Curbing the Puppy Trade By Anita Hamilton

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1137662-1,00.html
All my life I have had a passionate love for dogs. This has made me very interested in the well being of animals. The article “Curbing the puppy trade” in Time magazine focuses upon the negative industry of puppy mill trading. Puppy mills are something that a lot of people don’t really know much about. I am very strongly against them and I feel that this article briefly touches upon how horrible they are. To me this article educates readers of the many puppy mills throughout the Midwest and how puppy mills provide a large percentage of dogs being bought. The dogs from these puppy mills are treated very badly and are kept in inhumane conditions. Many animal advocates are attempting to reduce the number of dogs being produced by these puppy mills. I say produced because to the mill owners the animals are nothing but a product that produces profits. The solution to reducing these puppy mills is to stop buying animals from places like pet stores and online sellers. This is easier said than done though when attempting to convince consumers to take the time to research dog breeds, shelters, and breeder. Animal activists are attempting to promote the adoption of the many homeless pets in shelters and pounds around the United States. Many people believe that they cannot adopt purebred animals but this article points out that a quarter of all animals in shelters are pure bred. This article makes me very interested in educating people of the puppy mills and their horrible qualities. I feel very obligated to help animals and be a part of reducing the number of puppy mill produced dogs that is in the high hundreds of thousands. Puppy mill trade is hurting our animals and should be an issue that concerns people everywhere.