340 Dogs Handed Over from Filthy Florida Breeding Facility
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In late September, the authorities in Tampa, FL shut down a puppy mill that had more than 300 dogs on the site. This happened because a number of puppy buyers made complaints about the puppy mill upon seeing its condition, which prompted the county to move in upon securing the relevant permissions. It remains to be seen what will happen from this point forward because the puppy mill owners have the right to appeal the seizure order. However, it should be mentioned that said individuals have already had run-ins with the law. In fact, both the business owner Robert Royers and the property owner Alice Holt aren’t permitted to own pets and dogs respectively because of past wrongdoing.
As for the condition of the puppy mill, well, it was horrific and horrendous. Like most such cases, the dogs were packed into spaces that were too small for them, which was on top of there not being enough staff members to provide adequate care for all of them. As a result, when the authorities recovered the surviving dogs, they discovered that a lot of the dogs were suffering from eye infections, skin conditions, dental diseases, and other serious medical problems. Given the way that the dogs were treated, it seems safe to say that there will be serious behavioral issues resulting from poor treatment as well. Something that serves as one more obstacle in the way of the rescued dogs making their way to good homes.
Given what has happened, it is perfectly natural for people to be curious about how they can help. After all, this is a huge increase in the number of dogs being cared for by animal welfare organizations in the region. More importantly, this is a very sudden increase, meaning that said organizations haven’t exactly had a great deal of time in which to prepare for the influx. Due to this, the animal welfare organizations are waiving the standard fees needed to adopt dogs from them, which is meant to encourage more individuals to adopt so that they won’t run out of room as well as the other resources needed to provide adequate care. Naturally, the animal welfare organizations have also set up ways for interested individuals to make monetary donations as well as item donations.
Why Do People Run Puppy Mills?
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first puppy mill in the United States. Moreover, this won’t be the last puppy mill in the United States. This is because puppy mills are the products of prevailing circumstances for which there is no simple and straightforward solution. In short, there is an enormous demand for purebred dogs as pets. As a result, the competition between interested individuals means that purebred dogs can be sold for enormous prices, with examples ranging from the hundreds of dollars to the thousands of dollars. This means that there are a lot of people out there who see breeding puppies as a business venture with the potential to make them rich.
When it comes to business, there are a lot of business owners who choose to maximize profits by cutting costs. Unfortunately, when it comes to businesses that involve animals in some manner, this kind of cost-cutting can lead to a fair amount of suffering for the animals. For example, it isn’t uncommon for such businesses to put their animals into overcrowded living spaces with unsanitary conditions because better living conditions would mean higher costs. Likewise, it isn’t uncommon for such businesses to skip out on medical expenses as much as possible because it is cheaper for them to just ignore the damage wrought by diseases rather than pay for medical treatment.
On top of that, while there is oversight for such businesses, puppy mills have a wide range of ways that they can use to sell their products while minimizing the potential to be noticed by the authorities. For instance, there are some pet stores that have stopped working with such businesses because of the bad PR, but there are other pet stores that have not, thus making them a way for puppy mills to prevent the buyers from seeing the true nature of their practices. Furthermore, the popularization of the Internet has created the same opportunities for puppy mills that it has created for everyone else, which is to say, it has enabled them to gain much more control over the way that they sell their products. Something that in turn provides them with much more opportunities to fool their consumers. One example would be setting up multiple websites for the purpose of concealing the sheer number of puppies produced by the puppy mills on a routine purpose so that they can pretend to be some kind of operation with increased PR friendliness. Another example would be using online selling to minimize the amount of contact that the buyer has with the puppy before bringing them home, thus making it that much more difficult for them to pick up on any potential problems caused by the puppy mill’s practices. With that said, there are plenty of other ways for puppy mills to fool consumers, with another excellent example being selling through flea markets where there is minimum oversight of their activities.
What Can Be Done About Puppy Mills?
There are various things that interested individuals can do to help push back against puppy mills if such businesses disturb them to motivate them to take action. For example, on a personal level, they can avoid buying puppies unless they can get a good idea of the living conditions of the animals, whether on their own or through trusted authorities. Likewise, supporting local animal welfare organizations is another great idea because most people choosing to adopt rather than buy new puppies reduces the demand for the products of puppy mills. Finally, better legislation can do a great deal to make it more difficult for puppy mills to operate without the authorities stepping in. However, this is something that requires the coordination of many people out there, though even on the individual level, contacting their legislators can be productive.
