The Doggie in the Window
It’s Saturday afternoon, and you are walking down main street doing a little window shopping, when you come across a pet store. As you peer into the window, you see a cute and cuddly puppy just sitting there staring at you, pleading with you to buy him. So you think, “Why not, we could use a new member of the family, and this would be a great surprise.” Buzzzzz! Wrong Answer! The problem with pet stores, is that most of them get their puppies from puppy mills. Puppy mills are commercial mass-breeding facilities, located mainly in the Midwest, that churn out litters of puppies to sell to pet stores. The cute puppy that you see sitting in the window, is probably another product of a puppy mill. Puppy mills are notorious for their cramped, crude, and filthy conditions and their continuous breeding of unhealthy and hard-to-socialize animals. It is a known fact that pet stores keep puppy mills in business.
The vast majority of dogs sold in pet stores, up to half a million a year, are raised in puppy mills. Puppy mill kennels usually consist of small wood and wire-mesh cages, or even empty crates or trailer cabs. “All dogs are kept outdoors, and the females dogs are bred continuously, with no rest between heat cycles. The mothers and their litters often suffer from malnutrition, exposure, and lack of adequate veterinary care. The continuous breeding takes its toll on the females; they are killed at about age six or seven when their bodies give out, and they no longer can produce enough litters” (Ahrens 1). The caretakers of the dogs have no feeling or compassion towards the dogs at all. They are just a business to them, and could care less about their suffering.
The mother dogs and “studs” s...
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...ave a particular breed, you may be surprised to find that 25 percent of shelter dogs are purebred. Only when people refuse to support pet shops, puppy mills, and breeders, will this chain of misery be broken. Next time you stop to look at that doggie in the window, think of all the painful and horrible things, it has been through, and do something positive to end the atrocities of puppy mills.
Works Cited
1 Ahrens, Tracy. “Plague of Puppy Mills Hamper Pet Industry and Dampens Consumer Trust."
Daily Journal. Nov. 3, 1993.
2 Pennington, Gail. “Dateline NBC Takes a Look at Animal Abuse in Puppy Mills”.
St. Louis Post. St. Louis, Mo. Apr 26, 2000.
3 “Pet Store Scandal”. PETA Investigative Report. Pg. 1-2 <www.peta.org> October
20,2000.
4 “Pet Stores and Puppy Mills”. PETA. Pg. 1 <http://www.helppuppies.com/pmill.html>
October 20, 2000
A puppy mill is a horrible place that breeds dogs. Dogs that are breedable may get little to no recovery time between pregnancies. Dogs and puppies are stuffed into wire cages that can harm them. Puppy mills tend to be overcrowded disease and virus filled places. Puppy mills focus on profit rather than the health of the dogs. Many dogs are bred with little regard of genetic quality. Dogs in puppy mills are deprived of veterinary care, food, water, and socialization. If a dog is older and unable to breed anymore they are likely to be killed. Some dogs may never see the light of day or get any attention.
What is a Puppy Mill, How are animals being at Puppy Mills. Animals are being severely neglected by the owners. Responsible breeding practices end up killing. Animals get abused and usually are left to die with no food, water or even locked in a cage. Puppy mills are operating all over the U.S. After breeding for amount of times and don’t get time to recover and cant reproduce anymore are often killed off. Puppy mills usually house dogs in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, without care, food, water and socialization. Puppy mill dogs do not get to experience treats, toys, exercise or basic grooming. To minimize waste cleanup, dogs are often kept in cages with wire flooring that injures their paws and legs- and it is not unusual for cages to be stacked up in columns. Breeding dogs at mills might spend their entire lives outdoors, exposed to the elements, or crammed inside filthy structure where they never get the chance to feel the sun or breathe fresh air. Puppy Mills should be outlawed because some animals are being severely neglected and owners act out without regard to respons...
A puppy mill is a place where people force dogs to reproduce in order to sell the pups to stores, people or anyone else who is willing to buy them so they can make money. Thousands of dogs are made each year by these mills, and because they make more dogs then they can sell an overpopulation of dogs begins to occur. A serious of conflict occurs from puppy mills. Since animals from stores are from breeding mills that means the mills are being supported to stay in business from anyone who buys a puppy from stores. Also since more people are buying from stores, less people are buying animals from a shelter therefore those animals have a higher chance of dying. Puppy mills also do not take care of the dogs whom are in their care. Some of the animals are abused very badly by these places. Female dogs are forced to reproduce every chance they can, and when they get to the point where they are physically no longer able to do so they get killed. There food is contaminated with algae or other bacteria that grows. (DoSomething.org) Also the living conditions they have the
Hundreds of thousands of puppies are raised each year in commercial kennels (Puppymills Breed Misery). Puppy mills keep breed stock in horrible conditions for their short lives and produce unhealthy puppies with many issues. Not only are they committing “inhumane care,” but puppy mills are responsible for customer fraud. Many puppy mills are small and contain about twenty breeding dogs in basements, garages, or sheds “in cages stacked to the roof.” The dogs will stay in those cages without “exercise or sunlight.” Also, the dogs have two “litters” a year till about the age five. Other puppy mills contain hundreds of breeding dogs. The operators keep the puppies in “relative darkness” so the puppies seldom cry or draw attention. The dogs in puppy mills rarely receive medical attention. The females are dissipated because of the never-ending period of “producing and nursing litters.” Most dogs have “chronic ailments, rotten teeth, and ear, eye, and skin infections.” Many of the puppies purchased from puppy mills are un-healthy and not well-adjusted. The puppies have a high prevalence of hereditary syndromes and illnesses, and difficulties that occurs following the “purchase.” After the females cannot produce anymore liters...
