V- I agree with you 100%. The first thing Brett brought up was the clothes and accessories. Mine throw a fit if I put a bow in their hair but if I had dogs that would let me, I'd dress mine up to. I think that it is absoltely precious to see dogs dressed up and to know that their humans took the time to pick out such fashions shows that they are thought of as family!
Secondly, yes, puppy mills do exist. When we got our GSP, the guy had around 20 breeding females and they were all tied up with puppies running everywhere. He did all of his own shots. If you think about it, someone with that many dogs isn't necessarily going to take each and every one to a vet. It would cost too much to vaccinate each pup along with worming. When a breeders owns that many dogs, think about it, the more they go to the vet, the less of a profit they will make on each pup.
Brett's wife brought up the socializing issue. When someone has that many dogs, do you honestly think that they're spending quality time with their dogs? That breeder could spend 1 hour a day with each dog...there's just not enough time. Dogs need to be socialized or else they have the chance of becomming aggressive. Just read some of the stories here of people that have purchased dogs from mills or pet stores and the yorkies have become so aggressive that they end up wanting to get rid of the dog.
To you, dogs are just dogs and should be treated as such. What about the husbands and wives that can't produce children? I sold a pup to a couple that had been married for over 15 years and never was able to have kids. These "dogs" are their children. Don't condemn all people that like to dress up their dogs because you don't know the full story.
Just my two cents!