Puppy Mills

11 Pages 2692 Words

, and covered in their own waste, they often had no food or water in their kennels with them. I assume the breeder forgot. So I would then take them to the store, give them all baths and whatever slight trimming of the hair that they might need. Then, I then gave them their vaccinations against the common puppy ailments of parvo, diphtheria, and bronchitis. They had not yet received these important vaccines and might have already been exposed to these deadly diseases, on a few occasions they were. I also had to give them a pill, which would sedate them and prevent the common diarrhea that new puppies get due to nerves.
Cleaning all the kennels three times a day making sure the puppies all had food and water was my most important job. I took them out for at least an hour to play and get them socialized with humans. If we got a larger dog like a retriever or a husky I would take them running behind the store. The only thing that kept me working in the pet shop was being able to see the total metamorphosis that the puppies went through while at the store. They became playful and no longer shook in the corner with their tail between their legs. They were good puppies now that would be sold. They would go to good homes where people would care for them, and not know their past about where they came from.
Puppy mills are found all over the United States but are concentrated in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. The puppies at our store all came from the same breeder in Kansas. At times it was hard to believe that it was possible to have so many different breeds of dogs available to our store every week. “Opal Featherston” was the name that appeared on all of the Pedigrees of the puppies that we got in. I was told that she did not run a puppy mill and that she was a “reputable” breeder. I was told to tell customers that too. I believed it myself the entire time that I worked ther...