[MrsPeanut]

What is the Difference?
Imagine being locked in a 30”x30”x30”cage for twenty-four hours a day that you share with three other people. There is no floor in this cage, just wires and every time you walk, your overgrown nails catch the wires and tear or rip completely off. The only protection from the environment is maybe a torn tarp, which exposes you to rain, heat and snow. If you need to use the restroom you use one of the corners of the cage and because you have three other cage mates the excrement piles up and is never removed or cleaned. If and when your owners decide to feed you, you are given small moldy scraps that you have to share with the three other people. This usually results in injuries and because you are the smallest you usually do not get any food, so you starve. The only time you are let out of this cage is to breed or be put to death. The person you breed with is usually a close relative, probably a brother or son. After enduring the 60-63 days of pregnancy if you are lucky, half of your children might survive. Immediately upon delivery, your children are taken from you to be sold to complete strangers. You are always sick and starving. You are infested with worms and parasites and have multiple open sores and injuries from being attacked from other cage mates or from being abused by your owner because you didn’t produce very many children. You are always afraid and death is certain. When that may be, you don’t know, but you hope it will come soon to be free of the pain and sorrow that you feel everyday of your life. It could be today or it could be next month, but most of the time it happens before it is your time to go. The
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people who own you are only interested in how many offspring you produce and how much money they will receive. The only chance of freedom from this horrifying life is if people stop buying your children. This is just one of many examples that many types of dogs go through in so called “kennels, also know as puppy mills.” There are many people who breed dogs who truly believe they love their dogs and feel they are reputable breeders. What classifies a person as a reputable breeder? The purpose of this paper is to distinguish between the different characteristics, functions and purposes of puppy mills, backyard breeders and reputable breeders.
There may not be a solid definition for what a puppy mill is but we can express the characteristics of what a puppy mill can be described as. Some characteristics include, a large number of dogs in the range of fifty to hundreds of dogs or even more than that for the sole purpose of breeding. The purpose of such a large amount of dogs guarantees’ a steady supply of puppies therefore increasing profits. To cuts costs the dogs typically are given very little food and water, little or no shelter from the outside elements, cramped in small cages with a couple or several other dogs and have very little human contact. Also, because veterinary care can be costly, especially having a large amount of dogs and puppies, the medical care if provided, may be conducted by the owner who is probably not licensed.
Owners and breeders or these puppy mills say they are operating kennels not puppy mills and treat their dogs humanely and have a serious concern for improving different breeds of dogs. How can they have serious concern for the breed if the only
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agenda is money? Most owners also state they are operating these so called kennels lawfully. These owners may very well be operating under the law so one question remains. Are the puppy mills owners to blame for the deplorable conditions these dogs remain in, or are the federal and state laws not suitable to regulate these operations? The United States Department of Agriculture is in charge of regulating all aspects of health and welfare for animals. They instituted the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) in 1966 to protect animals from neglect and inhumane treatment. This act, “requires that minimum standards of care and treatment be provided for certain animals bred for commercial sale...individuals who operate facilities in these categories must provide their animals with adequate care and treatment in the areas of housing, handling, sanitation, nutrition, water, veterinary care, and protections from extreme weather and temperatures.” (USDA 1) The problem here is that the laws do not stipulate specific detailed requirements and furthermore “requires minimum standards of care.” To enforce these laws the AWA requires that commercial animal breeders be registered and licensed and purport to do random inspections. If the owner or breeder is found to have deficiencies, they are given a warning or ticket to fix the problems with the threat to a follow-up inspection. If after the next inspection the deficiencies are not corrected then they will take legal action. The owners and breeders however are able to find loopholes by arguing that these laws don’t stipulate specific requirements and only minimum standards are required. Furthermore, breeders might improve these conditions only until the next inspection and revert back to previous practices after the inspector cleared them. In the Dog’s Advocate Betsy Cohen states, “ when these kinds of breeders get caught, they get a slap on the wrist and the