Puppies in puppy mills are often kept in tiny cages. COURTESY OF FLICKR/CHASING DONGURI
Rescued from a puppy mill, these dogs at a Humane Society shelter in Ft. Worth, Texas are waiting to be adopted. PHOTO: FLICKR/BUGGINOUT
By KYLIE FREYMAN, age 9, USHNA KHAN, age 15 , and NANCY RYERSON
That puppy in the window may be cute, but it probably went through a lot of hardship to get to that store. IndyKids talked with PETAÂ (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), a non-profit organization that works to stop animal cruelty, about the injustice that takes place at puppy mills. Ashley Byrne, a PETA campaign manager, explains how the animals are treated at these farms that breed dogs for profit.
Before animals are sent to pet stores, they live in puppy mills, which are dirty and unsafe farms where purebred dogs are raised in small, over-crowded cages and not given much veterinary attention. “The puppies are not treated well in these mills,” Byrne said. Female dogs are bred twice a year and are usually killed or abandoned after they can no longer produce puppies. After the puppies are born, they are torn away from their mothers, packed into crates and sold to pet stores. They sometimes travel hundreds of miles in trucks, trailers and airplanes, often without much food or air.
We asked Byrne why people would treat animals so badly. One reason is because of money, she said. People only see the animals as prizes or something to bring their status up. Also, some people see animals as objects, as if the animals have no feelings and should not have a say in the way they were treated.
PETA has tried to stop these injustices by going undercover and making videos of what happens at puppy mills. Kids can help puppies by encouraging their parents to adopt pets from animal shelters, rather than from pet shops. Even if a pet store claims that it doesn’t get puppies from mills, it probably gets them from a puppy broker, someone who makes an arrangement between the buyer (the pet store) and the seller (the puppy mill).
Op-Ed PODCAST
Kylie Freyman, age 9, speaks out against animal cruelty in the circus.
I can not believe people would treat animals like that! It’s discrimination and taking away their rights!!! Just because they are little doesn’t mean they re things. They are alive which makes them allowed to have rights and one of their rights is not to be discriminated! So if you don’t have a pet and you really like animals (but you don’t have any) tell your parents to buy you a dogie or a kitty cat.!
Why do people treat animals this way?They be beating on them and always being mean. Animals are alive for a reason……..
This is so wrong! = (
This is such a bad way to treat real living animals. they are living things too!!!!!! puppy mills should be illegal. If i was a president i would shut down puppy mills and fine the people that run the mill.