With the holidays approaching, many young couples look into getting their better half a puppy for Christmas. But what they do not know is that puppy could have been bred in one of the most inhumane ways. Puppy mills are all over the United States, and the government has turned their cheeks to the horrors behind those barn doors.
“A dog is not a thing. A thing is replaceable. A dog is not. A thing is disposable. A dog is not. A thing does not have a heart. A dog’s heart is bigger than any “thing” you can ever own.” -Elizabeth Parker. According to the ASPCA, a puppy mill can be defined as “a large-scale commercial dog breeding facility where profit is given priority over the well-being of the dogs” (Puppy Mills 1). Dogs are more than just items that are sold for profit, they are part of many people’s families. The way dogs are being treated in the mills is not the way one would want someone in your family to be treated. Because puppy mills do not care for the animal’s health, wellbeing, or safety they should be banned federally.
Take a moment and picture a dog in your head. What do you see? You may see many different things depending on your own personal encounters with the species. There are many types of dogs out there. Some small, some large, long-haired or short-haired. There are many variances in what a dog can look like. One thing that does not change, or should not change, is the importance for every dog in this world to be given love and affection, no matter its characteristics. This is what leads me to believe that the obsession with producing and owning purebreds needs to come to a halt. Continuing to create these so-called “best dogs” is dangerous to not only the purebred’s health, but also devalues mixed breeds and can cost them their lives in animal shelters where they may never escape. My interest in this topic caused me to look into seeing what other people felt about it.
Although cats and dogs are both animals they are different in many ways from, showing love, grooming, vaccinations, food, and vet care. To me dogs are more loveable than cats. However, cats are cheaper when it comes to grooming, vaccinations, and food. Owners treat and take care of their dogs better than their cats. I have always been more of a dog person even though they are expensive.
"Puppy Mills: Dogs Abused for the Pet Trade." PETA. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. .
Call to Action: Challenge your audience to be a responsible pet consumer and not purchase dogs from pet stores or from the Internet. I encourage you to instead, adopt from their local animal shelter. At an animal shelter, you can find many amazing, healthy animals. If you do buy from a breeder, use extreme caution and ask to see the puppy’s parents. Also, please contact your congressional representative and encourage him or her to help pass the PUPS bill.
Countless lives locked away in cages and forgotten about have overwhelmed our society, it has left blood stains on our history as a species and if history has taught us anything, it’s that we have a choice to change our ways of adjusting to situations. A war which was fought in pursuit of ending such criminal means, yet we as human beings do little to nothing to end the horrific crimes of animal deaths in shelters. It is no secret that this world has become infused with problems that have extended from one side of the globe to the other. Amongst these problems lies a terrible truth: nearly every year, sums of almost eight million cats and dogs have been placed in shelters around the world. Out of these vast numbers, half will be euthanized; that equals to one animal being put down every 8 seconds. Animals that are not adopted are kept in shelters until they find a home. Most of these shelters do not have enough space or resources to care for the animal. Only 15% of dogs and 2% of cats that enter animal shelters are reunited with their owners. The majority of pets are obtained from acquaintances and family members. Twenty-six percent of dogs are purchased from breeders, 20 to 30 percent of cats and dogs are adopted from shelters and rescues, and 2 to 10 percent are purchased from pet shops. In addition, only 56% of dogs and 71% of cats that enter animal shelters are euthanized. The 10% of the animals received by shelters have been spayed or neutered, while 78 percent of dogs and 88 percent of cats are not spayed or neutered, in 2009 Statistics from animal shelters in 55 counties in WV (West Virginia) shows that nearly 54% of all animals entering shelters are euthanized, The euthanasia rates ranged from the lowest at 5% to the highe...
...ference between humans and dogs is that once a human gets over something traumatic, the dog will not leave. A dog is not going to run away only to be seen when the next tragedy strikes. A dog is one of the most loyal and loving creatures on the planet and will be available before and after tragedy strikes.
In conclusion, science shows that dog’s interaction with humans makes them more than just pets because dogs interact like human children and canines assist in various forms of human therapy. For most people who own a dog, the title of man’s best friend given to a canine is a well-deserved name earned over the centuries for this member of their family.
Puppy mills usually house dogs in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, without food, water and proper health care.
Factory farms have portrayed cruelty to animals in a way that is horrific; unfortunately the public often does not see what really goes on inside these “farms.” In order to understand the conditions present in these factory farms, it must first be examined what the animals in these factory farms are eating. Some of the ingredients commonly used in feeding the animals inside factory farms include the following: animal byproducts, plastic, drugs and chemicals, excessive grains, and meat from members of the same species. (Adams, 2007) These animals are tortured and used for purely slaughter in order to be fed on. Typically large numbers of animals are kept in closed and tight confinements, having only little room to move around, if even that. These confinements can lead to suffocation and death and is not rare. Evidence fr...