Should people buy puppies from pet stores, whose animals were obtained from puppy mills, to “rescue” them?
NO! Many people feel sorry for the puppies in the pet store window. But purchasing these dogs only keeps the industry profitable and encourages breeders to churn out more puppy mill puppies. Every time someone buys a puppy mill puppy, an adult breeding dog is sentenced to a lifetime of misery in the puppy mill prisons. What is being done to address this problem? To start, don’t purchase a commercially bred puppy from anywhere in or out of the United States. A law was enacted to protect the consumer: The Dog Purchaser Protection Act. For a copy of the Act contact the PA Attorney General at 717-772-0907 or http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/pei/dog/index.cfm. Then why don’t these laws prevent the cruelties common in puppy mills? Prevention of cruelty to animals requires effective state anti-cruelty laws. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is the federal agency responsible for the Animal Welfare Act’s enforcement, is frequently under-funded for enforcement of the
