Tuesday, June 24, 2008


Size Doesn't Matter
This is a fierce dog. I can't tell you his name because I'm trying to be as anonymous as possible here but I will say he is is very fierce. He weighs four pounds, maybe. He is fully grown and a butt. Approach him and he will bite you. I know he's bitten me several hundred times, almost daily or the past year and a half actually but I love him to death.
He's a puppy mill dog. If you ever have any doubts that all the stories about how bad such dogs can be, don't doubt it. They aren't bred for temperament or health only for quantity. Their mothers are started as soon as they go into heat and don't stop until they physically can't give birth any longer. then they are killed, sometimes not so humanely. He is pretty much insane. So reactive that the sight of another dog will send him into a pseudo seizure. His eyes roll back in his head and only the whites show. He foams at the mouth and barks until he becomes hoarse. If he's close enough he will bite, don't doubt that for a second. If he can't bite the dog and you are close enough he will bite you, repeatedly.
Fortunately for all involved he really doesn't have the jaw strength to do any harm. It's like getting a big blood blister. Unfortunately for other such dogs they can cause harm...big time harm. It isn't their fault it's the fault of those who bred them but unlike others who say there aren't any bad dogs only bad owners...I disagree, there are bad dogs. Like this one. He has hips that are like swiss cheese, one has been replaced already. His teeth will all fall out eventually. His trachea collaspes and he chokes to right it. He's a mess and there is nothing I can do. Fortunately he landed in a home that can afford to help with his physical problems and has the sense to shield him from emotional ones.
So when you see that adorable puppy in a pet store don't buy it. It isn't worth the cost to you or the dog.

6 comments:

Contact Travis said...

this breaks my heart. How can a living being profit (so inhumanely) off the suffering of so many other living beings?

Puppy-millers should be punished as severely as people who abuse their children.

Dan-Eric Slocum said...

Good God. This just infuriates me.

These people need SEVERE punishment. I know our Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment-- but we've got to protect animals-- and deal with these criminals in a particularly STRONG way. We have to build deterrents to stop it.

CRIMINAL! And it's been going on for decades. Our lawmakers need to hear from you, Melissa. I'm glad you are fighting this fight!

Anonymous said...

The place he came from has now been shut down, Absolutely Parvo we used to call it. You walk in and walk out with Parvo on your shoes. Really though I think the only way this will change is for people to stop buying from anyone who doesn't have the parents on site. Who can't or won't give you references.

Most pet store buy from puppy mills, it's just the way it is. It's too hard to shut them down quickly or permanently. Visit a shelter or do your research and spay and neuter.

Contact Travis said...

I've had a lot of puppies over my life and we have NEVER purchased them from a store.

As a kid my parents always took us to the farm or home...where we'd meet the puppy's mom and dad.

For me that's become part of the process...the trip to get the new family member and meet the extended family.

Anonymous said...

Lola is a pet store dog. I swore I would never buy from a pet store but I saw an ad for a schnoodle in the paper, had to see it, called and it was gone. The person said there was one in a nearby pet store and the rest is history. I went back four times trying to resist but Eric's lovely significant other talked me into it. I'm glad now but I wouldn't do it again.

Contact Travis said...

once we take a puppy into our lives we love them regardless....no questions asked.

But I agree...we need to help educate everyone else..that puppy mills are bad bad news for everyone and only doom a poor puppy to a lifetime of trouble...no matter how much we love him/her.

I dated a veterinarian for a time and he would come home literally in tears some nights after seeing a new litter of puppies purchased by different families from a pet store and then within days..all brought to him in such awful shape. Its like the little guys can barely hold it together long enough to be adopted out...and then once they are in a home that loves them...everything bad they've been fending off hits.

Ahhh...I just get wound up thinking about it.