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[quote=Anonymous]I’m going to re-post my own comment from a different thread because I had Amish breeders in mind, specifically, when I wrote it:

I think people have the wrong image in their head when they hear “puppy mill.” They’re thinking of the worst of the worst: dogs confined to dirty crates all day long, unsocialized, strictly viewed as a commodity, possibly even malnourished or mistreated. There are plenty of puppy mills that treat their dogs kindly, keep them clean and fed, and even socialize them. They’re not animal abusers, but they are not following breeding best practices. They’re breeding whatever dogs they have — not dogs that exemplify the breed standard. They’re not doing health testing or they’re doing the bare minimum and counting on customers not to know the right questions to ask. They’re breeding dogs who are too closely related* and using the same few males to produce all their litters. They’re breeding females younger than they should be bred. They’re having females produce litters too close together for their bodies to recover fully and breeding them more times than is good for their health. Their puppies are clean and look adorable and the adult dogs really are their pets, so people think they’re good breeders, but they’re the ones producing the dogs who are most prone to cancer or heart problems or hip dysplasia. Sometimes you can get a perfectly lovely, healthy dog from them, but it’s purely by chance and not because of their expertise.

I will add that the Amish love their animals and generally don’t mistreat them, but make no mistake, they have a constant supply of puppies because it’s a form of income. I have visited a pet store in an Amish community in Ohio that has such a pipeline of puppies that every day of the year that they’re open, visitors can go cuddle a sample puppy from each of more than a dozen different breeds/mixes. Think about the kind of breeding required (in a closed community, no less!) to maintain a supply chain like this.[/quote]

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