Spotting a Puppy Mill From a Mile Away
You think you’ve asked all the right questions about the puppy you want to buy, and the breeder has seemingly provided all the right answers. But wait!! How can you be sure you’re not dealing with a puppy mill?
Here are several puppy mill red flags that are easy to spot:
Never ever purchase a puppy from a pet store unless the store is hosting a shelter adoption event. No matter what the store employees tell you, 99.9% of their puppies are sourced from puppy mills. Consider not buying anything from a store that sells puppies.
Don’t buy a puppy through a puppy broker. Google “puppies for sale” and you’ll see a whole lineup of them. Their stated mission is to “help people find their perfect puppy,” but their true mission is to make a ton of money as the middleman in the puppy mill supply chain. I’ve called a few and, boy on boy, are their sales people convincing.
A puppy miller will make all kinds of excuses why you can’t visit her home or kennel or meet the mama dog. They have way too much to hide. If you cannot visit, please walk away.
Do not rely on the breeder’s website. Have you heard of catfishing? It’s when someone uses false information and images to create a fake identity online with the intention to trick, harass, or scam another person. By posting fake images of dogs, puppies, children playing with them, and the home environment, puppy millers are the Bernie Madoff’s and Elizabeth Holmes’ of catfishing.
Puppy mills have oodles of puppies available year round. They sell multiple breeds including those ever so popular designer hybrid dogs. They jump on the bandwagon of whichever breeds are popular and trending.
A puppy mill will ask you to provide a sizable nonrefundable deposit, typically 25-50% of the purchase price.
Breeding dogs should have documented certification of health clearances for breed-specific diseases (hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, heart, eye, and spinal cord diseases, etc.). Try as you might, the puppy miller won’t provide you with a copy of the paperwork because they don’t do genetic testing and health certifications on their dogs.
All of these red flags are reasons to walk away. Please don’t get swept up into an impulse buy of an adorable puppy you see online or in a pet store. Every single purchase denied a puppy mill brings them one step closer to eradication.
Have you or someone you know ever been duped into a puppy mill purchase?
Best wishes to you and your four-legged family members for abundant good health,
Dr. Nancy
Not being able to visit the house is not a red flag for me. An elderly breeder was recently murdered and his puppies stolen. Visitors can also track in things like parvo. A Zoom visit is fine with me.
I knowingly adopted a dog from a puppy mill in Georgia that was shut down--but my dog was not a puppy, she was a breeder dog. Belle was terrified of everything when I got her: parked cars, telephone poles, garbage cans--and men, especially wearing baseball caps. Dr Sophia Yin, the brilliant veterinary behaviorist I worked with, said Belle had probably never been out of the crate in her two+ years of life, let alone out in the world. It took us more than a year of Prozac (for Belle, although I could've used it too sometimes!), training in baby steps, and a lot of patience to get Belle to the point where she could take a walk outside with me.
Just a reminder that inbred puppies and naive buyers aren't the only victims of puppy mills--female dogs are used as breeders for those puppies and their lives are miserable and expendable.