Puppy Mills Why Do We Hate Them

The term "puppy mills" evokes feelings of disgust and anger among dog lovers. The stories we hear about the oppressive and unsafe conditions for the mothers of puppies, and the too-soon release of puppies for sale, have created outrage among all of us who love dogs. Safety issues and the lack of human contact are the two most egregious examples of puppy mill abuses. For instance, a target of much legislation for improvement of puppy mills has been the improvement of cages for mothers and their puppies. Low cage height and dangerous wire flooring are among a number of problems cited by animal rights groups. Most states have few regulations that apply to safety and humane treatment of dogs in mass breeding, puppy mill, operations. In spite of new laws in some states that aim at eradicating the worst abuse of puppy mill operations, more than half of all states have little or no regulation. States that have passed protective requirements have promulgated laws that limit the number of females held for breeding, institute requirements for facility inspection, and establish rules related to appropriate veterinary care. Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Virginia passed laws in 2008 that are intended to curb abuses in puppy mills. Then, in 2010, Missouri passed a landmark law for puppy mill regulation. That law would have greatly improved conditions in puppy mills, but was subsequently overturned following aggressive lobbying from dog breeding advocates. So what can dog lovers do to assure humane treatment in puppy mills? In addition to writing and calling local legislators to establish progressive laws relating to puppy mills, there are a number of activities that each dog lover can do to promote improved regulations. Ongoing mistreatment of dogs in puppy mills angers all dog lovers. Specific steps can be taken by all individuals and groups who would like to take positive action to improve puppy mill conditions. Health Testing in Dogs Explained. Sign in or sign up and post using a HubPages Network account. No HTML is allowed in comments, but URLs will be hyperlinked. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites. Great article. I am not really into the Peta movement stuff but i love dogs and I hate to see them caged up so tightly and breed so much. I do think there should be some kind of regulations to make sure these animals are in a good environment. Our dog Beau came from the Brittany Rescue. They have gotten so many dogs from irresponsible breeders. The way I fight against puppy mills is by encouraging people to get dogs from rescues etc. I should be doing more. Thumbs Up. Best Hub I have read on the topic. Great hub about a very serious issue. I could never be one of the animal police, the dogs would make it out fine but the owners of these puppy mills would be another story. I have such a soft spot for dogs, I can't even watch the ASPCA commercials without getting teary eyed. Glad you are commenting on this. I actually own a dog that was born in a clinic after its mother was rescued from a puppy mill. Apparently the puppy mill went out of business and the dogs were sold at auction. A group of rescuers raised money, drove to Texas, Bought the dogs and returned them to the bay area. I think there were about 50 or so. There are a great bunch of folks out here doing this. Thank you for your comment on Maxine, the story of a puppy mill dog used for breeding. Your Hub is great. The only suggestion I might make is to mention The Puppy Mill Project. They are a great group who fights puppy mills on the front lines by picketing pet stores who sell puppies. Also, I am writing under Max A. Pooch. Max is trying to get on a Times Square billboard. Just look for the pic of Max on a billboard and the link. Thank you for writing this hub, it is an important topic and one that deserves as much exposure as possible. Profit should never come before health and wellbeing. Keep up the good work. I adopted a female who was a rescue from a puppy mill. contextual backlinks is now a gorgeous pomeranian, but when they rescued her she had no hair. When i adopted her, she had thin hair, and it took me 12 hours to comb all the scabs out of her hair from her skin. The vet cannot tell how old she is because she doesn't have enough teeth. She chewed on the cage so much that her teeth are pretty well destroyed. We have had her for 2 years now, and she has gradually changed into a true joy to have. We named her "Angel" and she is indeed an angel. Her eagerness to respond to my wishes never fails to bring a smile to my face.