I think if you are buying a puppy you must see where it came from and how it's parents live. I have been to a place I consider a puppy mill and the website shows pictures of puppies laying on furniture and playing with children. The reality is they are kept twenty four hours a day, seven days a week in wire rabbit type cages. There are no laws being broke but dogs should not live like that. The older dogs that come from there are unsocialized. They specialize in designer dogs. Websites can be so misleading. I wish the laws were better. But until enough people push to get the laws changed nothing is going to change. Before I worked at a shelter I did not know about puppy mills. I think the average person doesn't know how bad they are.
Last summer Amish people were coming from PA to a local flea market in the county I work. We checked their health certificates, which were out of date. The puppies were anemic and full of parasites. They had upper respiratory infections. I told them to pack them up and get back to PA. I told them if they come back we would check all the paperwork again and the puppies health. If there was any problem they would be sent out of there again. As of this week they have not come back. We also told them not to go to the other local flea markets because we called those counties and warned them. We followed them out of our county. Two people were there holding puppies wanting to adopt, they told them they would not buy them. Another lady saw us and came back and gave the puppy back and demanded her money back. The week before they sold sick puppies and people stopped payments on their checks so they stopped taking checks. They would only take cash.
If you see sick puppies being sold call your local animal control. Do not be afraid to step in. If puppies are being brought across state lines they must have current health certificates and be healthly. Everyone needs to speak up and do their part to put these people out of business! |