Hey, people! First of all, I wanted to say I'm SO SORRY about not having posted anything in such a LONG time! When I started this blog, I said I would try to post something everyday and, well... That's not what happened. But I promise I'll keep trying!
So, today I'm gonna talk about... Puppy mills! Well, the name's already pretty scary, 'cause you read "puppy" and you think "cute!" and then you read "mills" and... well... not so cute. Before I start talking about puppy mills, I want to say that all the information I'm presenting (apart from personal opinion) comes from THIS link and THIS other link (ASPCA). So, what exactly ARE puppy mills? Well, according to ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) a puppy mill is "a large-scale commercial dog breeding facility where profit is given priority over the well-being of the dogs". One word to sum it up? BAD. But what does it MEAN to "give profit priority over the well-being of the dogs"? Well, basically, people who own puppy mills don't really care about what happens to the dogs, as long as they keep profiting from them. Just to have an IDEA of the evilness of it all, they take every opportunity of breeding females, with little or no time at all between litters, and when they reach a point when they can't reproduce any more, they're often killed. The dogs are kept in cages that, not rarely, are stacked in columns and have wired floors that hurt their paws and their legs. There's very little regard for genetic quality, so the dogs can be born with congenital (developed by them) and hereditary (gotten from there parents) conditions, such as heart disease, and, since they're bred so carelessly and without any adequate veterinary care, they can develop many serious illnesses. Finally, they are sold when they're about eight weeks old, they are sold, and because they're separated from they're mothers so young, they can also suffer from psychological problems, such as fear and anxiety, and can even become aggressive, which makes me SO MAD, because it's not they're fault that they were born in such horrible places, but if they attack someone, it's they who get sacrificed!
You must be asking yourselves "well, how do I know if the dog I'm buying comes from a puppy mill?". I already said (in another post) I'm all for ADOPTING dogs instead of buying them, because of multiple things (I listed them in the other post), but if you really, really, REALLY want to buy a dog, then I can't do anything to stop you. Puppy mill puppies are normally sold to pet shops or online, directly from the puppy mill, and that's why you can NEVER EVER buy a dog online or from a pet shop, and if you already did, my one advice is: take care of him/her. They deserve it. Also,don't get fooled by the pet shop owner who says the dog comes from "licensed USDA breeders" (for people who live in the U.S.), or "local breeders", because, for a breeder to sell a dog to a pet shop in the U.S., it HAS to be licensed from the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture), so the only thing that proves is that the dog really DOES come from a puppy mill.
So, that's all for now, please do share your questions/opinions in the comments (unless you're a puppy mill owner, then the only thing you should be doing is apologizing) and I REALLY recommend for you to go to the ASPCA website (https://www.aspca.org/), even if you don't live in the U.S. (like me), it's a very interesting site with a LOT of important information about dogs.
