Hi, I’m Charlize Theron with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
If you’ve ever stopped and smiled at the dogs in a pet store window, you’ve probably
been tempted to take one home.
But did you realize the dollars you’d spend on one of those cute little puppies would
support a really ugly industry?
You see, almost all the puppies for sale at your local mall were churned out by breeding
facilities called puppy mills.
There are thousands of these mills across the United States, supplying stores with half
a million puppies a year.
It’s all about quantity and profit, with little, if any care given to the individual
animals.
In fact, the conditions common to most mills are so inhumane; the dogs are left in various
states of physical and mental anguish.
Just how cruel is the pet shop business?
… See for yourself.
Peta recently went undercover at this puppy mill in the Midwest, like the animals at most
breeding factories, these dogs were kept in wire cages that offer little or no protection
from blistering heat, driving rain or bitter cold.
These dogs are used for breeding; their babies will be ripped away from them and sold, but
they are likely to spend their entire lives at the puppy mill.
They are impregnated continually until they can no longer produce a litter, at which point,
they are, discarded or killed.
The dogs seldom if ever receive veterinary care, so diseases and ailments, like this
Cocker Spaniel’s chronic eye infection, run rampant.
This pooddle is also suffering from an eye infection.
It is so severe her eye has become caked shut, at one point, two years passed without a veterinarian
visiting this facility.
Another pooddle, like many of the animals at this puppy mill suffers from mange, a skin
disease aggravated by the dogs dirty and stressful living conditions.
As clumps of fur fall out, raw infected skin becomes exposed; untreated, the mange spreads
to other dogs.
Like this miniature Pincher who’s legs are too short to scratch her hind quarters, she
is reduced to spinning on the bottom of her wire cage endlessly trying to relieve the
itching caused by the disease.
Here peta’s investigator frees a Labrador retriever from a collar that caretakers neglected
to loosen or remove as the dog grew.
Over time the collar became imbedded in the dog’s flesh, eventually causing rotting
tissue and infection.
Amazingly the puppy mill owner described this dog as one of her favorites.
Dogs who are injured suffer indefinitely, without proper veterinary care, injured limbs
can heal improperly.
This Doberman’s broken leg has never set and this wound possibly caused by another
dog or by repeated rubbing against the hutch’s small door was never treated.
Deformities are ignored as well, this dog is left to function as well as he can on three
legs while living in a wire bottom cage.
The wire floors painful to the soft pads on the dogs paws, allow feces to build up in
mounds just below the cage.
The dogs must live with the inescapable stench of excrement.
Such conditions welcome uninvited guests at meal time.
The dogs’ food allowed to become wet and contaminated is infested with maggots.
Feeding time presents yet another trauma for one of these Pomeranians, she is being terrorized
by her cage mate who will not allow her to eat.
The uncaring way the dogs are grouped together, not only makes such behavior common, it violates
the animal welfare act, which requires breeders to separate aggressive animals from others.
Sooner or later, constant confinement drives the dogs mad.
Some begin to bounce off the walls, literally.
Others pace, not just for short periods of time, but constantly.
Deprived of proper exercise and companionship, this is the only life they know.
Their whole world is confined to a small cage.
For many of the dogs that inescapable reality sends them spinning endlessly in circles.
Although the speed at which this dog spins further into madness seems unreal, the tape
is being shown at normal speed.
Every animal at the puppy mill has a story of confinement, neglect, injury or disease
and there are hundreds of dogs, so many, in fact dogs like this one are routinely overlooked,
even though someone has left a note that reads “Don’t forget this dog.”
Please don’t forget that dog, or the millions of others trapped in puppy mills across the
country.
Remember their suffering the next time you pass a pet store.
If you put a puppy on your charge card, you’ll keep operations like the one you’ve just
seen in business, it’s that simple.
As long as there is a market for their babies, dogs will continue to be bred, neglected and
killed at puppy mills.
So if you have the time, the patience, the money for veterinary care, and the love to
share, go to your local pound or shelter instead of a pet shop.
You’ll find lots of dogs every size, color and breed, there are beautiful loving dogs,
just waiting to be adopted, dogs who desperately need homes.
Think of it this way, if you choose a dog from the mall, a dog you could have saved
from the pound will die and the pet shop will just keep on ordering more dogs to sell.
But if you adopt an animal from a shelter, you’ll not only save her life, you’ll
also help end the suffering of countless dogs at puppy mills.
In other words, your good deed will be rewarded twice.
To find out what else you can do to help, please contact PETA.
Thank you.
www.HelpPuppies.com 1-866-HELP-PUPS
PETA