What is puppy mill?

In puppy mills, owners raise puppies with cheap cost and without caring animals’ welfare. Typical for puppy mill is covering its operating. Usually client of puppy factory is going to be disappointed when money, many times more than money saved from buying cheap puppy, end up to veterinarians. Puppy mill’s raise both dogs and cats, which are either racially pure or crossbred.

Since puppies tend to cost hundreds, even thousands euro, there has emerged plenty of black markets. Puppy millers raise puppies as much and as cheap as they can. Production is pitiless business, and those who suffer are mostly puppies and buyers.

In many cases puppy mill dogs are held in small travel cages, which are stacked in piles. This way there is room for numerous dogs in small space. Dogs must do their needs to their cage and they never get to exercise. Even big dogs are held this way.

Mysterious vending

Typical for puppy mills is hiding their activity. Puppies are sold in papers, where announcing is without charge. Announcing in internet is also handy. Contact information in announcements are usually secret numbers or prepaid connections to use for little period of time. Sellers might sell puppies with different races at the same time.

When buyer candidate wants to see puppies, rendezvous is settled for example certain parking lot, where puppies are sold straight from car’s trunk. Sometimes puppy is brought straight to buyers home. In some cases buyer is allowed to come to miller’s home yard to show puppy or several of them. However seller won’t let buyer in the house or see puppy’s dam.

After showing puppy to buyer, vender insists buyer to decide immediately whether to buy puppy or not. Buyer won’t get time to consider the case or get to know puppy more before deciding. Unless puppy is bought, seller might even try to threaten buyer that he or she will put puppy to sleep.

Hidden and visible diseases

If puppies are raised only for the money, their parents are rarely properly vaccinated nor have they been researched for hereditary diseases. Deworming is also neglected. It is also common that animals are mating with each other in puppy mills. If so, it’s possible that puppy’s parents are close relatives. In these packs hereditary diseases become apparent rapidly and puppies may suffer their whole life from difficult problems in bones, allergies or inflammation vulnerabilities. Usually bitches work only as breeding machines that give birth to puppies after every term to maturity. Milling might start as early as after bitch’s first rut, when dam herself is still a puppy. In most cases puppy millers don’t pay attention to dams’ nutrition when puppies also remain weak and become easily sick with infecting diseases or formative disorders.

It is typical that animals’ furs in puppy mills are not taken care of. If race’s fur needs continuous and regular care, animal’s fur get tangled as felty layer and curled nails, eye, ear and skin infections are hidden below the hair. Since reckless breeder hasn’t vaccinated dam, puppies won’t get antibodies against parvo-virus or shin splint.

Usually it costs a lot to treat puppy in veterinary and usually puppies in poor shape, for example those suffering from parvo-diarrhoea, won’t make it despite the treatment. In this way, cheap puppy may end up as very expensive. Of course mere price won’t guarantee puppy’s health or good nutrition. That’s why it is important to pay attention to puppy’s growing environment and breeder’s motives, so one can find as well cared and as healthy as possible a puppy.

Claimed to be “accidental” puppy

Unfortunately there are production factories both abroad and in Finland that fill criteria of puppy mills, where animals live in very inadequate conditions and are not taken care of. Mere number of dogs won’t tell the whole truth about their welfare problems – even producing puppies with only few bitches might be noted as puppy milling.

Some puppy millers register part of their litters in Finnish Kennel Club registry to keep up with good reputation. After registered litter, they breed another unregistered one. According to Kennel Club, one must not breed puppies from single dam more than once in ten months, but since terms of maturity comes more frequently, greedy miller can earn more with bitch by producing litter under-the-cover.

One shouldn’t believe explanation of “accident”, which is claimed to lead to selling those puppies. Real accidental breeding tend to happen even to careful breeders, but when those “accidents” happen many times for single breeder, it is most likely that it’s planned action. Be either way, one shouldn’t buy puppy from a place like this.

Never buy puppy out of pity – even if you saved one puppy you also support this activity. Best way to end suspicious animal business is to avoid supporting it any way. Without buyers, there won’t be sellers.