force breeders to go out of business. We hope that one day puppy mills will be nonexistent. Until then we will continue to fight for the best possible treatment of the dogs in any environment.

For More Information go to www.stoppapuppymills.org

The Harm Done

There are over 4, 500 puppy mill operating in the United States that are licensed by the US Department of Agriculture. There are estimated 5,000 to 10,000 that are not licensed. With in these puppy mills the conditions are horrible. Most of the dogs that are repeatedly bread never get the chance to ever step on the grass. They live their lives in wire cages. These dogs are not fed properly and do not receive the proper nutrition that is need to be healthy. Some of these horrible places even debark their dogs by ramming a steal rod down their throat to damage their vocal cords. Puppy Mills are truly horrible and need to be stopped. The ones that have the worst lives would be the mothers. After they can not reproduce any more they are killed by a bullet to the brain. Some way to end a life. So in order to stop these things from happening stop buying the puppies from pet shops.