What is a puppy mill?

What is a puppy mill?
Puppy mills are facilities where dogs are forced to breed for their entire lives until they are physically incapacitated. A female dog is bred every time she comes into heat, so the females are pregnant or nursing all the time.
At this time, the dogs are sold to other breeders, left by the side of the road, neglected or even killed. The dogs spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week in cages, with little or no contact with people or the outside world. Facilities classified as puppy mills are kept in deplorable and unsanitary conditions, lack proper veterinary care for the dogs, but often have USDA licenses. A USDA license ensures that the facility can be sold to pet stores. A USDA license requires a number of requirements; however, with a lack of support staff to enforce the requirements, facilities continue to violate the laws with little or no consequence. In addition, standards of care are often inadequate to ensure humane treatment. The consequences are felt through the continued mistreatment and abuse of dogs.
There are legitimate breeders operating in the world. The best breeders do not operate solely to make money and do not simply sell their puppies to the highest bidder. See Humane Society of the United States. Responsible breeders ensure that the puppies they sell go to the appropriate homes that will provide for the welfare of the puppies. In addition, responsible breeders will encourage consumers to visit the facility and meet potential families before allowing families to leave with the puppies. There are more than 6,000 licensed commercial kennels in the United States and an untold number of unlicensed ones.
More importantly, the general public can help stem the downward spiral of the disruptive puppy mill business by decreasing demand, ensuring that they are buying or adopting puppies from legitimate breeders, conducting self-inspections of facilities and reporting violations, and preventing the purchase of puppies. On the Internet . The commercial breeding business and the general public need to be held accountable for this growing problem of puppy mills in the United States.