Backyard Breeders and Puppy Mills
Originally written and used with permission by Melody Underwood Hobbs ©1997
Breed Specific modification and alterations by Christopher Cooper ©1997
This version used with permission from Northern Territories
The Backyard Breeder
So who is this "backyard breeder"? The backyard breeder can, at best, be described as uninformed. At their worst, they are nothing more than small scale puppy mills.The usual backyard breeder is going to be someone who owns a purebred, AKC registered bitch. We'll call her Sally. It doesn't matter what breed. She is a big for her breed, and a little cow-hocked, in short, she wouldn't win any prizes at a dog show, but she is registered.
Down the street, one of the neighbors just so happens to have a male dog of the exact same breed. We'll call him Romeo. Now Romeo is way too big for his breed. He carries his tail curled up over his back, and he's quite aggressive, so he lives in the backyard chained to his doghouse. Romeo is also dysplasitc. His hips aren't formed right and in a couple of years, he will go lame and have to be put down, but no-one knows that yet, because his owners have never even heard of Hip Dysplasia, much less thought to have him tested for it. There's not much to recommend Romeo, except for the fact that he is the same breed as Sally, and he too, is registered.
"Wouldn't it be nice... " they say to themselves, "if old Sally and Romeo had some puppies?" Maybe they're thinking it would be a good experience for the kids, to "witness the miracle of birth", maybe they're thinking that Sally will be "fulfilled" if she has a litter of puppies.
Who knows what they're thinking, or even if they think at all.
Other than the fact that they happen to own one, Mr. & Mrs. Backyard Breeder know virtually nothing about Sally's breed. They don't know what health concerns they should be checking for, both in the prospective parents and in the future puppies. They don't know the breed standard, they don't know that old Sally is cow-hocked, or that Romeo only has one testicle. No, all they know is that these dogs are registered, so in their minds at least, they are worth breeding. They decide to let the dogs 'get together', and Voila'! Puppies!
At first, everything is just Jim-Dandy. Sally takes care of the puppies, and the kids play with them after school. But as they begin to grow, the backyard breeder finds that a litter of puppies is a lot of extra work and expense. How can something so little be so much trouble? Puppy shots, worming, clean-up, and dog food, lots and lots of dog food. Sally's owner is getting buried.
In desperation, an ad is placed in the local newspaper. Wonder of wonders, there is a lady on the phone who only wants to know three things: How many males? How many females? Do you have the "blue slips"? She wants to buy the whole litter! Of course, she's not offering top dollar, in fact, she's only willing to pay less than 1/2 of what they were asking, but the backyard breeder figures that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and off they go.
Now depending on just how much trouble Sally's owner had, they will now do one of two things: they will either swear off breeding dogs for the rest of their lives and finally have Sally spayed, or they will look at that cash in their hands and decided to breed old Sally again in 6 months. {After all, didn't that Lady say she would buy more puppies when they had them?} They might even go so far as to get a second bitch, so they can make more money next time.
Mr. and Mrs. Backyard Breeder may not realize it, but they have just become a Puppy Mill.
The Puppy Mill
Everyone has heard of Puppy Mills. The pathetic
dogs crammed into filthy cages, with little or no medical care, poor
feed, and those sickly, diseased puppies. You see the stories on the
news, shake your head, and wonder "How could anyone do that to a dog?"
No one in their right mind would buy a puppy there. That's the Puppy
Brokers' job.
He or she buys the puppies from the nasty puppy mill, cleans them
up, and drops them off at those nice clean pet shops for the unwary
consumer to buy. Out of sight, out of mind. The impulse buyer doesn't
think about where that doggy in the window came from. The only thing
on their minds at the time is whether to put it on their MasterCard
or Visa.
You know not to ever buy a dog from a puppy mill, but do you really
know what it is that makes a place a puppy mill?
Is it the number of bitches bred? No, even a one dog operation can
become a puppy mill. Is it the fact that the dogs are kept in filthy
cages? No, believe it or not, some people operate puppy mills out
of their backyards, and yes, even their homes. Is it the lack of
medical care or poor feed? That certainly doesn't help much, but
nope. What about the diseases, and the overall poor quality of the
puppies? Well, now you're getting warmer. Okay you say, what about
the dogs that are bred every time they come into season, without
any thought to breeding better dogs? What about those people who
breed their dogs just to make money, the ones who don't care what
happens to a puppy as long as they get paid? Bingo. You have just
described a puppy mill, or more specifically, the puppy mill mentality.
The fact of the matter folks, is that a Puppy Mill can be any size,
from the so called "family pet" who is bred every time she comes
into season, to the giant commercial breeder who owns a hundred dogs
of a dozen or more popular breeds. What makes a Puppy mill is the
disregard for the betterment of the breed in general, and the welfare
of the individual dog specifically: the common denominator is profit.
The fact that puppies from a puppy mill are sick and genetically
defective should surprise no-one. When the motive behind breeding
a dog is profit, it stands to reason that the bitches will be used
as "puppy machines", and that testing for genetic diseases can only
hurt one's profit margin.
The thinking seems to be "Why should I have this dog checked for
Hip Dysplasia, or these puppies tested for hearing? I don't want
to spend the money on another stud dog just because some of his puppies
might go lame in a few years. That's not my problem. And you're crazy
if you think I'm going to have a puppy put down just because it's
deaf. The puppy Broker will give me good money for that puppy! "
So those defective puppies just keep on coming year after year. The
public, unaware of just how big the problem is, keeps returning to
that pet shop window. And what about that puppy you saw going home
from the mall? When the curtains don't match the couch, and the shoes
don't fit, Mr. and Mrs. Impulse Buyer will return them for credit
on their account. But what about when the puppy doesn't work out?
Well, there's that Guarantee, if they change their mind within 30
days, but what will they do if dear little Spot is about 7 months
old, obviously deaf, chewing up everything in site {including those
new shoes}, and he's still not housebroken?
They will do what close to a million and a half other people do;
they will take dear little Spot to the local animal shelter so he
can find a 'good home'. He won't. Spot, along with 8 to 10 million
other dogs and cats, will be euthanized. Spot's mother? She's already
pregnant with his replacement for that wall of cages at the local
pet shop.
