The topic of puppy mills is near and very dear to my heart. Nothing makes my blood boil faster than people saying puppy mills don't exist. 

You can't begin to realize the inhumane-ness of puppy mills are until you experience it for yourself. It's been three years since we've adopted our little pup mill survivor. This dog has taught me more about puppy mills and cruelty than anything I can ever read in the newspaper and/or text book. I'm so glad he come into our lives. 

Joey's first haircut.

Mats were stuck together mostly via pee and probably poop

Why am I writing this blog entry? The big hoopla is this story right here. We don't know for sure that the puppies in this store will be from puppy mills, but since over 90% of all puppy store puppies ARE from mills...we can safely assume that the puppies in this particular store might be from mills. 

Believe it, or not, this a rather controversial story. Some quotes/comments from FB saying puppy mills are made up. I'm calling these points. 

Point 1: Someone posted this and commented, "this 'puppy mill' sounds awful. 

 Point 2: "Everyone stop adopting from Shelters and go to private! Tired of these shelters dictating who and what can come here but open another shelter and these idiots are all for that! These people should open one in like old target building (in Jenison, MI) and make it a bigger animal store!"

Point 3: "Pretty sad Facebook trumps new store opening and more jobs ... great idea... smh. Who runs the show here ????"

WELP! We/I can debunk or come up with a counter-attack for each and every one of this points.

Point 1:  The breeder book? Required by law. Vet check? The law.

Chapter 54 section 2140 of Animal Welfare Act:

...(1) The Secretary shall promulgate standards to govern the humane handling, care, treatment, and transportation of animals by dealers, research facilities, and exhibitors. (2) The standards described in paragraph (1) shall include minimum requirements— (A) for handling, housing, feeding, watering, sanitation, ventilation, shelter from extremes of weather and temperatures, adequate veterinary care, and separation by species where the Secretary finds necessary for humane handling, care, or treatment of animals; and (B) for exercise of dogs, as determined by an attending veterinarian in accordance with general standards promulgated by the Secretary, and for a physical environment adequate to promote the psychological well-being of primates. (3) In addition to the requirements under paragraph (2), the standards described in paragraph (1) shall, with respect to animals in research facilities, include requirements— (A) for animal care, treatment, and practices in experimental procedures to ensure that animal pain and distress are minimized, including adequate veterinary care with the appropriate use of anesthetic, analgesic, tranquilizing drugs, or euthanasia; (B) that the principal investigator considers alternatives to any procedure likely to produce pain to or distress in an experimental animal; (C) in any practice which could cause pain to animals— (i) that a doctor of veterinary medicine is consulted in the planning of such procedures; (ii) for the use of tranquilizers, analgesics, and anesthetics; (iii) for pre-surgical and post-surgical care by laboratory workers, in accordance with established veterinary medical and nursing procedures; (iv) against the use of paralytics without anesthesia; and (v) that the withholding of tranquilizers, anesthesia, analgesia, or euthanasia when scientifically necessary shall continue for only the necessary period of time...

Section 2143 of AWA:

 ...dogs or cats, or additional kinds or classes of animals designated by regulation of the Secretary, shall be delivered by any dealer, research facility, exhibitor, operator of an auction sale, or department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States or of any State or local government, to any intermediate handler or carrier for transportation in commerce, or received by any such handler or carrier for such transportation from any such person, department, agency, or instrumentality, unless the animal is accompanied by a certificate issued by a veterinarian licensed to practice veterinary medicine, certifying that he inspected the animal on a specified date, which shall not be more than ten days before such delivery, and, when so inspected, the animal appeared free of any infectious disease or physical abnormality which would endanger the animal or animals or other animals or endanger public health: Provided, however, That the Secretary may by regulation provide exceptions to this certification requirement, under such conditions as he may prescribe in the regulations, for animals shipped to research facilities for purposes of research, testing or experimentation requiring animals not eligible for such certification. Such certificates received by the intermediate handlers and the carriers shall be retained by them, as provided by regulations of the Secretary, in accordance with section 2140 of this title.

The above paragraphs were copy and pasted via AWA online. Read the entire act for yourself here. 


Point 2: I know from personally experience that it's easy to go to a pet store/breeder than it is to adopt from a shelter. Trust me. I know.
In order to adopt from a shelter and/or rescue you have to have a fenced in yard, no kids, five kids, blue eyes, black hair whatever. It's so so frustrating trying to adopt. We all know and rah! rah! rah! "Don't shop, adopt." But when you try to adopt, many give up and go to a pet store. The strange thing is, I'd jump all the hoops again. (NOTE: I adopted Rosie, our Pit girl, from a rescue NOT shelter. It was a bit easier to adopt her. The local shelter was a bitch and we had an emotional time adopting Joe).

Point 3: I guarantee, although can't say for sure, that the the associate's in this new store will be making minimum wage. While a job is a job, it's low wage. Some high school kid is going to get the job selling puppies. There's not too many overqualified adults that will want to sell puppies for low wage.
I know Michigan economy sucks. It's pretty sad what happened in Detroit. What we need are more high paying jobs for those getting out of college etc.

There you have it.