Do not buy from a puppy mill

Help Stop Puppy Mills

While not every puppy mill practices all of these bad processes, they all exist to make money and what they do is related to that need to profit. Bottom line/ quick assessment - if they have more than one male dog they are a puppy mill.

The human contact is limited - New pups want to spend time with humans. Instead of getting that interaction they are kept in pens or cages with their mother and siblings. The few interactions with humans are being fed or watered, cleaning of their pen or cage, moved to be sold either directly from the breeder or through an agent like a pet shop or flipper.
At weening age they are often isolated to their own cage - Often as soon as the pup is old enough to be weened from their mother they are put into a seperate cage or pen and often alone without their siblings. They will then spend the majority of the day alone. They can hear other dogs and may be able to see a few but unable to interact with them.
The quality of care is often assiciated to cost/benefit - While a puppy mill would not want to see any animal suffer, the quality of care is usually associated to cost and return on those costs. If a pup has an issue and it is deemed that the profit would be too low then the corrective measure it to terminate the pup.
Females bread as often as possible - To maximise profits the females are breed as often as possible with little time between litters.
Estimated 3 million puppies killed each year due to over breeding - If a puppy is not sold, it is not sent to a farm to live the rest of its life out. These animals are often killed to make room for the next litter.
No advanced experience of any single breed - Mills often breed many different types of dogs. This means they often do not look for or even know to look for certain traits that a given breed may have. Instead they are concerned with the number of pups in a litter, how much per pup they can sell for, how soon can they sell, and end the relationship as soon as possible.
Behaviour and health issues associated to mill practices - Studies have associated isolation to some behaviour issues like tail chasing, apprehension towards humans, and agression towards other animals. Mills are known to not maintain the most sanitary of conditions which leads to paw issues, skin conditions, tooth decay, ear infections, and some vision issues due to lesions.

Our Puppy Mill experience!

We started with rescue dogs. We took the good with the bad. Then the last of those died after a long life we decieded we really wanted a puppy. Not an older dog but a dog where we can raise and train from its early life. We researched different breeds and trying to find our perfect breed. We decided that breed is Havanese. It was a good size, hypoallergenic since I had extended family with alergies, great personality and loves to please humans.

We found a pup that had all the markings we wanted, AKC registerable, with a price in the sweet spot on the internet and traveled over 6 hours by car to pick it up with my daughter. We arrived at a ranch style farm with an out building. As we pulled up to the house the breeder came out of the house with the puppy. We were so happy over this adorable pup. Initially we did not hear the barking from the out building but the more time we spent there the more it became noticable. Lots and lots of barking. Different kinds of barks. We knew this was a puppy mill because they did not hide the fact and promoted that they were state inspected and certified. We thought this is not a great situation for the dogs but it was not bad.

We were wrong!

Just short of our dog being 2 years old he became really sick. After over $1000 in vet tests we were told he has a failing liver. The vet said it is possible he had the issue since birth and we did not have much time left with him. We spend the time to work to make him as healthy as we could again by daily IVs, medicine, and placing him on a special diet. He became more active again and was close to his old self though he never fully reached the fun loving little guy he once was. He survived another 9 months with us after all that happy and loved.

After learning what the vet said about his health possibly being an issue from day one and lots of reading on the internet you start to see how these mills operate. The breeder was not concerned with quality, it was all about profit. We did not want to repeat that experience again or support a mill.

While we were having our experience with the Havanese our daughters wanted to get a dog of their own and they selected the Pomsky. As we gained experience with that breed it was not long until that was a breed we fell in love with.

The Puppy Mill Project 11 facts of puppy mills

Help Stop Puppy Mills

While not every puppy mill practices all of these bad processes, they all exist to make money and what they do is related to that need to profit. Bottom line/ quick assessment - if they have more than one male dog they are a puppy mill.

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