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Originally Posted by MagikAshes I don't think it is wise or effective to place rather or not your a puppy mill based on how many dogs you sell a year. I show, breed and train shelties, belgian malinois and german shorthaired pointers and I am in no way shape or form a puppy mill...
Anyway my problem with baseing rather or not your a puppy mill based on how many dogs you sell a year is this: IT DEPENDS ON WHAT BREED YOU BRED! ...
What makes someone a puppy mill and not a breeder are the following: not doing genetic testing on their dogs, not breeding to improve the breed, not socilizing puppies, not keeping shots, wormings, and other health related stuff up to date, not caring who buys your puppies as long as you sell them, selling puppies to pet shops and brokers, breeding mixed designer breeds (face it they are mixes!), not supporting rescue organizations, not caring what kind of conditions the dogs are kept in, not keeping up teeth, grooming or making sure the dogs and fed the right amount, and anyone who breeds dogs that they know for a fact have genetic, health or temperment problems is deffintally a puppy mill! Basically if you don't care about the welfare of the dogs, and they are not family members and you are not working to improve the breed and breeding anyway then you are a puppy mill. |
I agree with your point about the criteria of what a puppy mill is. Unfortanetely many of these criterion are either difficult to prove or vary depending on what your defenition of "socializing" or "improve" are. A puppy mill could say "sure I'm improving the breeder" or "yes, the puppies are socializing with each other". The trouble is that there are only so many USDA inspectors and thousands of puppy mills. Who knows what the number of greedy, irresponsible backyard breeders are. They're unregulated. Which is why PAWS was introduced, to try to help deal with this problem.
It is a sticky situation, but I agree that there needs to be improvements made in the wording, definitions, etc. Hopefully these changes will be made for the benefit of the animals, not the puppy mills.
I would like to emphasize one point in response to
"What makes someone a puppy mill and not a breeder are the following", a puppy mill is a breeder. I think what you meant to say was "what makes someone a puppy mill and not a responsible breeder are the following".
Because a puppy mill can have many definitions. My defenition is this: a commercial breeder who breeds irresponsibly. Definition of irresponsible: treating their puppies inhumanely without attention to health, genetics, socialization, or the basic shelter, food or water.
It is also my opinion that an irresponsible breeder is anyone who does not screen potential homes, require a contract and require the puppy to be brought back to the breeder during the lifetime of the puppy if there is any reason the person/family cannot keep the dog or is not taking good care of the dog.
I.E. If a puppy you bred is being neglected or abused and you cannot take the dog back, or find a more suitable home for said dog, you shouldn't be breeding. Period.