Where NOT to get a Puppy updated 8/7/2008
A puppy may be cute, but it comes with a lot of needs and expenses. Puppies grow quickly. As as they grow, they need constant supervision, training, exercise, food, medical care, attention and a ton of your patience, time, and money. Puppies are a lot of work. The time to get a puppy is after you have carefully thought about your lifestyle and how a puppy might or might not fit in. You need to research breeds and learn all you can about the characteristics of breeds you are interested in. If you are a quiet person who isn't interested in having to walk a couple miles a couple times a day, then a Husky is not the breed for you. Puppies do not make good gifts. The recipient may not even want a pet. The pet may be all wrong for that person. A person needs to research the type of pet that is suited to their life style and decide if they even want the responsibility of a pet. Pets do not make good gifts for children. Children cannot assume responsibility for the complete care of a pet. Often the novelty wears off and the pet is no longer wanted or cared for. Then what happens to the pet?
Online Sellers sell puppies to anyone who can pay the price. Online sellers are large puppy mills who breed and house dogs in substandard conditions. The parentage of the dogs is most often unknown. They ship puppies all over the place and have no interest in the welfare of the puppy. Often these puppies arrive ill, terrified, unsocialized and come with health and psychological problems that can last a lifetime. The motive for online sellers is to make money no matter what. They do NOT care about their puppies. Pet Stores get puppies from puppy mills from all over the country or from local backyard "breeders" interested only in profit. Pet stores do not care who buys the puppy - if you have a credit card or cash, you can have the puppy. They don't care if the breed is suitable to your lifestyle or if you are buying on impulse. Walk into a pet store, hand them your credit card and you own a puppy. If you change your mind, you have to find someone else to take on the puppy. The truth is that pet store puppies come from puppy mills which are houses of pain and horror for the dogs kept there. Puppies are shipped in large quantities to stores and then sold to anyone who has money. The health and psychological problems such dogs face can last a lifetime. Unscrupulous "Breeders" are people who indiscriminately breed puppies in their homes and backyards for the sole purpose of making money. The dogs are often kept in basements, backyards and sheds with minimal care and little to no socialization. Their dogs are not of good quality and often have genetic defects such as hip dysplasia, heart problems, eye defects. Let's talk about American Kennel Club (AKC) registration. Pet stores, online sellers and unscrupulous breeders brag that the pups are AKC registered. The key word here is "registered". Your car is registered, but does the Dept of Motor Vehicles guarantee that your car is a high-quality well-maintained car? No, it does not. Neither does AKC registration. The AKC is simply a registry that depends on the integrity of the people registering dogs. AKC in no way can guarantee quality, health or temperament of a dog. A breeder fills out paperwork and mails in a fee to register the dogs. That's it.
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| Please do NOT buy puppies at pet stores or through the Internet. Humane Society Information about Puppy Mills 800 Small Dogs Seized From Arizona Trailer in March 2008 CT Animal Control Officers participated in this raid and rescue in Maine. Massive Maine Puppy Mill Rescue Exposes Industry Ugliness |
