The best and worst place to adopt your next dog
Do you want to know which is the best and the worst place to adopt a dog? Adopting a puppy from a puppy mill is the worst place to adopt a dog. If you buy your dog from a pet store or online, it most likely came from a puppy mill.
What exactly is a puppy mill? Having seen a story with Lisa Ling on the Oprah show that brought a hidden camera to puppy mill life, I was so horrified and shocked that I had to share what I saw. I knew they were bad, but I didn’t know how bad. If you did not have a chance to see the shocking video, I will try to describe it to you. If more people really knew where and how their puppy breeding dogs came about, I’m sure they would change their minds and stop buying dogs that come from puppy mills. If we instead adopted our dogs from shelters and rescue organizations, we would be doing more than saving the life of a dog in need. Puppy factories are extremely inhumane and it is quite shocking that we allow them to function.
Let’s take a virtual tour of a puppy factory and find out where the parents of those puppies are. We come across a place where hundreds of dogs are kept in small, rabbit-like wire fences with a wire floor. Dogs are dirty, covered in urine and feces, large patches of skin are missing, and the skin is covered in sores. There are several dogs in each small cage and adult dogs cannot even walk because they have never left the cage. They spend up to 10 years or more in these little cages together without medical attention. Females are forced to breed each cycle producing hundreds of cubs each. Females are covered in tumors from overproduction. When the dog can no longer reproduce, it is shot and killed. Some of the dogs have had a long tube stuck down their throats to damage their vocal cords and prevent them from barking. Dogs are not socialized and have never had a human pet. Many have neck chains that are so tight that bloody skin has grown through the chain.
Once these breeding dogs have puppies, the puppy mill owners take the puppies, clean them, fluff them, and make them look cute for us to adopt. If you knew that the mother of this cute puppy was suffering for years in a cage to produce this puppy, would you want to finance this operation buy buy it or would you want to do what you could to close it? If you buy a puppy that originates from this type of place you are financing it to continue. If we were together and never bought another puppy from a pet store or online, and instead gave a dog a home in a shelter or rescue group, you have stood up for what is right to make this whole situation better. These puppy mill dogs may be cute on the outside, but they’re over-bred, which can cause significant physical and behavioral problems that can end up costing you a lot of money and suffering down the road.
How can you tell if a dog is from a reputable puppy mill or breeder? If you still want to buy a dog, buy only from a breeder where you can visit their location and see the condition of the mother and other dogs. If you buy from an online breeder where you cannot physically visit the area, it is most likely from a puppy mill. A good breeder will actually get a dog back even years later if necessary rather than see it end up in a shelter. A reputable breeder also has extremely extensive adoption procedures because they want the adoption to be the best match possible. You get what you pay for too; so don’t be fooled by a discount breeder.
So where is the best place to adopt a dog? If you are considering adopting a dog and are trying to decide the best place to adopt your dog, look no further. Shelters and rescue organizations are the new “in” thing. People are getting educated and realizing that there are so many really cool dogs to adopt at the local animal shelter or rescue organization! You can even find purebred puppies and dogs there too. They say that education is freedom. Well, education is freedom for dogs too! Now, Americans are learning that most dogs in shelters and rescue groups are actually cool dogs, which would make wonderful family companions. Mixed breed dogs are often healthier too, they get the best traits from the mix of their breeds, and you can have a unique dog like no one else.
Little by little we are abandoning the myth that all shelter dogs are there because of some behavior problem. The truth is, most are there because of a mismatch in their previous home, not because there is something wrong with them. Also, many times people adopt a cute puppy only to find that they didn’t know how difficult it was to raise a puppy and they end up in the shelter. If everyone decided to adopt their next dog from a shelter or rescue group, we could avoid so many unnecessary deaths and shut down the puppy mills!
I am a huge advocate for adopting adult dogs from shelters or rescue groups for many reasons. Millions of wonderful dogs die each year simply because there are not enough homes for them and yet the puppy mills are generating new dogs every day. Why are we producing all these dogs in horrible conditions when we have perfectly good dogs that need a home in our shelters? Shelter dogs and rescue dogs are wonderful companions and with a little training we can really have the kind of dog we always wanted and feel good about adopting a dog in need rather than supporting grossly inhumane puppy mills.
What can ONE person do? Adopt your next dog from a shelter or rescue group and never again from an unknown pet store or breeder. Spay or neuter your dog to prevent dog overpopulation. Spread the word about puppy mills. Learn more; educate others, volunteer at a shelter or rescue group.
If everyone affected by this information tells someone they know, etc., maybe we can spread the word and educate more people and find ourselves saving the dogs we love. Dogs love us and depend on us, let’s work together! Let’s save more dog lives and shut down the puppy mills. Adopt from your local shelter or rescue organization!