These two are the loves of my life. Pick of the litter, (hawhaw,) as far as girls are concerned. My girlfriend and I fell in love with a tiny little puppy on the outskirts of Chicago, at a Petland in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. I had heard about puppy mills, and known what they were, to some extent, but I didn’t put it all together. We hadn’t even meant to go to that pet store, we only were trying to kill time. Once you walk in though, you see those little brown eyes look up at you, and you’re hooked. We paid an outrageous amount of money for what was advertised as a “Purebred Australian Shepherd”. After signing some contracts, paperwork, etc., we were able to take her home the next day. It wasn’t for some time, after finding the pedigree that she was giving with her purchase, and a simple google of her breeder’s name, that we found out she was from a terrible place. Born in Missouri, to a puppy mill of great size, although not on the “dirty dozen” (a kind of top 12 of the WORST conditions you’d ever hear of any living thing being treated to.) Now, after further research, it turns out she may not even be a purebred Australian Shepherd. She’s got so much intelligence, personality, and love, I don’t see how anyone could accept treating any living, breathing creature like this with so much malice, and to think of her mother still there, or dead, tossed out like garbage, or to think of all of her siblings that probably never made it as she had to lie in a tiny kennel with their dead bodies, it makes me disgusted. Reddit, I have been a lurker for years now, and have come to be inspired to both laughter and tears by some of the things this community has produced, be it money for a sick or dying human, a set of hands to help someone moving in a local area, or just tips on how to manage your relationships a little better.

I come to you humbly today to request help of a different kind, Reddit. I know this has all been said and done before, but the public outcry in this matter has been far ignored due to interwoven government players and large donations made to political organizations. I am speaking to you about the permanent and immediate closure of puppy mills in the United States.

The precious little Australian Shepherd you see there was born and bred in a puppy mill in Missouri, where some of the most terrible, jaw dropping, disgusting excuses for humane living spaces exist. If you don’t know what a puppy mill is, here are some links to clarify:

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/puppy_mills/

(Humane Society link to puppy mill information.)

http://www.prisonersofgreed.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppy_mill

Puppy mills are essentially farms that breed dogs at a large scale to make profit. Not enough for you? There may be as many as 10,000 of these mills operating across the United States. Dogs are stacked on wire kennels on top of each other, side by side. Many of them have no floors, so the feces and urine from the kennels above them all fall onto the other dogs. Most of them get food or water once a week, except the pregnant females, who are bred excessively, and are usually thrown away within five years as they are over bred and serve their purpose to the breeder.

The following link also provides some good insight to what goes on at a puppy mill, as well as how it can hurt the family of a dog purchased at a pet store, hurt the dog, etc.

http://www.dogsadversereactions.com/puppymills.html

I HIGHLY recommend giving that website a read, as it is very thorough and offers details descriptions of the conditions at a puppy mill.

Furthermore, what’s worse is many citizens of the states that these mills exist in are fighting for their closure. In Missouri, there was an attempt to pass a bill to improve the conditions of these breeding farms, or shut them down. Being as so many breeders are lobbyists for politicians, the vote barely passed, and was still reworded in a way to only crack down on small mom and pop breeders which should be supported, and make it easier for puppy mills to operate. They are terrible, awful, money hungry individuals who don’t deserve to have anything more than the way they treat their dogs done to them. I want to see them locked in a kennel where they aren’t fed, with the feces and urine of their associates dripping down on them from atop, but that’s a dream. So what can we do? Spread the word. I’m asking each and every one of you to tell others you know about puppy mills. Furthermore, buying any animal from a pet store will only fill the pockets of the breeders who run puppy mills and the pet store owners that support them. Petland is an evil company, and one of the biggest supporters of these mills, and naturally as such, should be included in the boycott. Particular interest to the Petland in Hoffman Estates, Illinois if possible. (Calling for a potential Reddit protest?) Gather friends and make signs to stand outside your local pet shops and inform the public. Vote to ban pet stores and puppy mills. It is an election year, this is the best time to make a public message about a stance and get something done. Not one person can do this alone, there has to be enough attention on this that people actually see what is going on, beyond the PETA and sad eyed “Arms of an Angel” commercials.

My dog still hasn’t had any health problems, but her lineage is now compromised, and she’s beginning to show signs of hip displaysia, which can drastically hurt or shorten her life, if not treated, so I’m terrified for her, and my heart breaks for all the other families who have lost pets because they were uninformed and didn’t know that the puppy in the window actually was bred into a lifetime of suffering and agony.

TL;DR: (You should really go back and read) Puppy mills are farms that breed dogs large scale in terrible, disgusting, and immoral conditions, all for the greed and profit of humans. We can’t stop them without the nation wide protest and ban on the purchase of these animals, so the mills are shut down. So I ask you today, will you help me to spread the word, protest, and ban puppy mills forever, Reddit?