When people sell their puppies...puppy mill?
 

I am having a bit of difficulty distinguishing what a puppy mill is and if the people that place ads to sell their puppies is also considered a puppy mill. Can someone tell me if there is a difference?

A puppy mill takes various forms...it boils down to ill bred dogs, sold with nothing but profit in mind. These puppies can be sold to pet shops very cheaply, who then add several hundred dollars up to as much as $1000.00, and resold to people that can not resist buying puppies from such a source as a pet shop. Puppy mills also get on those on line places where they can list their puppies for sale...same places that sell dogs/pets that have been stolen or even found on the street, and then turned for a quick buck.....puppy mills also peddle their ill bred puppies from the trunk of their cars, flea markets, garage sales, from boxes out side grocery stores, etc......they dump these ill bred babies on people at a young age so they do not have to pay for worming, shots, just the expense of even poorly managed kennel, they dont have to worry with weaning, as evidenced by the number of people that come on here with a 5 week old baby that does not even know how to eat/drink from a bowl...they have litterally been ripped from momma's teats, thrown in a box, and delivered to a pet store or a broker...they collect their $300.00-$500.00 for an unvaccinated, unhealthy, worm filled, flea infested puppy, which is then tossed into another box or pet store cage, for sale to people that buy these unfortunate, sick, ill bred mishaps, thinking they are doing good. This does no good at all....it encourages this behavior to continue.....someone buys this sick baby, then spends a fortune trying to get it healthy and even save its life...it usually just ends up with parvo and either costs a fortune in vet bills or just dies.....people that buy from puppy mill pipe lines have only to look in the mirror to see where the blame for the continuation and sustainability of these horrible puppy outlets lies.....if people would stop trying to get cheap puppies from questionable sources and outlets, they would not survive and a bunch would be forced to shut down. If people would stop thinking they are going to get rich throwing two dogs together, then dumping the babies before they have to pay for baby check up, worming, vaccinations, etc, usually around 5 weeks old......but you always have crooks that will take advantage of any given situation...it is the consumers responsibility to get educated and realize that every time they buy from places like this, THEY are the reason the crooks and thieves continue to thrive.....

Thank you so much for your answer. You see that alot over here in Puerto Rico and unfortunately that's how my mom and I got Nala without knowing what puppy mills were. Over here there are alot of yorkies for sale and I have seen 6 month old yorkies weighing only 1 lbs. After learning along the way I was horrified and so was my mother. What can I do to help shut down these horrible places?

There is literally so much you can do but it will take time n learning. Learn the ordinances around your area and start to go from there.

These people operate in the shadows and off the radar....the people that get caught up in "sweeps" and "crack downs" and shut downs, are the reputable breeders....just ask Clover Hill Yorkies about the jack booted thugs from the government that swarmed her home and thank God she "knew" some influential people that were able to hold these people at bay, or they would have shut down her very legitimate breeding business, and confiscated her show dogs.....and thank God she had the financial where with all to flee to another State with her show kennel/dogs, buy some property and set up her LEGITIMATE business in another State....but the people they NEED to be going after, operate all under the radar and out of sight....and more and more of these puppy mill breeders are dumping their pups into pet stores....and nothing is done about pet stores....they spend all their time trying to ruin and close down legitimate breeders, the "easy to pick" fruit, and dont waste time or money trying to root out the REAL villians.....you will never shut down pet stores....you need to go after the people hiding in the woods, selling from their car trunks, flea markets, out of boxes at store parking lots, etc.....THAT may drive all these trashy thugs to selling their pups at pet stores....and eventually, pet stores will be forbidden from peddeling live animals....
But as long as people continue to buy from pet stores and from the side of the road and out of the trunk of cars, supporting trash that sells cheap yorkies, because THEY have nothing invested in their dogs, the problem will flourish....

I find it troubling to try to define a "puppy mill." The term is being applied to most anyone who breeds dogs now, regardless of the care they take in the breeding. I first heard it about 30 years ago in reference to large scale breeding operations in the mid-west where dogs were kept in poor living conditions, trapped in wire cages their entire lives while being bred repeatedly until they died. Those were presumably the breeders supplying pet stores.

What Judy said happened to me. The local dog catcher and her recruits from the MSPCA came into my house and accused me of running a puppy mill. "You're a puppy mill and I'm shutting you down" was what she said. It was a lousy town and not worth fighting to try to stay there, so I packed up and left. Thank God they didn't get their hands on my dogs. I don't know how I can resemble any puppy mill. The zealots do pick on the easy targets, that's for sure.

This is a very cogent question. I do understand that you are in Puerto Rico where standards to the USA and Canada might be different.

First I don''t think advertising to sell a dog makes you a puppy mill. It depends upon your countrys normal practices and maybe as well what venues you advertise in. Say here in North America I place ads to sell a puppy in a respected journal for dogs would that make me a puppymill? Or say if I advertise on facebook would that make me a puppymill.... No really definitive answers here.

While there is NO Universal definition of puppy mill - most advocates would get on board with hundreds of dogs kept in deplorable conditions with little to no vet care. No health testing - no socialization etc. Breed for profit and be damned the multiple dogs under their care.

You can still breed poorly and keep your dogs poorly if you only have 3 or 5 dogs. You can skimp on vet care - know nothing about breeding, puppy rearing - health testing and provide quite frankly less than the minimum of care a pet owner gives their dogs. Does it make you a puppy mill? Well probably not but it makes you a piss poor breeder.

What I think you are looking for is a responsible breeder - not too sure if you actually found one.