Is adopting from a shelter supporting puppy mills?

My Schnoodle was in a pet store. He was living in a horrid and discusting cramped cage. He was matted, encrused in feces and he came complete with 2 intestinal infections. His nails were starting to curl. It took him a couple of days to learn how to walk on a surface that was not cage wiring.He was 5 months old and he had spent every single moment of his life in a cage.

A day later that pet store was shut down, the owner had all of her dogs taken away and is not allowed to breed any longer infact she is not allowed to even own a dog.

I saved my dog.

Am I so terribly awful? I just so happened to get my dog before the puppies were given to a resuce group.

EDIT-

The lady had her pet shop closed because of me. My father works for the APL.

Please, continue with the thumbs down.

It's not the same at all. Buying a pitiful pet store puppy puts money in the petstore's hands and the petstores are paying the puppy mills for their puppies. If a dog at the petstore costs $1000, the puppy mill is probably getting $500 for that puppy. Even if that puppy stays in the petstore long enough that the store has to lower their price, the puppy mill is still getting $500 for that puppy regardless of what the petstore eventually sells it for. Plus it opens up another cage in the store so the petstore can buy another puppy from the puppy mill.

Shelter puppies are GIVEN to the shelter...sometimes the person dumping the dog even pays the shelter. The shelter does not give a single cent to the puppy mill. When that puppy is adopted out another cage does open...but if by some miracle there isn't another puppy in need of a home then the shelter has an empty cage that they are happy to not fill. The shelters may provide an outlet for their castaways...but they do not allow the puppy mills to make any money off of those dogs either. The ONLY thing puppy mills care about is money...if they can't make any money or even break even by selling their puppies then they will stop breeding them.

This is like asking "are we supporting drug dealers by having rehab centers?" NO. The dogs end up in the shelters because of other reasons, but the transaction to the backyard breeder/puppy mill has been made.

When a puppy is bought from BYB or pet store, the BYB/PM gets money. When a dog is bought or adopted from a shelter, the BYB/PM doesn't see a CENT. It's not as simple as being about getting a dog out of a bad situation. It's doing so and making sure that other dogs aren't put in the same situation. Supporting BYBs/PMs means MORE dogs are put in the same situation as a "demand" is created.

but i think one major think you are forgetting is almost all the dogs in pet stores come byb or mills. but at any given time, there may be no byb or puppy mill dogs in a shelter. just because a dog is alive, doesn't mean it's parents were MADE to breed. it could just be that someone's dog got out and came back pregnant. in that case, there is no mill owner or byb that is gaining from you buying a shelter dog. and also most shelters are dirt poor. they usually just charge enough of an adoption fee to pay for the dog's medical care, spay/neuter surgery and maybe a few dollars extra to pay employees.

something really important to remember is if a byb or shelter pup doesn't sell as a puppy, the breeder usually lowers the price but still keeps the dog around. in america, about every 30 seconds another dog in a shelter is put down because the shelter needs more room, can't afford the medical care the dog needs or simply because their 'time is up'.

which do you find more noble?

HAHAHA good question! i like it. Unfortunately to surrender a litter to the shelter costs money, and discourages BYB. But, because the owner is paying money to drop off the pups, most likely they will not spend money neuter/spay their dog, and its a vicious cycle....

But yes, shelters pretty much catch all the dogs that started out as BYB, then get dumped when they realize they take time, money, vet bills, so its actually a cr*p shoot. Instead of getting a dog from an irresponsible breeder, you get an adult or ruined dog from an irresponsible owner!!!!!!

BOTH deserve a good home. We have a pet store here, and some of the puppies have known no other life than a 2x2 cage- rough handling, and are 6 months old, having arrived at 5 1/2 weeks.

Both are sad realizations of our society. Just like foster care and adoption are for PEOPLE, not just pets.

If laws got tougher on breeders, there would be less profit from Back yard breeding, and destroy the cash cow....

OK it's like this. While plenty of dogs and puppies in shelters come from (originally) puppy mills, you aren't supporting them because adopting from a shelter or rescue puts not one dime in the puppy mill's pocket. When you purchase from a pet shop, that money goes directly to the store, which pays a percent of that money to the puppy mill. By NOT buying that puppy, you take away the thing that allows the puppy mill to stay alive and continue breeding. If they couldn't make money doing it they would have to find another way to make their living.

Dogs, the parents of those cute pet shop puppies, are kept in conditions that are unbearably miserable. These dogs suffer severe abuse and mistreatment. No living thing should be subjected to those conditions as it's inhumane.

I hope I helped you understand! It's not that those puppies don't deserve a home, it's the horrible and unspeakable conditions the parent animals are kept in. By giving the store money for those puppies you are condemning the breeding, parent animals, to misery

When you buy from a pet store, you pay a high amount for a puppy that is the direct result of a puppy mill (and sometimes BYB). Your money goes directly to line their pockets, and encourage them to continue to produce (that's how they see the pups: products) more puppies.

Some dogs are in shelters because they are strays. Some are the result of accidental breedings. Some are the result of puppy mills or BYBs. However, your adoption fee does not go toward those peoples' profits.

I highly doubt that if people stopped adopting from shelters, puppy mills would stop breeding because that "outlet" was gone. However, if people stopped buying from pet stores and BYBs, the profit would be gone.

No. Because dogs that are in shelters come from a variety of places - owner surrenders, strays, etc.

Some of those dogs are purebreds (from really good breeders, bybs mills etc but their owners dumped them). Some just got lost. Some are mixes that were lost, dumped as well.

Dogs that end up in shelters are there through no fault of their own. Are some of them from mills? Sure. But I've seen some very welll bred dogs in shelters too because their owners threw them away like garbage or they got lost for some reason.

Money given to a shelter does not go back to funding any breeder. That money barely keeps the doors to the shelter open. But you already knew that.

I think most of the people on here have given you very good answers. It is not the same.

Fancy_M....yes it is pet stores that support puppymillers, but by buying a puppy from a pet store people are encouraging the pet store to continue supporting puppymillers. If people stop buying from pet stores than pet stores won't buy from puppymillers because there will be no market for the puppies. In that sense your argument really doesn't work. People are still supporting the puppymillers by supporting the pet store that supports the puppymillers. Yes, pet stores should quit carrying live animals, but that won't happen as long as people buy them. Not only that but not all pet store buy the puppies right out, some of them sell them on consinement, which means when the puppy is bought the money goes go to the puppymiller, which again is supporting them.

No, if you purchase from the Local Dog Rescue Club in your area or the local Humane Society, no they are not puppy mills

Puppy mills are pet stores, breeders that have so many dogs they cant keep up with them, and from these places, the dogs are never healthy and live short lives......the dogs are kept in small crates all their lives....live, breathe and give birth in all one place, you have to be very careful buying from a breeder, to make sure is not puppy mill

NO! Let me TRY explain this to you in a mathematical way.

One pet store puppy + your money = on happy puppy mill that will breed puppies again.

One pet store puppy + bad breeding = high vet bills for you to pay in the long run.

One puppy from a shelter + your money = a saved life for the puppy, and money to help the shelter save more abandon animals from abuse situations.

Read it over again as many times as you like. You may understand eventually.