Puppy Mill Prison

The pups in pet store displays are adorable—wriggling balls of energy just waiting to jump into customers' arms. Store owners count on love at first sight because it prompts people to shell out hundreds of dollars to take cute puppies home. It should be a happy ending: The dog gets a home and the store turns a profit. But there is an unseen, darker side to the story. As long as pet shops churn out puppies, unwanted dogs in animal shelters will be killed. And most pups sold in stores come from hellholes called puppy mills, where mother dogs and "studs" spend lonely lives in miserable cages, producing litter after litter, like so many widgets off an assembly line. For months a PETA investigator worked at Nielsen Farms—a puppy mill in Kansas. His job was to feed, water and clean up after hundreds of dogs condemned to small wire enclosures. The animals had no comforts—no bedding on the hard wire, little to no protection from the searing hot summers or the frigid winters and no regular veterinary care, even when they were ill. Crusted, oozing eyes, raging ear infections, mange that turned their skin into a mass of red scabs, abscessed feet from the unforgiving wire floors—all were ignored or inadequately treated. An Australian cattle dog with a palm-sized sore on her back was never seen by a veterinarian and the wound did not heal properly. Some dogs, caught in the wire of their cages, injured their feet and hobbled painfully around, trying to balance. Our investigator also discovered that the collar on a Labrador retriever had not been adjusted as the dog grew and had become embedded in his flesh. Even though the gangrenous skin fell away as the collar was removed, it was treated with nothing but a worm-repellant spray. Timid dogs were terrorized by their more aggressive cage-mates, who often prevented them from eating and drinking. Conditions were also unsafe. Several Labrador pups escaped from their poorly built kennel, and one was killed by other dogs in an adjoining run, yet the fence was never fixed. Perhaps most heartbreaking of all were the old mother dogs who had gone mad from confinement and loneliness. Our investigator watched these poor dogs circle frantically in their small cages and pace ceaselessly back and forth, back and forth, oblivious to anything but the pattern of their strange behavior—their only way of coping with their despair. The tragic conditions at Nielsen Farms are typical of the hundreds of puppy mills that litter the Midwestern states. Laws offer little protection and are poorly enforced by U.S. Department of Agriculture employees, whose visits are infrequent and usually announced ahead of time. Our investigator witnessed one USDA inspection. The inspector glanced at the cages but did not examine the dogs. Later, the inspector asked for an employee's home phone number, then called and asked her for a date. Just weeks after PETA's investigation of Nielsen Farm revealed tiny, filth-encrusted cages and sick dogs with raging ear infections, disfiguring mange and open, untreated wounds, the Kansas puppy mill closed its doors—one dilapidated breeding farm fewer to supply the pet store puppy trade. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has also charged the farm's owners with violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. Puppy mills such as Nielsen will continue to operate and profit as long as people buy puppies from pet stores. The public has the power to end the suffering of dogs in puppy-mill prison. You can help reach consumers and make a huge difference for dogs who, like your own companions, deserve decent homes.