From: davis@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Barbara Davis)
Subject: Re: LIFE magazine and Puppy Mills
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 20:12:19 GMT

terry@eece.ksu.edu (Terry Hull) writes:

>Kimberly Laird <U30993@uicvm.uic.edu> writes:

>>A very good indicator of whether the store buys from
>>puppy mills is if their papers all indicate that the
>>pups came from one place...  e.g. Yorkies, Rotts,
>>Lhasas, Cockers all have the same breeder/address on
>>their papers.  Another indication is if the puppies
>>come from local areas, rather than from hundreds
>>of miles away.

>>I'm sure others on this list will have advice on
>>this topic...

>No commercial puppy seller sells dogs from reputable breeders, because
>reputable breeders will not sell to a reseller.  It is that simple.
>Reputable breeders interview you like you are adopting their child,
>not like you are buying a piece of property.  These breeders will not
>trust this task to anyone else, especially not a commissioned salesman.
>--
>Terry Hull  -  terry@eece.ksu.edu
>Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University

I don't think any issue is as black and white as you state.  My Shih-Tzu
was purchased from a small pet store.  It only occasionally had puppies
for sale and all its puppies were from local breeders.  The puppies were
kept in a large pen during the day and taken home with the store owners
at night.

My pup did come from parents with good lines.  I have since met the breeder
and the parents.  The breeder allowed the pups to be sold at the store of
a good friend because the illness of his wife prevented him from tending
to the sales himself.

I was questioned by the store owner who already knew me as a responsible
pet owner who had recently made the agonizing decision to let our vet
put my poodle down because he was terminally ill.  My poodle had been
groomed there and I had bought my pet supplies there for several years.
They knew me to be a responsible "mom".

I had to agree to take the pup right to a vet at the store's expense.  I took
him straight to my vet, got a clean bill of health on him, took the bill
to the store and got reimbursed.

The store owners have continued to show interest in him and know him as
one of their dogs.  This was nearly three years ago and I have never seen
another Shih-Tzu in their store.  I also know that the breeder's family
is healthy again and he again tends to his own sales.

On the other hand, I bought my toy poodle from a breeder I saw advertised
in the vets office.  (They have since changed their policy to screen all
breeders who post.)  I later learned, while watching the breeder interviewed
on TV, that Jasper was the product of a puppy mill.

Dragon, the Shih-Tzu,  has always been happy and well adjusted.  He assumes
people will love him.

Jasper, the poodle, on the other hand, has always been afraid of everyone
but me.  It took him three months of patient handling to learn to trust me
and then I think he learned by watching Dragon with me.  Just this last week,
2 1/2 years after I rescued him, he finally allowed someone besides me to move
around our house freely without hysterically barking at them.

There have been too many "bad breeder" stories on this net to make a blanket
statement about any source of puppies.

Barb
-- 
Barbara G. Davis                       Internet:  davis@ucsu.colorado.edu
University of Colorado, Boulder 

                   If I don't ask, you can't say, "Yes!".