Analysis: Don T Buy, Adopt

Don’t Buy, Adopt Imagine being cooped up in a wire cage not even big enough to stand up in. Being forced to lie in your own feces because the cage has never been opened. Your sole purpose in life is to give birth to babies each year until no longer possible. Once of no use any longer, your life is taken. A human may need to imagine this, but a dog does not. This is the reality for female breeder dogs in puppy mills. They are treated so poorly that once rescued by rescue groups, it can take up to eight hours just to get their fur looking how it should. When rescued, dogs are covered in fleas, feces, urine, dirt, and much more. Their fur is matted to where it is almost impossible to get it looking normal again. To cut off the inhumane practices

Many people around the country buy dogs from pet stores. These pet owners are perfectly content with their furry friends, but they are not fully informed about their pet. There are many other factors pet stores do not tell their consumers. One of the main components is where the pet stores obtain the dogs from. Dogs are purchased by pet stores from puppy mills, which are scattered all over the nation. There are approximately 10,000 mills in the United States. A puppy mill, according to Kim Evans’ book Pets, is “a facility that breeds puppies in inferior conditions and sells them in commercial markets.” They are not provided adequate veterinary care, food, shelter, or socialization. The female dogs are bred at every opportunity with little to no recovery time. When they can no longer reproduce, they are killed. Puppies are sold to pet shops, through newspaper ads, and at swap meets and flea markets as young as 8 weeks old. Their living conditions are horrible. They are kept in cages stacked in columns with wire flooring that injures their paws and legs. Some spend their whole life in cages, never being able to walk on solid ground. According to the article “A Dog’s Life; Puppy Mills” from the infotrac newsstand, “Some breeding places hardly bare inspection and can contain up to 1,000 breeding females under one roof.” Puppies suffer from fear, anxiety, and other behavioral problems because they are separated from their littermates and mother at such a young age. The puppies are transported long distances in cramped cages causing them to suffer from debilitating conditions and diseases. The article, “A Dog’s Life; Puppy Mills,” states that when engaging in an industry that pertains to live animals and is looking to make a high profit, less money is put into the business. This means that less care is provided for the animals creating a severely inhumane environment. Puppy mills could