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Driving down the winding back roads of America's
heartland our eyes take in the beauty of the world around us as we listen to the
radio and forget about the cares of the world we live in. We feel the warm sun
as it shines down around us and look at all the trees and wild flowers and
wonder how things could get any better than this as we roar on down the highway
to our destination.
If we were to turn off the highway on to almost any one of the millions of
miles of back roads in the heartland of our country, turn the radio off,
roll down our windows and drive slow we would hear a much different sound. We
would hear the sounds of song birds singing in the trees, we would hear the
sounds of cattle as they called to each other, and we would hear the sounds of
gravel as it crunched under our tires as we drove.
We wouldn't have to drive very far before we would hear a much different sound
way off in the distance. This isn't the sound of some happy bird or the sound of
any cow as it calls to its calf. It is the sound of an animal in distress. It is
the sounds of hundreds of poor defenseless animals held prisoner because of
greed. If you followed the sound it would take you to some locked gate with a
sign that said, NO Trespassing, or Keep Out and what lies behind the gate would
be left up to your imagination as you slowly turn around and drive away.
Let me tell you what lies past that gate and just out of sight.
The first thing you would hear is the sounds of hundreds of animals whimpering
and crying, begging for someone to help them. Your stomach would turn over as
the intense smell of ammonia drifted out through every crack in the dilapidated
buildings where the cries from help came from. Your heart would be breaking as
you reached for the handle to the door of the first building, take a deep breath
and try to hold it and rush inside. As the light streamed inside the building,
the sounds of the animals gets louder as some bark while others too weak to bark
just lay and whimper.
You would see rows of tiny wire cages stacked one on top of the other where the
urine and feces of the animals above fell down on the animals below - the piles
of animal waste all along under the bottom row of cages.
You would see them crammed full of animals almost unrecognizable by any breeds
you know of.
You would see adults and puppies with missing limbs from being attacked by other
animals while trying to get enough food to eat, injury from getting their limbs
caught in the holes in the cages, and from mutilation by the miller.
You would see animals that are terrified of people because all they have ever
known was pain and exploitation at the hands of the millers.
You would see diseased and dying and dead animals in some of the cages. One look
in their eyes and you can see their plea for help. "Please help me."
If you haven't already lost the cheese burger you had for lunch in the first
building we could venture into the next building or room of the puppy mill.
Behind that door you would see rows of cages full of mothers with puppies.
You would quickly notice the deformed faces of many of the mother dogs and when
you asked , I would explain how the millers break the jaws of the mother dogs if
they try to defend their puppies when the brokers come. How most of these
animals have never had proper medical care and the broken bones are left to heal
on their own.
You would see puppies so far from the breed standard they looked like a totally
different breed than the one they were supposed to be.
You might see dead or sick puppies laying in the cages as the others walked over
them.
Like the rock song says, "The smell of death
is around you."
If we had time to hang around we could wait for the puppy broker to come.
You would see a truck or van stacked full from the floor to the ceiling with
tiny plastic cages - many of them already crammed full of puppies of every
imaginable breed - all stacked in there like cord wood. The sounds of hundreds
of terrified puppies waiting in those dark cramped quarters waiting for their
ride into the unknown. The broker will take most of the puppies if they aren't
too sick or so deformed he can't sell them. He will take any puppy the millers
say is 8 weeks old. Many of the animals are under 6 weeks but they are the right
weight and size so they are torn away from their mothers, by force at times, and
sold to the broker.
As we walk away from this place you remember back in school when you read about
the concentration camps during WWII.
This place is just like that.
The animals are abused and exploited until they are no longer profitable to the
miller and then they are sold and most are killed.
The females are bred every cycle from the time they first come in heat until
they die.
The puppies are sold to unsuspecting pet buyers all over the world as registered
animals and no mention is ever made about the hell holes the parents live in or
the genetic problems the puppy has.
The Animals in the puppy mills are truly prisoners of greed.
The next time you walk by a pet store, stop and listen.
If you try, you will be able to imagine the suffering and pain it took to put
that puppy in that window.
The broken jawed mother as she struggles to eat so she has enough strength to go
on another day. The tiny puppy with the lower part of its leg missing because it
was torn off while trying to free itself from the holes in the wires of the cage
it calls home or was eaten by another dog because it was starving to death. The
whimpering of the animals as they beg for the tender touch of a humane hand. The
cries for help as they slowly die from neglect and starvation.
You may not be able to go to a puppy mill and see the things many of us have,
but you can help end the suffering right where you live.
Tell everyone you know NOT to buy dogs from these types of breeders. Research
where you buy your dog from, to include an on site visit.
When the demand goes away, the mills will close.
Written By and Credit Given To:
Wayne Mayes of Halfway, Missouri
Spread the news like wildfire! Don't
buy that puppy in the window! You will sentence his mother and father to a life
of horrors!!
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