Revealed: The “Disturbing” Reality For Dogs At “Dismal” Puppy Mills That Supply Popular Pet Stores
Heartbreaking undercover footage shows cruel puppy mills in Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri, which have sold puppies to pet stores in Florida, New York and the Midwest.
The cramped, rickety cages at one of the puppy mills investigated. Credit: HSUS
A new undercover investigation into puppy mills that supply popular pet stores, has found animals languishing in cruel and dismal conditions.
Filmed on numerous dog breeding facilities in Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri, the footage shows distressed dogs circling in cramped, barren cages and others pacing in pens.
Despite the visibly cramped and poor conditions, the facilities - also known as “puppy mills” - are all licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the locations filmed have not been recently cited for any “critical” or “direct” violations. That’s led campaigners to condemn the USDA’s standards as “minimal and insufficient”, especially when considering that hundreds of dogs will languish for their entire lives in puppy mills like these.
Breeders who were implicated in the upsetting footage, have sold puppies to Petland stores in Missouri, Florida, and Kansas, as well as 20 pet stores in New York state, according to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), who conducted the undercover investigation.
“What makes this footage so deeply heartbreaking is that the parent dogs and their puppies spend their days circling on top of each other in dingy, cramped cages with the hot sun beating down on them”, says Kitty Block, president and CEO of HSUS.
“These disturbing conditions are not exceptions but the standard environment for dogs raised by USDA-licensed commercial breeders, otherwise known as puppy mills. Their badly mistreated, emotionally traumatized and often sick puppies go on to pet stores where the public is misled to believe that they were raised in cozy, loving homes. It is a system of cruelty, indifference and misrepresentation that must stop.”
Not only is commercial breeding often cruel to the animals themselves, it can also result in heartbreak for their human companions too. Thousands of consumers have revealed to HSUS that their animals “fell sick and sometimes died shortly after purchase”, after having been duped by supposedly reputable breeders, who are actually just sourcing puppies from dismal mass-breeding facilities like those shown in the recent HSUS investigation.
With the holiday season approaching, this puppy mill investigation is a reminder to “adopt don’t shop” when it comes to companion animals.
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