What is a Puppy Mill?
A puppy mill is a commercial facility where dogs are kept and bred in large numbers in order to sell puppies to the pet trade. The puppies generated may be sold to pet wholesalers or brokers, retail pet stores, or directly to the public.
The adult breeding dogs are not considered pets, nor are they treated as such. They are often crowded together in small wire cages and typically receive little social contact with people and little or no professional veterinary care, even when open sores or other wounds are evident.
The facilities can vary widely in cleanliness and quality, though it is common to find the dogs housed in makeshift shelters such as salvaged cargo truck boxes, semi trailers, or old agricultural buildings without heat or adequate ventilation and where feces and urine are allowed to accumulate.
The dogs are usually kept in wire cages to allow for ventilation and for excrement to fall away from the surfaces of the living area. They aren't taken out of those cages except for purposes of breeding or for other basic necessities. They aren't exercised. They aren't provided with nurturing human contact or socialization. The wire bottomed cages are painful for their feet. The cages are often stacked so that the excrement of the dogs above falls upon the dogs below.
Most of these dogs are not provided adequate vet care nor nutrition and are often exposed to climate extremes without shelter from our frigid winters or sweltering summers. The females are bred over and over again with every heat cycle until their bodies wear out.
The breeders sell the puppies to anyone who is willing to pay. In fact, in most cases the breeder never meets the buyer because the puppy is sold through an intermediary. Because the breeder has a finite number of breeding dogs, inbreeding is often an issue. That, combined with the stressful conditions, the inadequate exercise and nutrition, and lack of preventative vet care often results in puppies that are less than ideal, health-wise. And because they are not socialized, neither with humans nor with other dogs under normal circumstances, the puppies often have underlying temperament issues.
There are an estimated 10,000 USDA-licensed commercial breeders in the US, so competition is significant. That means that any one puppy doesn't bring a lot of money. So quantity is the key to profitability. And since females only come into heat approximately 2 times a year, a breeder must have many, many breeding dogs to be profitable.
As a general rule, the adult dogs are bred until they stop producing puppies or develop other health issues, at which point they may be shot, abandoned, or in rare cases, relinquished to animal rescue organizations that have indicated a willingness to accept and process them for possible adoption to private homes.
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No, there are many reputable dog breeders who care for their animals properly and do not aim to produce puppies in high-volume operations.
Many limit their practice to one or two breeds, and their adult dogs are kept as pets, working dogs, athletes, or show dogs. Their dogs typically receive regular veterinary care, training, and plenty of attention and socialization with people and with other dogs.
Reputable breeders keep careful records about the lineage of their animals and so can breed dogs selectively to improve their health, temperament, appearance, and other qualities. Most puppies are tested for potential hereditary problems and are properly vaccinated; if for some reason an individual puppy does not meet the breed standard or has other issues, it is often neutered/spayed and sold at a lower cost.
Good breeders typically sell directly to private owners and often require a signed contract wherein the buyer promises to return the dog if they cannot keep the dog permanently as planned. Good breeders provide their dogs with veterinary care to ensure the health of the adult dogs.
Virtually all puppy mill owner/operators know that the term "puppy mill" carries negative connotations and so they will seek legitimate status by using other terms such as “licensed breeder” to describe their operations. Whatever they call themselves, their practices often reveal the true nature of their business.
Here are some common indicators:
- Puppy mills tend to be high-volume operations, often housing dozens or even hundreds of breeding adult dogs and producing hundreds or thousands of puppies each year.
- Puppy mills often have substandard or makeshift buildings and other facilities where the adult dogs are housed.
- Puppy mills tend to promote odd hybrids or "designer mixed breeds" such as the "Morkie" (Maltese and Yorkshire terrier), "Labradoodle" (Labrador retriever and poodle mix), or "Cavachon" (Cavalier King Charles spaniel and Bichon Frise mix).
- Puppy mills often specialize in small breeds because they are more profitable. Buyer demand is higher than for large dogs, and small breeder dogs cost less to house and feed.
- Puppy mill operators often are reluctant to present the parents of the puppies.
- Puppy mill operators often do not allow visitors to see where the breeding dogs are housed, citing the alleged risk of viruses or other health threats to their animals or stating that their liability insurance does not allow visitors on that part of the premises. This is a ruse to keep customers from seeing the poor living conditions of the adult dogs.
- Puppy mill operators will sometimes offer to meet with buyers off-premises, especially if you are traveling some distance to get there. This gesture is presented as a time-saving favor to you, when it actually serves to keep details of the mill operation from the public.
- Unlike most reputable breeders, puppy mills don’t screen potential buyers to ensure the dog will have an appropriate home environment, and they don’t stipulate that the dog be returned there if the owner can’t keep it.
- Some puppy mill operators, especially Amish or Mennonite, insist on cash sales.
Not necessarily. Many pet stores obtain dogs from wholesale brokers who buy them from puppy mills, so that clean, well-lighted store is merely a pleasant retail front that masks the misery of the breeding facility.
Also, many sellers advertise through the internet or in local newspaper classifieds, and you won’t even know they are a puppy mill operation, especially if you meet off-site.
Finally, organized multi-vendor puppy sales that are open to the public, often held on weekends at large venues such as fairground sites and other locations, are typically stocked with young dogs produced in puppy mills.
It matters because the high-volume, profit-oriented nature of the puppy mill industry stacks the odds against your ending up with a healthy and well-adjusted dog.
Mill puppies are often separated from their mothers and siblings too early and thus don’t learn important social behavior such as bite inhibition. Their crowded conditions can make them overly competitive for food and space, resulting in aggressive behavior later.
Housebreaking a puppy mill dog can be especially problematic. Mill dogs, including the puppies, are confined to 
small cages or pens that serve at their “dens.” Normally a dog will not soil its den by urinating or defecating inside it, but these animals have no choice. Soon they adapt to living with their own waste and consider it “normal” behavior. Effective housebreaking methods channel a dog’s natural instinct for a clean den; if your dog has learned to ignore that instinct, it will be difficult to house-train.
Finally, because puppy mill operators typically don’t track the health and temperament histories of their dogs and often allow inbreeding, the puppies they produce can have problems you won’t discover until you bring them home.
Not at all. If you feel you must have a purebred puppy, there are plenty of reputable breeders that care for their dogs more responsibly than puppy mills do. Here's a website with a lot of great information: Almost Home Rescue.
It is estimated that 25% of dogs in shelters and rescues are pure breds, and though you might have to be patient or look outside your immediate area, it is possible to find puppies and purebred dogs at virtually any animal shelter or rescue organization. (Go online to www.petfinder.com to see how many great animals are available through public and non-government animal shelters.) Some rescue and placement organizations focus on a single breed of dog and always have plenty of good animals in need of a home.
Adult dogs at animal shelters or rescue organizations vary widely in age, size, breed, temperament, and other characteristics. Virtually all of them undergo behavior screening and training, thorough veterinary exams, and other evaluations that help ensure they are appropriate for adoption. Most are there due to chance or unfortunate circumstances; the owner might have passed away, moved, or experienced some other major life change that forced them to relinquish their animal. In economic downturns, some people find they can no longer afford to care for a pet.
