OK: Avoiding puppy-mill pups at Christmas

Avoiding puppy-mill pups at Christmas
By PHIL MULKINS World Action Line Editor
Published: 12/25/2009  2:19 AM
Last Modified: 12/25/2009  5:17 AM

Dear Action Line: I told the little one if she was good for the relatives at Christmas time, I would buy her a puppy after Christmas. What's the best way to go about this? I don't want anything to do with a "puppy-mill puppy." — W.S., Tulsa

Puppy mills: The Humane Society of the United States warns families in your boat to make doubly certain they are not unwittingly supporting the cruel puppy-mill industry. Best advice? Don't buy puppies from pet stores, off the Web or from any source where you can't see the living conditions of the puppy's mother and other dogs at the facility. Quality breeders don't sell puppies through pet stores or over the Internet.

The society urges families to first consider adoption from local shelters or rescue groups, where healthy, loving animals need nothing so much as a happy family this holiday.

"Puppy mills" are exactly that: "machines that manufacture by the continuous repetition of some simple action" — like keeping the mother dogs pregnant their entire lives. The operators put breeding-age females in wire cages making puppies that are also kept in wire cages until sold. The animals receive no medical care and live in squalid conditions with no exercise, socialization or human contact. Puppy-mill moms who can't keep making pups are destroyed or discarded.

Society investigators and rescue teams have revealed over and over puppy-mill operators' disregard for the physical, social and emotional health of the dogs. Sloppy mass-breeding programs
and poor living conditions cause puppies to have more physical and behavioral problems than dogs from reliable sources.

Adopt a pet: The Society braces itself every year for the inevitable, upsetting post-holiday calls. People call about sick or dying puppies purchased for the holidays. Too often consumers don't research where their puppies have come from and wind up spending the holiday trying to save a sick animal instead of enjoying the season. Read the society's advisory "Adopting from an animal shelter or rescue group" at tulsaworld.com/AdoptaPet.

Tulsa Humane Society: Visit the Tulsa Humane Society at tulsaworld.com/TulsaHumaneSociety — or from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday visit them at 6232 E. 60th St., or call 495-DOGS or 493-CATS about adoptions. See its cats at tulsaworld.com/THScats and its dogs at tulsaworld.com/THSdogs. Also see a list of rescue groups in the Tulsa Yellow Pages under "humane societies."

Tulsa Animal Shelter: The Tulsa Animal Welfare Shelter is at 3031 N. Erie Ave., between Sheridan Road and Yale Avenue just north of Apache Street. It is open from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Service hours (for reporting animal problems) are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 669-6280 and after hours at 596-9222. Also visit the shelter at tulsaworld.com/TulsaAnimalShelter.

Submit Action Line questions by calling 699-8888 or by e-mailing phil.mulkins@TulsaWorld.com or by mailing it to Tulsa World Action Line, PO Box 1770, Tulsa OK 74102-1770.
Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=15&articleid=20091225_15_E3_DacinL883688