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A Puppy Mill cannot be a Rescue, too- or can it?

By Eric Forrest on May 20, 2018

Volunteers at educational groups like our pals at Bailing Out Benji are doing some great work for animals sold in pet stores. Often, the job of Bailing Out Benji and others (like us here at Pets in Omaha) is to fill the public in about where the cute puppies in the cages at pet stores come from. If you don’t know already, most of them are from commercial breeding facilities (puppy mills) that care more about the monetary value of the animals than their physical health. Where we educate, they deceive.

A new trend in pet stores is to say their animals are “rescues.” How is it that a puppy birthed on a farm somewhere from a mother that is bred every heat cycle, living in deplorable conditions a rescue animal? When the puppy mill also has a 501 3 C license, it can now call itself a “rescue” group. How’s that for deception?

Now, a breeder, like J.A.K.S. puppies in Britt, IA, that has a 501 3 C under the name Hobo K9 Rescue (registered at the same address) can breed puppies like crazy, sell them to stores, and call them “rescue” dogs.

For a second, let’s assume J.A.K.S. calls itself a responsible breeder. Do responsible breeders sell puppies to pet stores? What if that “responsible” breeder has hundreds of puppies per year? Seem less responsible? This is from a recent article written by Mindi Callison, founder of Bailing Out Benji:

“In 2017 Hobo K9 sold 608 PUPPIES to PetLuv in Chicago. 608 puppies, that is almost 2 puppies sold a day. NO reputable rescue would ever have that many puppies in one year…”

600+ puppies in one year, to one store?

Bailing Out Benji is also all over the fact that breeders like this, and pet stores, can now get around the recent retail bans in various states and cities that disallows the sale of any animal in a store that doesn’t come from a rescue or shelter. Now, with the “rescue” title, a breeder like J.A.K.S. can freely sell dogs to stores in places with retail bans and call the dogs “rescue” animals.

In the article linked to above, Bailing Out Benji details more deception and the work its done with other news organizations like the Chicago Tribune. Give it a read, share, and let folks know where those puppies really come from.

Even more proof that real rescue groups and animal shelters should be your first choice when looking for a new pal. Adopt, don’t shop.

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