In puppy mills, hundreds and hundreds of dogs are kept in extremely substandard conditions.

Although the newly born puppies are not in these terrible conditions for long, this actually creates a whole host of new problems. Puppies that are separated from their mother too soon after birth will have trouble connecting socially with both their owners and dogs in the future, and they also exhibit many other signs of distress throughout their life (incessant barking, for instance).

Again, even though the puppies leave the mill after just a short period of time, the parent dogs are not so lucky. These animals stay in cages for long periods of time, often stacked wall to wall with other cages. The dogs are often covered in filth and excrement from the dogs in the cages above and are forced to have puppies until they are no longer able, at which point they are often killed.

In one specific case in Quebec in 2000, dead dogs were found all over the mill, from dark corners to hanging from rafters. Starving parent dogs were forced to eat their newborn puppies to stay alive. Although this mill was investigated and subsequently shut down, an estimated 10,000 puppy mills still remain in the United States today, and conditions similar to the ones mentioned in Quebec may still be happening right now.

Keep all of this in mind next time you see a puppy in a pet store window.

For further reading on the cruelty that occurs in puppy mills, check out the following links:

http://moderndogmagazine.com/articles/puppy-hell-horrors-puppy-mills/269

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVyFSTYY7zg

http://animalrescuecorps.org/learn/puppy-mills/