Have you ever walked into a pet store to see the cute little puppies for sale in their cages? Everybody loves them and comes in to hold them how can you resist? Maybe you may have even been seduced into purchasing one of these cute little puppies yourself.

These cute little puppies in Pet Stores come from puppy mills. Recently there has been an increased awareness about the horrible conditions these puppies begin their lives in but many people are still not aware of it or choose not to do anything about it.

The only way puppy mills can be stopped is to not have a market for them. That means puppies cannot be sold in puppy stores or sight unseen over the Internet.
Until we as consumers can stop purchasing puppies on impulse or because “he” was just so cute puppy mills will continue to stay in business. They will continue
to mass produce their “crop".  Puppy mills are mass production farms that produce “puppies” as their cash crop. They only exist for one purpose and that purpose is to make MONEY.

Today most puppy mills are located in rural areas on big farms. If you live in a rural area a puppy mill may be right around the corner on that beautiful green farm with acres and acres of land.

Here in the state of Pennsylvania where I live there are many beautiful farms all around me. I’m also close to Lancaster County which is known for their large population of Amish farms. My family and I have enjoyed visits to “Amish Country” for tours. Well many of these nice Amish farms in Lancaster County house puppy
mills. The Amish look at the puppies as being their livestock which is an “agricultural commodity.” So they mass produce their product on the farm for sale and it’s those nice little cute puppies we see in Pet Stores.

Puppy mills do everything wrong when it comes to raising puppies. The puppies that come out of a puppy mill have been over bred, lack socialization, have genetic diseases, have behavioral and temperament issues and are unhealthy. These puppies are born to parents that may have never been out of a cage or ever had any regular human contact or veterinary care. So both the puppy and owner suffer the ill effects of puppy mills. Many people are not aware of the horrible conditions these dogs come from when they purchase a puppy form a pet store.

The day in the life of a puppy mill dog. Puppy mill puppies are born in a cage with their mother without any veterinary care. The cage is outside on a farm so the
puppies and dogs are exposed to all sorts of weather conditions from extreme cold to intense heat.

The cages are made of wire so that their waste will fall through to the ground so the ground below the dogs has piles of smelly waste infested with flies and bugs
swarming around the dogs. The cages are rarely cleaned so the waste that didn’t make it to the ground is there for the puppies and dogs to step and lay in. Now
they have flies and bugs crawling all over them too.

These dogs have no exercise or attention what so ever. Their days are spent helplessly imprisoned in filth, sorrow and loneliness. They never receive any of the loving care and handling from people they so desperately need or the proper health or medical care that they require.

Then once the puppies are about 6-7 weeks old they are harvested. This means the puppies are cleaned up to be shipped to a broker, researcher or pet store.

The puppies then travel in small over stuffed crates to their new horror the Pet Store, unless they die on the trip. The puppies that do live are usually very sick with some type of a respiratory virus and infested with parasites.

Once at the pet store they will be cleaned up again to be cute and fluffy so that when we walk by we can’t resist them and we make an impulsive decision to get a
puppy.

Then you get home with this cute puppy, totally uninformed and unprepared everything begins to fall apart. This puppy has come from the worse possible conditions, in bred, under socialized, with health and genetic issues to a home that is unprepared to deal with this huge problem that can arise in this situation.

What can happen is the family and dog lives a miserable life together or the dog is relinquished to a shelter or euthanized. This is why it is so important to research everything possible and to prepare for the addition of your new family member whether it’s a new puppy or a dog. Then you will be setting yourself and your dog up to enjoy a long wonderful life together.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
United Against Puppy Mills www.unitedagainstpuppymills.org
North Penn Puppy Mill Watch- www.NPPMWatch.com
StopPuppyMills.org
AwarenessDay.org

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Green Lane, Harleysville, King of Prussia,
Lansdale, Limerick, Montgomeryville, Norristown,
Pottstown, Perkiomenville, Phoenixville,
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