Puppy Mills
A Puppy Mill is a place where people breed pure bred dogs for profit. Only it is not how you would expect it to be. The bitches are bred too young, too often, and not well cared for. This all leads to bad health of the puppies.
Cages are stacked four or five high and the excrements of the dogs above fall on top of the ones below. This also leads to bad puppies.
The animals aren't fed well, and aren't given the proper shots and aren't socialized with people. This, again, leads to bad puppies.
Get the picture? This is a breif blunt explanation of Puppy Mills. For more information please visit Stop Puppy Mills for a more information.
How Can I Help?
A lot of the puppies die on the way to the pet store, from diseases they already had, not being fed on route(sometimes up to a week), and excessive excrement.
Most of the puppies sold in pet stores come from puppy mills. Purchasing pet store animals entails not only supporting the cruel puppy mill industry but also taking a home away from one of the 17 to 20 million unwanted animals who are killed each year in a shelter...
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Adopt from an animal shelter or rescue group; never buy from a pet store. Remember that 25% of shelter animals are purebreds.
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Do not shop at stores that sell animals.
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Volunteer at your local animal shelter or rescue group.
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Ask your elected officials to outlaw puppy mills. Urge them to demand that the USDA enforce the Animal Welfare Act. For your senators' and representatives' contact information, visit www.vote-smart.org/index.phtml
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Write letters to the editors of your local newspapers about the horrors of the puppy mill industry and its connection with pet stores.
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Distribute brochures about puppy mills and pet overpopulation outside of pet shops
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Ask shopping mall managers not to renew the lease of the pet store on their property.
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Report pet store abuses to whomever is responsible for enforcing anti-cruelty laws in your town. Write a detailed statement of the abuses and take photographs, if possible.
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Educate others about the cruelties of puppy mills and the importance of adopting from shelters
