It can be hard to resist the cute puppies and kittens for sale in pet-store windows. But a closer look into how these stores obtain animals reveals a system in which the high price that consumers pay for “that doggie in the window” pales in comparison with the cost paid by not just the animals who are sold in pet stores but also the animals who are forced to produce litter after litter in order to supply these stores.
That adorable little puppy in the store probably came from a “puppy mill,” a breeding kennel that raises dogs in cramped, crude, filthy conditions. The majority of these facilities are in the Midwest (there are an estimated 1,500 unlicensed kennels in Missouri alone), but they can be found throughout the country, and some dealers even import puppies from other countries.(1,2) Constant confinement and a lack of adequate veterinary care and socialization often result in unhealthy animals who are difficult to socialize. Consequently, many puppies are abandoned within weeks or months of their adoption by frustrated buyers—further exacerbating the tragic companion-animal overpopulation crisis.
Cages, Filth, and Neglect
Puppy-mill kennels can consist of anything from small cages made of wood and wire mesh to tractor-trailer cabs to simple tethers attached to trees. A Pennsylvania breeder confessed that he kept his dogs in cages because it was “the only way to keep a lot of dogs—to keep them penned up.”(3) Female dogs are bred twice a year and are usually killed or abandoned when they are no longer able to produce puppies.(4) Mothers and their litters often suffer from malnutrition, exposure, and a lack of adequate veterinary care.
Puppies are torn away from their mothers and sold to brokers who pack them into crates for transport and resale to pet stores. Puppies who are shipped from mill to broker to pet store can travel hundreds of miles in pickup trucks, tractor-trailers, and airplanes, often without adequate food, water, ventilation, or shelter.
Even if a store claims that it doesn’t buy from puppy mills, there is a good chance that it buys from a broker who does.(5)
Young puppies who survive the unsanitary conditions at puppy mills and endure the grueling transport to pet stores have rarely received the kind of loving human contact that is necessary for them to become suitable companions. Breeders, brokers, and pet stores ensure maximum profits by not spending money for proper food, housing, or veterinary care.
Conditions don’t improve much when the puppies reach pet stores. Dogs who are kept in small cages without exercise, love, or human contact tend to develop undesirable behavior and may bark excessively or become destructive and unsociable. Unlike many humane societies and animal shelters, pet stores do not screen buyers or inspect potential future homes of the dogs they sell. Poor enforcement of humane laws allows shops to continue selling sick animals, although humane societies and police departments sometimes succeed in closing down stores in which severe abuse is uncovered.
