Another way to stop puppy mills

[KnottedYet]

The mistreatment of animals is so horrible and breaks my heart. I recently became a vegetarian because I no longer can accept the way cows, chickens and other livestock are treated.

I grew up in farm country, and part of my childhood was on a hippie-commune farm. I have no issues when I eat meat from an animal I know was treated well. But like you, I've started to have a real hard time eating factory-farmed animals, and I've turned my focus toward a lot more fish and vegetarian options.

Mind you, I recently ate steak and hamburger from "Daisy" and "Duke" with great enjoyment. I knew both those cattle personally from the time they were calves, saw the huge pasture they had and the good fresh grass they grazed on, and saw the frankly buccolic life they lead until they were swiftly and humanely killed. That may sound gross and disgusting, but if I don't know personally how a food animal lived, I'm having a very difficult time feeling decent about eating it after it is dead. Pretending meat was never part of a living animal just isn't working for me these days.

Likewise dogs: if I don't know it was raised in a loving home and its mother was treated well, I'd have a very hard time buying it.

But I do have to wonder about the economic consequences of the situation of boycotting milk from dairy/puppy mill operations. If I'm running cows and puppies, and suddenly the market drops out of my cows; well, I'd be likely to push harder on my puppies.

Not an easy problem to solve. It may be that legal and societal pressure could be more effective than economic pressure. It's a tough one.

[Aggie_Ama]

Tucker- I watched the most horrific documentary on your area and the puppy mills that supply the puppies for Petland on HBO. When Petland first opened I went to check it out, there was one puppy that was obviously ill still out for sale to the tune of $800. That poor little guy needed a better chance, I am sure he didn't make it. We have a guy that is out every weekend with lab puppies in the gas station by my house. You know he isn't breeding responsibly when he has puppies year round. The only choice I can make is not to support this activity but plenty of people stop there on the weekends. The guy got busted for selling dogs with parvo, but he back at it.

[maryellen]

but it's notable that the Newsweek story is out of Lancaster County, PA, the heart of "Pennsylvania Dutch" country, which they also describe as the heart of the puppy industry.

I was biking in Lancaster County in the end of June (on a great WomanTours trip, but I digress). One day we passed a farm with more barking and yelping than could come from anything but a puppy mill. I was hoping it was something else but reading this thread, it seems not.