What is a puppy mill? Puppy mills are where dogs are bred purely for profit. The majority of puppy mills are full of horrid conditions that no human would want to live in themselves. Dogs in mills are treated poorly and are not kept healthy, and where the puppies produced in mills go will shock you. Conditions in puppy mills are atrocious. Dogs are often crammed into small cages, with little or no room to move about and get needed exercise. The cages are usually not made from the proper materials, meaning they can rust or break, causing injuries or illness. The cages also have no lining, meaning dogs and puppies are left to either sit in their own excrement or walk on wire while theyre there, causing disease and painful foot problems. If improper, dirty, crowded cages werent enough, often these cages are stacked on top of each other with nothing to separate the dogs below from the ones above. This means that excrement from the dogs above falls directly on to those below. And if a dog dies in a cage and is not removed, the body fluids of the decaying dog falls on to the ones below. This causes extreme filth and disease, and, in some cases death. Dogs and puppies that live in puppy mills, even for short periods of time, are not treated humanely at all. They do not receive proper veterinary care and are usually left to suffer when injured or born with birth defects. Untreated injuries or birth defects cause gross deformities and even death. Diseases are also ignored, allowing them to spread to other dogs. Puppy mill dogs dont receive the proper nutrients either, if they are lucky to get fed at all. This means weaker bones and immune systems, leaving them more susceptible to injury and disease. Lack of treatment and feeding is largely due to neglect on the millers part. Most of the time, millers only visit their dogs to take puppies away, kill dogs that cant produce anymore, or discard already dead dogs. Dogs and puppies receive no normal human contact at all, meaning they are usually afraid of humans and not properly socialized. Visits from anyone other than the miller or his/her business associates are rare. Puppy mill dogs rarely, if ever, get regular vet visits, regardless of injuries or poor health. Female dogs in puppy mills are often bred from their first heat cycle until they can no longer give birth, with a litter produced every heat cycle. Once litters are born they are cared for by their weak, improperly cared for mothers for only a short time before being taken away to be sold or auctioned to other
