karmadogs.org Blog

Like the movie Crash, which exposed racism in modern society, Oprah recently focused her attention on the puppymill disgrace that puts puppies in pet stores across the country. I am a bit surprised that Oprah wasn’t aware of this problem previously. Lots of organizations work really hard on exposing them. Puppymills have been the focus of a few documentaries, including one that played often on HBO about two years ago. I am also a little surprised that Lisa Ling didn’t uncover more than she did. A journalist who normally goes very deep to cover a topic, barely scratched the surface. However, if applications for pets are up over the weekend at local shelters everywhere, than I think it is a wonderful result of the show. However, Oprah and Lisa just looked under the rug for a moment….there is so much more to see.
Why do people go to puppymills- or really, shop at pet stores who sell dogs? Is it because everyone wants something they deem perfect, new, shiny, and at a high cost immediately? As a society, we don’t seem to be willing to put the work into anything that is worth having. We want things NOW. Dogs are no different. People often want a new puppy today, with no questions asked. Sure, some rescues make it difficult to adopt from them, but that is only because they are so invested with giving that dog a perfect life. I hope such difficult adoption policies don’t turn people off from owning a dog. I wish people would really consider what type of dog they are getting and not just pick a cute puppy because it is fuzzy. I wish people were more willing to learn about a basic minimum standard of dog care and would abide by it.

But it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

Hopefully, enough people were moved by what Oprah recently discovered and will put their time, money and energy into forcing more strictly enforced legislation towards these mills and their practices. For more information on what you can do to help stop puppymills, please visit www.prisonofgreed.org

and

www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets/get_the_facts_on_puppy_mills/