Puppy Mill Awareness Day conjures up memories in Lancaster County, PA where animal advocates and pet lovers joined forces to create a day that highlighted the plight of dogs who live their entire lives in miserable conditions in puppy mills with their sole purpose of breeding puppies for consumers interested in buying puppies from pet stores, the internet, classified ads and brokers.
The day was created by three people as they sat around a table deciding what they could do to help these poor, defenseless, ungroomed and matted dogs with no names and their puppies who live in commercial “factories” that can only be described as living in squalor, filth, unprotected from the cold or heat, sometimes dark rooms with litttle or no ventilation, stuffed into small enclosures with no socialization with people or the outside world. All they know is the tiny, overcrowded spaces in which the operators keep them in and suffering immeasurable pain and lonliness.
This day was and is still held nationwide the third Saturday in September. Since its inception in 2002 when I first started to attend until 2010 in Lancaster, the highlight of this ever-important day always was the “Walk for the Animals.” Animal advocates, some walking with their dogs including rescued puppy mill dogs, walked through Lancaster as they held signs informing people about the horrors of mills and the connection to pet stores.
It was a day to educate and create awareness of Pennsylvania’s dirty secret of being known as the Puppy Mill Capital of the East with Lancaster as the epicenter of puppy mills in Pennsylvania with many Amish and Mennonites owning them. There are plenty of other non-Amish who run these mills in PA and other states.
In 2008, former Governor Ed Rendell signed into law HB 2525 now known as Act 119. The purpose of this law was to make the lives of dogs stuck in these hellholes better. Unfortunately, the law has been watered down and in a report from earlier this year, we now know the law isn’t being enforced adequately, if at all. So much for Act 119 and so much for making lives better for the dogs who are forced to live in conditions that are not suitable for man’s best friend. Inspectors aren’t doing their jobs and the owners of these mills aren’t forced to live up to the requirements of the law due to loopholes.
Instead, we have inspectors looking the other way as dogs suffer needlessly and hopelessly as they look past them. Shame on them for not helping them! They are supposed to protect them. There are few inspectors to check on all puppy mills. I guess it’s too much trouble to save their lives or to even care about their welfare.
Has Pennsylvania shut down some puppy mills? Yes, but many have gone underground while others switched ownership to other family members. Make no mistake, puppy mills are thriving in Pennsylvania. We are still “the puppy mill capital of the East.”
I remember Walt Hargis, one of the founding members of PMAD and my friend, telling me that he felt having this event in Lancaster equated to talking to the choir. The event which I attended almost every year brought out those who already seemed to know about puppy mills. The question was, “Did it reach the consumers who are buying puppies from pet stores?”
2011 saw PMAD move to Scranton, PA and as of this year it moved their event to Massachusetts. It appears PMAD has moved on but is still actively working to educate people about the savagery of puppy mills.
I personally feel we need to outlaw puppy mills. What good comes out of a puppy mill except the outrageous money the millers receive in exchange for the puppies they sell? They don’t care about the parents of the puppies. The American Kennel Club (AKC) supplies “papers” quite readily for a price for the puppies at mills. These papers don’t mean anything except cash for the AKC.
When the mothers and fathers are no longer useful, they are disposed of in a multitude of ways including a shot to the head, a rock to the head, or being drowned.
The sad, unwavering truth is that puppy mills are legal and those who profit from them lobby diligently to keep it that way.
If we were to make puppy mills illegal, all the suffering would finally come to an end for these dogs. That is my hope for these horrid places. I was impressed to read that there are youth who feel the same way.
This past Tuesday, the 8th, two boys presented a petition to PA Governor Tom Corbett to stop puppy mills with over 13,000 signatures. The boys explained to the Governor why these places should be shut down. They also provided a photo book filled with photographs of rescued dogs from PA mills including their own four foster dogs and taking one to meet Corbett.
I’m very impressed with the hard work these two boys not only did but understand the necessity of ridding our state of puppy mills.
We need more people like this to fight this fight!
In your opinion, do we need another PMAD in Pennsylvania or does the answer lie in educating the public at large about the brutality puppy mill dogs suffer at the hands of those who operate the commercial breeding facilities and the connection to pet stores? Or should we deluge the Governor with more petitions to make puppy mills illegal?
Share your thoughts/questions/comments.
No. It was the same year after year. Walt was right. We were only preaching to the choir. We didn’t reach the buyers of puppy mills. I’m impressed with those boys.
Id like to see PMAD come back here. I miss it. I miss the walk.
We need to get more media attention and tell those who are buying NOT to buy from pet stores!
WE need to outlaw puppy mills! Those boys have the right idea! Good for them!
NO, we need to stop these mills from operating completely. Those boys have the right idea. Corbett won’t do anything but if alot of us contact him and do the same thing, maybe, just maybe, it would be considered.
I miss walking thru Lancaster with my sign letting people know about puppy mills. I thought some people heard us while others ignored us. I wish it would come back but I understand about speaking to the choir. It was always people who knew about puppy mills that came out to the event.
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Yes, I miss it! We need more awareness in PA. WE ARE THE PUPPYMILL CAPITAL OF THE EAST COAST!
It’s rather a nice and handy section of data. I am delighted that you simply provided details along about PMAD. I’ve been wondering what happened to it. You need to continue to be you up to date such as this. I hope it comes back like the others said.
Absolutely YES!
OMG, yes, we need another PMAD! Our law sucks and dogs are suffering while breeders make profits off of them. I agree that they should be abolished. They’re vile places where the people that run them don’t give a damn about the dogs and let them go crazy from pain and lonliness!!
We need it badly. ACT 119 isn’t doing much of anything. It’s a joke and the dog law advisory board don’t care.
We not only need another puppy mill awarness day, we need to stop puppy mills!
Yes, why did they stop it in the first place. Just because we have a new dog law, it doesn’t mean we got rid of puppy mills. As you said, PA is still the puppy mill capital of the East Coast. The work isn’t finished until all puppy mills are shut down!
YES! but not the same old thing. Walt is right about speaking to the choir. Something needs to change but it is still needed more than ever.
That’s an affirmative! Mills are thriving in PA.
All of us who love and care about our pets already knew this. That’s what we try to get across to others including legislators who seem to be on the side of puppy millers and such. It’s sickening. We know pets have emotions One only has to be around them to know they love, are scared, angry, lonely, upset, and so much more. Too many peple treat them like garbage. It will come back to haunt them sooner or later for the way they treat them.
No. We need to stop puppy mills!
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No. It doesn’t reach the consumer who buys puppies at pet stores.