[Rhetts_mama]

Closing pet stores would limit impulse buying to some extent. But it wouldn't stop the person who picks a puppy from the ad in the newspaper or internet. Just because someone doesn't breed more than 50 pups a year doesn't mean they are a good breeder or that they aren't a small scale puppy mill. Unfortunately, some of the sickest dogs I've seen have come from the small scale backyard breeder.

My best friend lives in Bakersfield. Her neighbor across the street flies just under the "puppy mill" radar. She gets away with it by having pens instead of cages. The pups (dachsunds) are never in doors (despite the heat there in the summer) and completely unsocialized. My friend has called animal control several times, but because she doesn't breed what ever the requisite number required for licensing, there isn't much they can do. Of course, we found out that some of her dames are registered in her daughter's name- so technically they aren't hers... As long as they have shade, food and water and the pens are "reasonably clean" (meaning limited visible feces, though the urine smell is overwhelming in the summer), their hands are tied.

It would be interesting to do a study to see how many people have bought from a pet shop versus a private breeder. It's just my personal opinion that I believe more people have gotten their impulse puppies from the paper instead of the store.