Nothing makes me sicker than seeing dogs mistreated. Or animals. OK, I don’t want to see any creature [great or small] mistreated, but I recently watched a TV show about puppy farms and it made me really angry.
We live in a time where we’re pretty much all knowing about things; the Internet offers you no excuses when it comes to buying ANYTHING. I mean, I don’t even buy shampoo if it’s got a semi-negative review! Buying live animals should make people even more wary, right?
Sadly it looks like people still use puppy farms to buy pets despite the mere name of them causing most people to shiver in disgust.
There is actually a HUGE puppy farm near to where I live where a lot of celebrities buy dogs – they even have their faces plastered on their walls like semi-known people give them a credibility that might cover up the fact a lot of their dogs die from complications caused from over breeding, so why do people still buy from them?
Again, I can’t believe it’s because they don’t know what the issues are with puppy farms (killing animals, keeping the parents in awful conditions where they are scared, anxious and treated appallingly for the sake of stealing the puppies from them too early) and can only assume it’s because it’s ‘easier’.
I’m not one of those people who thinks you should only adopt
animals. I think adoption is great (in fact, I’m more of the mind set people should adopt kids instead of having them but that’s another thing altogether), and I applaud everyone who has that dedication to animals because awwwww! The other option is to do your research!
To tell my own story I didn’t plan on actually buying my dog when I went to see her. I’d done some research on the internet and had bought a dog book to decide what breed I wanted [I decided on the most difficult, naughty, energetic dog: a Beagle…] and then I looked on puppies4u.co.uk which is a dog selling website.
If you have a look at the website you can tell the fakes from the real people instantly. There are a million warning signs – particularly the price. I happened to stumble on a family selling puppies close to me; there was a story. Their dogs had done the nasty when their backs were turned and BAM. Puppies. They hadn’t planned it but they wanted to make sure they found good ‘forever homes’ for them. There were millions of pictures of the puppies with the mum and dad and their entire family! I emailed the seller and kind of got the third degree – in a good way. They basically wanted to make sure I was a real person who wanted a dog for myself and I wasn’t going to whisk her away to a puppy farm. When I got to their house I knew instantly they were genuine. Theirs was a family home and the puppies were SO looked after and SO loved by everyone it was clear it wasn’t just a ‘sell them and ship them’ deal.
Sure, you hear people say ‘make sure you see the mother with the pups’ but some creeps find a dog that looks like the puppies and tries to con you.
To be fair, I’ve never been in the situation where I thought I was involved with a puppy farm but that’s because I did my research and knew what to avoid. I just wish others would do that as well.
Sorry if this was a little bit ‘ranty’ but I just got all riled up when I saw the show about it! Wise up, people!!
Now for some cute pictures of my dog to make it all better:
Sam
Pretty Thoughtful Blog 