Another Puppy Mill discovered - Page 2

MD, my friend's exact search words were "Dog Breeding Supplies" she was looking for a whelping box. She was on the 2nd page of the google search, and thats one of the sites she could check out. She thought it sounded suspicious, so she checked it out. Thats what came up. I emailed her last night, asking her just where in the heck she found it.

It all boils down to "supply and demand"and convenience. I own a small pet store and NO I dont sell pups or kittens. But there are other ones near by that do. And time and time again they file into my store with stories of how sick the pup is/was that they bought from the other stores.I always tell people not to buy from these sources. They are the ones that support "puppy mills"

Why so much energy discussing money, profit, number of puppies sold, etc. You all talk about this like it is something earth shakingly new, or more importantly, you can change. It has all been hashed out before. It seems that anyone that raises their hand and says, "I only breed one litter a year." feels that they have proclaimed themselves to be a good breeder. Well, that may or may not be the case, we don't know. The person that says, "I only charge $800 for my puppies feels that they are the best breeder as opposed to the person that charges $2000. Well, that's not true either. The point is, we just can't change what people do, but we can talk about upper arm, croup, rear angulation, topline, health, how to correct faults of one parent in a breeding, and on and on. This is important stuff, and worth the time to read. Not the snake oil salesmen that are out there. Just my opinion, and with respect to all.

Blueskye is from another breed, like me. Frankly, in many other breeds, people who have more than 1 or 2 litters per year are walking on the dark side in danger of being labeled a puppy mill. Right or wrong, it's the way it is. Breeding multiple litters per year seems to be well accepted and defended in GSD's and that is hard for some of us to process. I even see ads on this board that lead to links that advertise 2, 3 other breeds and am not sure what to make of these breeders myself. I wouldn't dare ask. I doubt there was any malicious intent when Blueskye generated this post.

Janette, do you think that a lot of people buy puppies from pet shops because they only sell cute puppies, the puppies are visible, the people feel sorry for them and want to get them out of that cage? In addition, the pet shops know which breeds are going to sell the fastest and they make it easy to spend 2 K for a shepapoo (whatever) by offering them the convenience of using a credit card. I can't tell you how many times a new puppy owner would say - we didn't even want a dog, we just felt so sorry for her. It's a "no fail" marketing strategy for the pet shops.

Blitzen, Absolutely...the pet stores also buy these pups at a discount price from local breeders( or "it was a mistake" breeders) and make a HUGE profit. I know of one pet store in a mall that sells a huge amount. They barely sell anything but pups. It really breaks my heart to see the pups there. But again it is convenient. Also its an impulse buy most times.The pups do need homes but if people would stop buying pups like this the stores would find it not profitable . But I continue to stand my ground and not sell pups here. I offer my bullentin board for any customers that may have a litter or I tell people to go to the local spca's. As far a my definition of a puppy mill it's a place that doesnt take proper care of their dogs, breeds the snot out of them, and there is little human interaction.When they can't produce pups for them anymore they dispose of them.IMO Its really not a number thing.

Managing the shelter here, I get to see alot of things... one of them being a couple of mills. One lady housed dogs in an old bus, they lived in the bus, were fed, watered, bred, whelped, everything in the bus, obviously was not cleaned very often, the smell 100 yds away was knock you over bad. It did not stop there though, she had one breed in the bus, she had other breeds seperated and penned by pallets in her backyard. I can't say when the last time was these poor dogs ever had been out of the tiny confines of these pallets tied together with baling twine. There were old carcasses laying around, dogs that had died and were never burried, just tossed outside the pen or bus to disapear by the elements. These dogs were all flea ridden, and had upper resp. issues, sores on they're hocks and feet from the feces and urine burns, and they're hair was sticky and mucked up from not being able to keep themselves clean. It was a horrifying sight. That was definately my defenition of a "puppy mill"

That sounds like my idea of a puppy mill too, Echo.

Everyone, I am sure that at least two (2) here know, but even the S.V. allows an S.V.-registered breeder to produce ten (10) GSD litters per year. I think that for most of us that is an unbelieveable number of puppies that could vary from as few as ten (10) to as many as one-hundred (100) total. The large and long-established "big name" GSD kennels can do this and we will accept it as part of the craft and not dare refer to any of them as a puppy mill, even though the rearing of puppies is continual and is a major source of profit. Of course such a kennel is usually policed by the watchful eyes of the local breed warden who is required to verify that at least the minimum S.V. standards are upheld as far as paperwork accuracy, cleanliness, care, and health. I think that we all have a very accurate mental picture of what is really a "puppy mill" such as described by EchoMeadows. In my opinion it does not have to be a large operation to qualify for this moniker. I sometimes wonder where the term "back-yard breeder" ends and the term "puppy mill operator" begins. I guess the first sells the puppies from a cardbord box in the back of pickup truck parked at a strip mall on Sunday afternoon, and the latter sells to pet stores or medical research facilities. Those are the best elementary definitions that I can conjure. Bob-O

Bob-O, Years ago a friend of mine in the PNW bought a puppy from one of those sidewalk vendors. She thought she was one of the best looking puppies she'd ever seen and worth the risk. As it turned out she was right as this bitch ended up to be one of the top winning Malamute bitches of all time LOLOL. Talk about great luck, eh? It would have driven me nuts to have more than one litter per year as I always had major problems finding appropriate homes for the puppies. If that's not a factor then I suppose one might have a different outlook on multiple litters per year. It depends on one's mindset I guess; personally I wouldn't want the hassle.