Buying vs Adopting an Animal

Many people across the U.S. own some type of pet that they love and take care of. Little do they know that buying that adorable puppy they wanted from a large pet store may be supporting a horrible cause.

Many big-business pet stores are buying their animals from illegal breeders and puppy mills that abuse their animals by keeping them in captivity together, starving them, and failing to provide medical care. Many animals in the care of breeders end up getting ill, hurt, or even dying due to the lack of care and love that these animals need.

It is said that there are an estimated 10,000 puppy mills still up and running in the U.S. And, out of those 10,000 mills, it is unknown how many dogs die because they are often killed by the owners if they can’t breed anymore or if they are unable to be sold.

About 47 percent of American households own a dog and 46 percent own a cat, but only about 30 percent of these animals come from rescue shelters. Rescue shelters are a great alternative to a pet store. Getting an animal from a rescue shelter may save the life of an animal in need, and it tends to be much cheaper than any struggling pet store. Most animals from rescue shelters are also house trained and more well behaved. Adopting an animal makes the puppy mill industry go down, and you’re able to change the life of a homeless animal.

An abundance of people don’t know about the real horrors that go on inside a puppy mill. Animals that are stuck in puppy mills are often living in small wire cages with other animals. Their feet are almost always cut by the wire cages or the floor is littered with urine and feces that never gets clean which make their fur matted and dirty.

There are easy ways to avoid getting animals from puppy mills and illegal breeders. The easiest way is to buy an animal at a rescue shelter or pound rather than at pet stores.

If you’re worried you may own an animal from a puppy mill there are some possible signs of finding out. The first is if the breeder will not or cannot show you the parents of the animal you own. Another is if the breeder has multiple litters of an animal at once. A legal breeder, however, will only have a litter at a time to give the mother recovery time between births, which puppy mills owners do not do.

A key sign is if the animals reeks of feces or has a dirty cat then it’s likely they were living in a puppy mill. One of the biggest signs is if the breeder does not make you sign a contract saying you’ll give them the animal back if it doesn’t work out or they’re giving the animal away before it’s eight weeks old.

Many people aren’t educated on the places their beloved pets are coming from. Make sure you research a place or person before buying an animal.

Some acceptable places to get an animal:

http://www.adoptapet.com/adoption_rescue/76494.html

http://www.luckydoganimalrescue.org/adopt/petsl

http://www.dogloversdigest.com/ohio-rescue-shelters-and-organizations/

https://www.petfinder.com//pet-search?shelter_id=OH542

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