Do people that buy dogs from pet stores or icky back yard breeders still consider themselves pet lovers?
Most people who buy from pet stores simply don’t know about puppy mills and what’s going on. And yeah, I think they love their pets. I think some people who buy from BYB’s/puppy mills directly, however, DO know what’s up (re: puppy mills, euthenasia rates, and difference between a good breeder and BYB/mill) and just don’t care. Because they want less expensive purebred dogs or they really want their trendy “designer mix” dogs. These people don’t care about animals. They care about how awesome they look with their coveted accessory. As for “rescuing” pets by buying from mills or petstores – you might be “rescuing” one animal, but you’re basically killing several others. Think about it in terms of running a business. If they make $300 off of one puppy, that’s $300 they invest right back into their business. That’s $300 worth of cages they can buy to put more breeding dogs in. That’s $300 worth of advertising on websites to rope in more buyers for their puppies. That’s $300 worth of new b
