PetKnows

Saturday, September 20, 2008 is National Puppy Mill Awareness Day. “Puppy mills” is a term for facilities that practice large-scale breeding of dogs. Dogs born in these conditions tend to have chronic health problems, defects, temperament issues, and socialization problems. Combine that with inadequate food, water, and veterinary care, and you have a pretty terrible situation.

So, just don’t buy from a puppy mill, right? Well if you buy a dog from a pet store, you do not always know where the furry cutie really came from. According to Wikipedia, “the vast majority of puppy mill animals are sold to pet stores by ‘dealers.’ Some puppies are sold by dealers masquerading as authentic breeders. Reputable breeders never sell puppies to dealers or pet stores.”

Please go to the Puppy Mill Awareness site to learn how you can get involved. Recommendations include:

• Join a meetup group in your area (or start one). Meet and join others who want to educate the community about puppy mills by handing out flyers, tabling at PetSmart, PetCo and other animal-friendly businesses that don’t sell puppies. Scroll down to the list of currently participating cities.
• Send a Letter to the Editor to your local newspaper about Puppy Mill Awareness Day. Click here to download a guide and sample letter.
• Hang a flyer at work, the grocery store, the dog park, veterinarian’s office, groomer etc. Click here to download the flyer.
• Get a Puppies Aren’t Products shirt from Café Press click here to order.
• Get a Puppy Mill Awareness Day lawn sign Click here to purchase.
• Feeling ambitious? Organize a pet store protest in your area - click here to learn how.
• Are you part of a group that already protests a pet store? Send out a press release to let the media know that your September 20th protest is also on Puppy Mill Awareness Day.

And a few suggestions from the PetKnows team:

• RSVP to our online event on Facebook (if you are not a fan of our Facebook page yet, go sign up!)
• Read up on the issue. Oprah dedicated an entire episode to the issue last year and has a ton of great information and resources on her website. The Humane Society has a whole section dedicated to information about puppy mills as well.

Photo by Feral Indeed! on Flickr