Cesar and the Puppy Mills

Mrs. Nate and I watched National Geographic's Inside Puppy Mills last night. It was part of Cesar Milan's Dog Whisperer series.

This was truly heartbreaking to watch. Mrs. Big Nate couldn't sit through the awful puppy mill scenes. Cesar was shocked by the team's investigations into the puppy mill trade. I think the worst part for me was hear that these things are actually legal. At least in the United States they are, I'm not sure about the laws here in Canada but I'm sure it happens here regardless of the laws.

They may be legal in the States but the mills do have to follow certain guidelines. Unfortunately many do not even do that much. They still exceed the limits on the number of dogs they are allowed to have. The limit is 100 and some were found to have as many as 400.

The conditions of the dog's living environment were horrible to say the very least and the health of the animals even worse. I just can't begin to tell you how much this bothers me. The worst part is that there are literally thousands of these places throughout the continent causing neglect and abuse to hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats. It's overwhelming to even think about.

Please go to the National Geographic's website and have a peek at the episode info. If this doesn't make people stop buying their puppies from pet stores, nothing will.

Everyone must learn that purchasing those cute little puppies in the window at the pet store are the main cause of this industry. If everyone just stopped buying those animals it might help to make this "business" less profitable and create less demand. If anyone is ever considering a new pet there are hundreds of places to go without supporting puppy mills and the like.

How about trying to help those who are already in desperate need? All of them right here in Calgary!

• The Calgary Humane Society
• Animal Rescue Foundation
• Rocky Mountain Animal Rescue
• Pawsitive Match
• Misty Creek Dog Rescue
• City of Calgary Adoption Program

These are just to name a very few. This doesn't include all the specialty breed rescues, the cat rescues and anything else you could think of.

Mrs. Nate and I purchased Mojo from a farm just north of Calgary. This may have not been the way to go either. We did not know better at that time. We have since rescued Oscar from a rescue society and our cat Chloe from the Humane Society.

I suggest staying away from ads in the Bargain Finder and Kijiji. Definitely stay away from purchasing any pets over the Internet. Selling puppies online is the next big puppy mill marketing strategy!

So after seeing the cruelty in its true form, at the very least I can spread the word through this blog and implore people to never, ever purchase an animal from a pet store or online! In fact, we have chosen to never support any pet store that sells live animals. We choose to buy our pet products from places like Pet Planet and Tailblazers. These are truly responsible, caring businesses that know about the horrors of selling live animals.