Looking for a puppy?
You wouldn't pay someone to mistreat an animal, would you?

Sadly, that is exactly what people do when they purchase
puppies at petstores.  All puppies that are sold in petstores
come from the same humble and horrible beginnings...
PUPPYMILLS.  

For the unknowing this may mean nothing, but it should...and it
will, once you get your new puppy home.

Puppymills are merely commercial breeders.  Again
COMMERCIAL breeders.  These breeders are in it for the
money, NOT to produce healthy puppies.  While your puppy
may seem healthy in the petstore window, many illnesses and
diseases do not  surface until later in life when things like hip
displacement, blindness and seizures may cut their lives short.

Why should this matter to you?  For many reasons.  The largest
being that if most people could see the conditions in which these
dogs are kept, not only would they not buy the puppies, they
would do everything in their power to help these dogs.  Indeed it
is a pitiful sight to see dogs covered in feces, producing litter
after litter, in tiny wire-bottomed cages.  It's funny how you never
see those photos in petstores.  

Horrible conditions, horrible injuries.  It is not uncommon for
puppymill parents to be suffering from conditions such as:

Cherry Eye
Chewed-off limbs
Parasite infestations
Flattened feet (from living on wire floors)
Broken jaws (from debarking tools)
Severe tooth-loss (to include bone-eating infection in nasal
bones)


Another reason that it should matter to you is that
puppymillers/commercial breeders do not perform health tests.  
They breed their dogs according to heat cycle, never bothering
to find out if the puppies they are producing are carrying any
genetic diseases that can end a dog's life at an early age.  
Again, they do not care for anything except the consumer's
dollar, and they aren't going to increase their overhead to insure
that you have a healthy dog.  And by purchasing these puppies,
consumers are insuring that puppymillers will stay in business.  
They would have NO market if consumers did not purchase
these dogs!

Behavior of these puppies can range from odd to downright
impossible to live with.  Although these puppies are taken from
the mill at the age of eight weeks (at best), they retain a lot of
abnormal behaviors that their parents handed down to them
after years of being in the mill.  For example:

Pottying on heat registers - this mimics pottying on wire-bottom
cage floors and is the only thing the puppy has known.  This can
be VERY difficult to overcome.

Poop-eating - this is the only way the mother could keep her
living area clean, and the puppies learn very young that this is
the best thing to do.  Again, very difficult to overcome.

Distrust of men/women - puppymill puppies are NOT socialized.  
This can lead to fear and
aggression issues even as tiny puppies.  Their earliest days are
traumatic, and they do not become used to people.  This is
especially problematic in large breeds.

Remember that commercial breeders are also using the internet
to fool consumers into thinking they're good breeders.  When
looking at these sites, remember these rules:

**NO good breeder has a "shopping cart" button on their website
**NO good breeder will sell a dog without an application process
**ALL good breeders perform health tests
**NO good breeder sells hybrid (mixed breed, designer) dogs for
high prices
**NO good breeder produces many litters, from many breeds.  
Good breeders produce no more than a few (at most) litters per
year
**REMEMBER!!!!  The term "Champion Bloodline" does NOT
mean that your dog is coming from a good place.  MANY
so-called champions earned their titles from registries catering to
puppymills.

DON'T BE FOOLED!  DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE
BUYING A PUPPY!!!

Again, we STRONGLY urge you  not to purchase dogs from
petstores.  We have first-hand experience with the results (both
from out of control and sick puppies, and from long-time mill
parents) and we can honestly say that it is not only tragic, but
horrifying.  

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