Why Purchasing a Puppy from a Pet Store is a Bad Idea

A high majority of puppies from pet stores are from puppy mills and should never be purchased. As it is very tempting to want to save the typical poor puppy with a sad but anxious look on their face, it is best to not even purchase anything from that store. As a result of purchasing anything from the store, you then are supporting puppy mills. The more business a store has, the more amount of money they will have to spend on these poor, helpless, deprived animals.

The stores that sell puppies will never tell you that they are from a puppy mill, instead they will say that it is from a "private breeder." Just remember that a reputable breeder will never sell their puppy to a pet store. What is so bad about a puppy mill you might ask? Puppy mills are farms that are filled with rows and rows of small cages of dogs with sometimes more than one crammed into them. They have very little food and water, and sometimes none at all. The adult dogs, most which are inbred, are turned into breeding machines, and once they are no longer able to, they are usually killed. The dogs have no toys, no blankets for warmth, can not exercise or play with one another, and have almost no human contact at all. They also get little to no medical attention. They sleep and eat in their own feces with only one reason to live, which is to produce as many babies as they can before they are killed. Also to prevent from barking, most of these helpless dogs have been debarked by people shoving metal sticks down their throats with no medicine at all. Most of these dogs and puppies are very sick and have many mental and physical problems.

The conditions are absolutely horrific, and although there have been many active animal rights groups like PETA, that have shut down many of these puppy mills, they still do exist. The reason why is because there are still so many people who buy a puppy before they even research just because they think it is "cute". They do no research on where the puppy is from or even bother to take it to a Vet before it is too late. Most of these puppies are very sick and you will not be able to tell what is wrong with it until you take it to the vet. Until then, it will only be more heart break when you find out how much extra money you are going to have to spend to treat their conditions, and sometimes even after doing so, they do not even make it. There are people that have spent thousands extra on their puppy either buying it directly from someone running a puppy mill or from a store. They had no idea it was a puppy mill because they did not research . They had to endure years of heartache when they not only had to keep taking their sick puppy back to the vet, but from having to spend so much money that they did not have. Then there are the even more unfortunate people that even after spending so much time and money in trying to treat their sick puppy, their puppy ends up passing away because it was just too sick.

If more people buy from reputable breeders and not purchase from puppy mills or places that buy from them, then more could be shut down. Although it is sad to think about all the puppies that will die if no one buys them, it is better to still never purchase from them because if you do, you will be still supporting them.