I am absolutely horrified.  While I’ve known about the epidemic that has been rampid in our country for some time, tonight’s episode of “The Dog Whisperer” really brought the reality of the horrors of puppy mills home.  The conditions that these animals live in (if you can even call it “living”) are just absolutely appalling.  How can this be legal?  It’s animal cruelty!

Dogs in puppy mills live in cramped, over-crowded cages.  This leads to physical problems such as bed sores.  They are not given proper amounts of food and water.  They suffer from diseases such as eye infections, deafness, retardation, dental disease, dehydration, and tumors.  Females are bred over and over again until they are physically unable to breed anymore.  And then they are thrown out with the trash.  Because these dogs live in cages stacked one on top of the other, they will often times get their legs caught in the metal and then chew them off just to get free.  When these dogs get sick, no one takes them to the vet.  They are left to suffer and die.

According to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary website, it’s estimated that over 500,000 dogs are bred in puppy mills every year.  Puppy mills generally sell their dogs to pet stores and over the internet.  This is so dangerous because when the average person purchases a dog from a pet store, they have no idea what kind of beast they are supporting.  That is not considered adopting or rescuing.  That is putting money right into the hands of the people commiting these atrocities.

So now for your call to action.  First and foremost…please please please, do not buy a dog from any breeder until you have done your research.  Know exactly what you are getting.  And never buy a dog from a pet store.  I’d even go as far as to say, don’t buy anything from any pet store that “sells” animals.  This is not to be confused with stores like PetSmart who partner with the Humane Society and other rescues to adopt homeless pets.

Look out for some of the following signs when adopting a pet…

• Puppy mills usually have several breeds of dogs for sale at the same time.
• Puppy mills often offer to ship dogs to new owners.
• Puppy millers usually will not allow customers to view their property or kennel.
• Puppy millers do not require an application or references from people buying a puppy.
• Puppy millers do not ask buyers to return or contact them if at any point in the dog’s life the owners cannot keep the dog.
• Puppy mills keep a lot of dogs and a lot of puppies to make a profit.
• Puppy mills breed females every time they come into heat, so they are pregnant or nursing at all times.
• Puppy mills are often USDA-licensed so they can sell puppies to pet stores.  A USDA license is a red flag that breeders are in the business to make money.
• Puppy mills supply pet stores with puppies.

For more information on what you can do to fight puppy mills, check out Last Chance for Animals.  Particularly their page on puppy mills.

Meet Buster.  His mommy, Susan, invited Matt and I to come out to her house in Lawrenceburg, Indiana this past weekend to photograph him.  Buster is a well-renowned world traveler.  Apparently all that traveling wore him out, cuz he pretty much just laid around all day. 

Anyhoo…Buster is a British Shorthair.  Like most cats, he only does what he wants to do when he wants to do it.  He was very sweet and very photogenic.  We had a lot of fun with this shoot.  Here are a few of my favorites…

This is Buster in his normal state.

Again…here he is laying in the middle of the floor.

Once we got him outside he got a little more active.

And then he just got tired again.

As I’ve mentioned, we have 2 foster dogs living in our house currently.  Both are pit bulls from the Bark Ark Bully Rescue.  One of the dogs, Willow, is doing great and is totally ready for adoption.  The other, Naula, still has some issues that we are trying to work with her on.  The main issue…being completely and totally terrified of everything!  She’s definitely made significant progress since she’s been with us…but again, still working.

At the advice of our favorite trainer, Tony Hacker, we’re trying to take her with us as often as possible when we go places.  So this afternoon, we took a trip to Miranda’s Ice Cream in Morrow and Naula tagged along.  And I’m happy to report that she did fantastic!  She was a little uneasy at first, but as soon as people started loving on her, she realized that it wasn’t so bad.  She was totally on her best behavior.

These are the moments that make this whole fostering business worth it!

Here’s a recent studio shot of Naula.