When you want a puppy and you want one now... why you should wait

I hear from a lot of people who are steaming mad that good breeders, rescue groups, and shelters have too many restrictions and too long a wait for the kind of puppy they want. And I understand, because we all want what we want and we want it now. That's human nature.

But it's worth waiting, and not just because patience is a virtue. If all you need to do to get a puppy is cough up the money, and the person selling the dog to you doesn't give a damn where that puppy is going, it's a really good sign they also don't care where that puppy came from. And that where that puppy came from is not the kind of business you want to be giving your money to.

Don't care? Maybe not. A lot of people seem to have itchy fingers when it comes to ordering up a puppy on the Internet these days, and can't resist popping a furry little bundle of joy into their online shopping cart, just like it was a book or an electronic game.

The thing is, that mass-produced book or piece of software doesn't have a mother living her entire life in a cage only a few inches bigger than she is, being used to crank out litter after litter for the puppy mill industry. And your "no questions asked" puppy does.

So meet your puppy's mother, or a dog just like her. Meet Sunshine, the golden retriever so scared of humans she shook. Or Savannah, a miniature dachshund who should have weighed 12 pounds but only weighed 6 and a half, and was coated with liquid diarrhea and loaded with worms.

If you were with me and Pet Connection director of photography Morgan Ong on Memorial Day weekend, you've have met them and 47 other dogs, rescued by a crusading group of vets, vet techs, and volunteers from a dispersal auction run by a puppy mill going out of business.

You'd have met dozens of Pugs with a painful genetic eye disorder – the dogs who are the fathers and mothers of uncountable puppies sold in pet stores and online, who are at risk to have the same genetic condition as their parents.

You'd have also met Gabriel and Carmella, two Italian Greyhounds with what one vet described as the worst dental health she’d ever seen – Carmella had to have 12 teeth removed, and also had an infected uterus; she has since been spayed. Gabriel’s mouth is worse than Carmella’s, and they’re looking for a veterinary dentist who will donate the surgery he needs.

You'd have met a Boston Terrier named Butters, who had a deep ulcer in one of her eyes that had received no care and was about to rupture. Blue, a one-year-old Chihuahua, missing an eye. Boris, an 8-month-old Pug with demodetic mange, for which he is now being successfully treated. A Standard Poodle dubbed “Hamilton” whose coat was completely matted on his body. Once shaved, they found him literally crusted with ticks. There were several Beagles and Shih Tzus with a variety of eye problems and old, untreated wire injuries and bite wounds.

Want to help these dogs, and the people trying to rescue them? Want to find out more about what they're doing, and why?

It's the subject of my column this week at SFGate.com.

"There are thousands of dogs that run through the auction. You can only buy a few," Hamilton admitted. But that's not really the point, she said.

"Of course, we want to get the dogs out and get them in loving homes. But the real point of doing this is to draw attention to the lives these dogs live, so that someone who feels the impulse to get a puppy on the Web, or whose eye is caught by a cute puppy in a pet store window, will stop and think, not about that cute puppy but about his mother and father back at the puppy mill. Those dogs are spending their entire lives in tiny cages and cramped, filthy runs."

If you want to help the dogs brought out of Oklahoma, or offer one of them a home, you can contact Dr. Hamilton's hospital at 510-657-9151. But the most important thing you can do to help all the Sunshines and Savannahs that didn't make it out of the puppy mills, she said, is simple: Stop buying their puppies.

"It's a money-driven industry, and the only way to stop it is when people become educated not to buy puppies from these sources," she said. "You have to cut off the demand so that they'll breed less and fewer dogs will suffer."

Full article here. You can also contact Boulevard Pet Hospital, where most of the animals are being boarded and rehabilitated, at 408-379-5554.

Photo by Morgan Ong/Universal Press Syndicate.

Comments

[Gil.]

You know, I was just reading about the pet dogs taken from their owners by police in a Louisana parish after Katrina, trapped in a building and shot like fish in a barrel. There were 240 comments on the story at the time I read it, all but a handful of them expressing shock, astonishment and fury that something like this could happen.

Yet people continue to ignore the plight of dogs in puppy mills. Makes you wonder what it will take to horrify them and wake them up to the misery a relative few people perpetuate. I hope your very well written article in SFGate enlightens at least a few and makes them understand what they're doing when they buy those cute puppies online or in pet stores.

[Deirdre]

Very difficult (but important) article to read but even sadder was the Google Ad at the bottom advertising Shih Tsu puppies...

[nessa]

i read all of that.its so horrible bt true. i wish i had a dog bt if now hearing that i will just wait.2day at my schll(i am 11 bt luv animals) i decided to start a petition.the petition waz 2 stop animal cruelty.hopefully it will get through 2 sick twisted people and all of this will blow over. i am a catholic,so i pray for all the animals and hope they will soon live a better life amen.xxx

[Margaret]

I just wanted to let you know that your article has resulted in many happy dogs in many happy homes. My home is one of them. I adopted Jasmine (her name was Orchid, then), a 3-year-old miniature dachshund. She was one of the dogs rescued by Dr. Hamilton. Today, she is a pampered and very well-loved member of our family. She is a loving and gentle animal that is beginning to discover the joy of life. You can read about her life in my blog.

[eralda]

i really want a dog but my father doesnt buy one.i have a garden please help me i live in albania