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PUPPY MILLS = ANIMAL HELL

by Roberta Lee, DD., PhD., ND. TheDogPlace Science Editor

ARE YOU SUPPORTING CRUELTY TO ANIMALS?

I know that question may shock you. "Of course I don't support cruelty to animals" is your answer. Are you so sure? Here are some questions to see if you are unconsciously supporting cruelty to animals.

1. Did you buy your dog/cat from a Pet Shop?

2. Do you hold off having it spayed or neutered because you want to have the joy of the first litter?

3. Do you put them out in the elements without shelter, shade, or adequate water?

4. Do you plan to breed your dog to the neighbor's dog because it is the same breed?

5. When you can't sell/give away the offspring do you just take them to a shelter?

If you answer yes to even one of these questions, then you are contributing to the cruelty of animals.

Most of the people who have pets don't think of them as a true family member. They get the poor dog/cat without thinking first, of the cost that will be involved with the care and medical upkeep that will in the years to come, be inevitable. Most dogs and cats that are healthy live into their teens. There are those that may live longer. I have a nineteen year old cat that looks and acts like she is still a youngster. But you see, I have loved and cared for her just as though she were my child. That is what should be considered before you take on the responsibility for any pet. The research should be done before you invest your money and time in getting that cute cuddly little critter, not after the fact.

Before you decide to breed your pet, you need to know that according to the Humane Society of the United States, more than 12 million dogs and cats will in one way or another enter shelters this year. I want you to think of how you would feel if I had said, more than 12 million CHILDREN will be placed in shelters and like puppies and kittens, they may be killed there? That would certainly move you to action in a hurry. Well then know this; your pet is also a thinking, feeling, reasoning being and therefore deserves respect and your caring, responsible actions regarding its life.

And did you know...

1. Between Canada and the U.S. over 20 million dogs and cats enter shelters each and every year.

2. And of those staggering numbersmore than 17 million dogs and cats are killed each year.

3. The average number of purebred dogs in shelters is over 25%.

4. The average number of animal shelters in the United States 118 for each state.

5. An unspayed dog and her offspring can be responsible for over 67,000 puppies in only 7 years.

6. The average pet store puppy or kitten was separated from its mother at only 5 weeks of age.

7. And most tragic, over 50% of all puppies and kittens that are shipped from PUPPY MILLS to PET SHOPS die in route and 99 percent of them come from PUPPY MILLS.

And most important, if you buy a puppy/kitten from a pet shop you are supporting those PET MILLS. You might ask, what is the problem with PET MILLS? After all there is a need for dogs and cats to fill the demand. Let me take you into the life of just one female dog that happened to end up in a puppy mill.

We will call her Angel. Angel came to the puppy mill owner when she was just 6 months old, just a puppy herself. She was full of energy and had a loving sweet face and personality. She was not examined to see if she was healthy and she was not vaccinated. She was however, registered with the AKC.

Angel was placed in a wire cage with no flooring, just a wire bottom. The roof of this cage was the same as the bottom. That way there are no clean up hassles because fecal matter can fall down through the tiers of cages to the ground. Angel has no bed to lie on. So she spends all of her time on the wire floor that bites into her tender puppy paws, and into her skin.

When Angel is 8 months old, she goes into her first heat (estrus) and is bred to a male that is in the same plight as she is. In approximately 63 days, Angel gives birth to 5 beautiful little puppies. Of course, during her pregnancy she has not been seen by a vet, due to the financial costs to the owner of the PUPPY MILL. However; as luck would have it, she has a fairly healthy litter and her keeper put some pieces of cardboard on the wire floor. But trying to get into position to care for her pups and feed them, Angel lays on one of them and it dies. She noses her dead baby and tries to revive it but it is still and cold. This puppy was not removed for 5 days.

When Angel tries to get nourishment her food bowl is full of feces that fell from the cage above her, and so she has to try to eat around it. When she goes for the much-needed water to keep her hydrated so she can make milk for her babies, it also is full of fecal matter. So eventually, she becomes undernourished and dehydrated. But Angel is trying to be a good mother and she tends her babies with tender loving care.

At about 10 to fourteen days all of her puppies have opened their eyes. The second week passes and conditions in the cage continue to worsen. Just three weeks later, a hand reaches into the cage and takes all of the puppies away from Angel. Angel is frantic. Her babies are gone. She cries and paces frantically.  Her cage is so small that she is pacing in a circle. Angel exhausts herself physically and emotionally.  She huddles, whimpering, shivering violently.  She goes into shock and waits patiently for release.  Finally, it comes for her.

The puppies are not so lucky.  They have been placed in a crate but there are so many puppies that there is no room for food or water and the puppies are piled one on top of the other. They are loaded onto a truck to travel over 1000 miles to a bundler who finally feeds and waters them.  At one point he picks through the crates to remove dead puppies that were not strong enough to survive the cold conditions in the trailer. The living are then divided and loaded into other crates, this time to be delivered to pet shops in two states. Knowing the pet shops don't pay for "deads" the relay drivers give them more bedding and some food and water.

The puppies arrive at the pet stores at almost 6 weeks old. They are bathed and blow-dried (another frightful experience) so that they will smell better and look pretty for you. The puppy you pick to go home with you, up to this point, has probably never been individually seen by a veterinarian and has had no loving contact with a human being.

Canines imprint between 21 to 28 days so the pet shop puppy has been deprived of that critical human bonding period. What type of life that puppy will have from then on and how much you can restore that human relationship, is partly up to you the new owner but it began long before you hold the "pet shop puppy." The emotional damage done to the puppy in being yanked away from its mother and siblings at such a vulnerable age is incalculable as is the transport trauma.

Hopefully you will be loving and understanding. The puppy mill puppy may have emotional problems that will show up in training or hereditary health problems that will show up later in life. If this puppy is not one of the lucky ones, the owner may grow tried of it soon and take it to a shelter to either be adopted or KILLED.

As for Angel? Well, she is still in her cage. Still trying to eat her food around the fecal matter, still drinking unfit water or rain drops. She will be bred again in just a few months when she comes into heat again. And the story will repeat itself again, and again, and again.

There will be one difference though. Angel will become weaker with each litter and on the day that Angel dies, her emaciated little body covered in the filth of the years of laying in excitement, the open oozing sores, and dull lifeless eyes will be healed and she will be happy and beautiful as her spirit soars to meet Almighty God.

Such is the life of thousands of little angles-to-be in the thousands of puppy mills across the face of America. Is there a Heaven? As surely as there is a Hell for those who fail to treat the dog as an incredibly loving creature from Heaven given to heal mankind.

If you love dogs, remember Angel the next time you walk by a pet store. Thought for the day: "All life is precious, and worth respect and love."

TheDogPlace.org EST 1998 © 2009 https://www.thedogplace.org/Family-Dog/PuppyMill-AnimalHell_Lee09.asp

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