Stopping Puppy Mills

Mama got an email the other day from someone she's never heard of. He was writing about an organization called Give Back America. The email had a link to their blog (she didn't click on it cuz it's not safe to click on links from people you don't know. She typed in the address herself) and the blog stated that they were trying to stop puppy mills. Puppy mills are places where people irresponsibly breed dogs, then keep all the puppies closed up in cages, giving them no attention, no socialization, and no love. The purpose is simply to put money into the pockets of the owners.

Mama agrees that puppy mills are horrible. She considers the "rescue" group where she got me a type of puppy mill. They had too many dogs for them to care for. They advertise charging $125 for mixed breed dogs, and $250 for pure breds. I'm a mixed breed, and they charged mama $250 for me. She says she was stupid in one way for not questioning that, but then she fell in love with me so just chalked it up to helping a charitable organization. She now knows better, but it's too late to get her $125 back.

Mama wants puppy mills shut down too. But the website suggests that we go about this by refusing to buy puppies from puppy mills, thus taking away the profit for the owners who would be forced to stop. Mama doesn't think this is the way to do it, and this is why.

If no one buys the puppies from the puppy mills, the dogs never get out. If the mills do close, the dogs usually end up at the pound or a shelter. They never did learn to socialize. They were probably not very healthy. And they probably looked rather scraggly like the picture of me above, taken the first day mama brought me home.

However, if people wrote to their legislators and asked for a law banning puppy mills, then people would have to go underground to keep them open. Hopefully, caring people would catch on to neighbors with puppy mills, and report them to get them shut down. Lots of media attention can help teach people how to recognize a puppy mill so reporting can flourish.

Both options, not buying from puppy mills and getting laws passed, take time. Time that the dogs in the mills lose. But mama thinks banning the mills is the better of two options because it implements permanent change, and not a band-aid like she thinks the boycott of the mills is.

Think about it. Then look at the picture of me above, and look at me below, taken several months later after I got good food into me and proper medical care. Puppy mill dogs look scraggly like I did. Healthy dogs look more like I do now. Whichever method you choose to pursue, mama urges you to pursue in the effort to close down puppy mills.