If you’re an animal lover and supporter of animal rights, you’ve probably heard of puppy mills and backyard breeders and their terrible treatment of puppies and dogs. While many talk about people who are cruel to stray dogs, only a few are aware of puppy mills and how backyard breeders recklessly breed dogs, including puppies, who suffer greatly for the sake of profit. As a result of their mistreatment, the majority of these breeds become sick and eventually die. Despite the fact that many people have voiced this issue, this horrible conduct continues in innumerable places. However, before you can do anything to help these unfortunate animals, you must first understand what backyard breeding and puppy mills are. Here’s a quick reference guide.
Backyard Breeders
Backyard breeders may appear to be the nicer of the two, however, they are equally terrible for how they treat their pets. Similar to puppy mill owners, breeders are motivated by profits as well, and usually don’t care much about their canine’s health and happiness. Even if some claim to breed their dog/s once in a while, most people lack knowledge about responsible breeding, as it involves certain steps that if not taken, can affect a dog’s health. Proper breeding entails extensive and careful assessment rather than just letting the dogs mate.
Puppy Mills
Puppy mills are commercial large-scale facilities that produce complete batches of puppies on demand. You’d be surprised to know that about 90% of puppies in pet stores come from these places. Because puppy demand has increased tremendously as the data on Puppy Mill Stats clearly imply, breeders are rushing to speed up the process. While doing so, negatively impacts the health and well-being of these animals. Most retailers and private buyers usually don’t pay attention to how the animals are treated, or generally, just take the word of the breeders.
In reality, these dogs are kept in their stuffy cages for numerous days without proper care. They’re not taken out for walks, or even given proper hygiene care. In addition to the cages being overcrowded, they are also exposed to extreme weather conditions, which results in the dogs’ death. If an animal gets sick, they get little to no attention, and worst, are left to die.
Regulations Surrounding The Practice
Many states have existing breeding regulations for both mass scale dog breeding and private backyard breeding yet the latter is harder to identify and regulate because it happens privately in someone’s house. Where state laws require breeders to obtain licenses that ensure proper care is being taken of these puppies, small-scale producers are oftentimes completely ignored.
Many animal rights advocates have voiced their concern for these issues, and although the results led to the issuance of some policies, the problems still exist on a large scale. The problem is with the non-uniformity of these regulations across different states. Because of these defects in the system, the illegal breeding companies can just relocate to a state where these inhumane acts are all legal.
While it’s important to raise awareness on these issues, it’s also important that people across the country work together to eradicate this poor treatment of animals. Many people love and adore these cute puppies, yet the majority are unaware of the deplorable care they had prior to their arrival at pet stores. Animals are living beings and should be treated with utmost care. Anyone who doesn’t understand this needs to become more empathetic and actually observe what they’re going through. Additionally, steps should be taken to ensure stricter implementation of regulations.
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