Dear Mr. Donald Trump,

A puppy mill, “an establishment that breeds puppies for sale, typically on an intenses basis and in conditions regarded as inhumane,” but that is the nice way of saying it. Imagine being a mother, pregnant for only 63 days, and once you give birth, you are only with your children for only 6 weeks. Then you are impregnated once agian, every 6 months. You live in a 2 by 2 cage, eating, urinating, and pooping in the same place. Many people would immediately assume that this would be illegal, and a form of animal cruelty. But this is in fact perfectly legal. This is the life of a female breeding dog in a puppy mill.

Puppy mill owners over breed dogs to make more full bred dogs. They do it for the look of the dogs, but in the process they do not care for the dogs, depriving them of common necessities, such as food, water, and veterinary care. The dogs are miserable and also suffer from many diseases, making them very sick or even killing them. Because the puppies are taken from their mothers so early, they sometimes do not even know how to eat, and therefore dying of starvation. Dog breeders that do not care about the dogs, only the money. Helpless, scared, disease-strewn dogs are put in miserable conditions and often suffer from painful illnesses and deaths. Theses innocent dogs never had done anything wrong, yet they are treated as trash. Some organizations, like the AKC, say that they are against puppy mills, and only support responsible breeders, which is good, except it isn’t quite true. The AKC and other purebred-only dog groups get paid a lot of money from commercial breeders, a.k.a puppy mills.

The standard for puppy mills can and should be raised, forcing the breeders to take better care of the dogs. In the United States, 3.9 million dogs are put into shelters each year, and the number keeps growing. 1.2 million of these dogs are euthanized, and a great deal of them come from puppy mills. If puppy mill standards were raised, the number would drop. If puppy mills were banned altogether, the number would drop drastically. There is an estimated 10,000 puppy mills in the U.S., licensed and unlicensed.

Puppy mills in America need to be banned for the sake of the innocent dogs being harmed within them. This does not have to happen all at once. Puppy mills do not need to be barged into by people, and the dogs be taken out right away, but the owners of these puppy mills just need to notice that these dogs have hearts, and these dogs have feelings, and that these dogs have no idea how it feels to be loved, or hugged, or even have a family.

Sincerely,

Morgan Giammarinaro