How to spot a puppy mill

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/02/2018 (2962 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I was on vacation in Phoenix when we happened upon a pet store in a mall. Well, it wasn’t really a pet store as much as it was a puppy store.  

Yes, a puppy store. Fifteen hundred square-feet of glass-fronted kennels featuring every imaginable puppy. Mostly little fluffy ones — Pomeranians, shih tzus and the like — but also larger breeds, like English bulldogs.

I follow the news in the pet industry of course, it is my job, after all. But I didn’t realize that there were still stores like this out there. Growing up, pet stores always had puppies. So many movies include pet shops with puppies in them as part of pop culture. Even songs like How Much Is That Doggie in the Window? made common the acceptance of puppies in pet stores.
But, in the last few decades, you will have noticed that puppies have virtually disappeared from pet stores. I’m not sure if there is a pet store in Canada where you can buy a puppy anymore. I don’t run across any in my travels nor in  conversations with reps from the pet supply distributors.

Here’s the interesting thing — pet stores didn’t stop carrying puppies because they couldn’t make money on them, they stopped because of pressure from consumers.  

A large number of puppies sold in pet stores came from “puppy mills”. Not all of them but enough that pet stores were keeping puppy mills in business. So, the best way to put an end to puppy mills was to cut out the customer, and that’s what was done.

People boycotted, or threatened to boycott stores that sold puppies. So stores lost customers who weren’t even buying puppies. Groups educated consumers about where most puppies came from. So stores lost buyers for puppies, and it was in their best interest to stop selling puppies altogether. There were some doing it responsibly and providing a good service to their customers but I think the end result was for the greater good.

Does this story have a happy ending?

In some ways, yes. Many pet stores moved from selling puppies to becoming satellites for rescue shelters.

“Adopt, don’t shop” is a phrase you see a lot when talking puppies. Unfortunately, puppy mills still exist. Not to the extent they did in their heyday but they still exist. Because they’ve found a new way to sell puppies — on the internet.  
Those same groups that managed to stop puppies in pet stores are now focused on sites such as Kijiji, Backpage, or Craigslist, trying to get them to stop allowing sale of pets on their sites. Puppy mills will use these sites, and accomplices, to fool people into thinking they are buying from a home breeder. The unsuspecting buyers dosn’t realize they’ve been taken until it’s too late. Unlike buying from a pet store, where they would have some recourse through a guarantee or being able to complain to a manager or owner, internet sellers can disappear overnight and get right back to business with a new website, ad or phone number.  

How can we help finish off puppy mills for good?

There are many online petitions that you can google and sign to help these groups address selling puppies online. If you are shopping for a puppy and in your search you come across what you suspect is a puppy mill, please report it.

Always visit the home of the people you are buying from. If they won’t let you see where the dogs are kept, walk away. If they can’t show you the mom, walk away. If they don’t want you to visit, and suggest meeting you to drop off the puppy, run away. A proper breeder will have the mother and littermates there and if this is not just a family pet that had a litter, they should have a kennel area that you should be able to inspect, to see that they treat their animals well.  

If you suspect that you are dealing with a puppy mill, you can report it to Animal Services, the Humane Society or even law enforcement. They may not be able to act on your complaint alone but if enough people complain, action will eventually be taken.  

Adopting a rescue dog seems to be the preferred way to acquire a family pet now, and that is great.

It’s pretty hard to find a better payback than giving a home to a dog in need.  

Contact Jeff with your questions or ideas at thrivepetfoodmarket@shaw.ca or visit www.thrivepetfoodmarket.com