Madonna of the Mills

As I "evacuated" in light of the hurricane--and came home to my parents', where there's always premium channel-watching to be had--I flipped on HBO just as one its latest documentaries, "Madonna of the Mills," was airing. As my dog Butters is from a puppy mill, as was Violet, I decided to watch. And as is usually the case when I dwell on the topic of puppy mills--or see those ASPCA commercials with Sarah McLachlan--I started to tear up. The topic especially infuriates me since such a large number of mills are concentrated in central Pennsylvania--my home state--and are largely run in that area by Amish. How one can profess such piety and then deny a living being a chance at a decent life--being able to roam outside of a cage, human love, NOT BEING ABUSED--is beyond me.

What I didn't realize until after watching the documentary is that in light of the fact that 99% of puppies in pet stores come from puppy mills, approximately 100% of these animals have parasites or other diseases because of the conditions they were born into/their mothers and fathers live in. Thusly when you buy a dog from a pet store, not only are you perpetuating the puppy mill trade--by necessitating its existence--but you're also unknowingly buying a dog with who knows how many diseases. That's not saying that these dogs shouldn't be given a chance to be loved, either. These are just things to consider.

Violet died last May because of kidney failure, which developed as a result of her never being given proper vet care in any of her (approximate) eight years of birthing litters at the mill that housed her. Apparently it's cheaper for mills to take dogs out back and shoot them, and then replace them (as they can be bought at auctions for only dollars) than to take them to the vet. When I can afford to adopt another dog, I plan on adopting a puppy mill rescue, even though I know that doing so can be a financial commitment (though Butters has been rather healthy, thankfully). And of course there are so many other dogs (and cats) that still need to be adopted that aren't from mills. But what would we do without PetFinder? I go on that site and browse just as often as I browse Etsy for new shiz to buy, or Craigslist for my dream apartment somewhere that isn't here (haaaah).

I sound like a total tool who has a stick up her ass on her soapbox, but THE PUPPIES, MAN, the puppies! More about "Madonna of the Mills" here, and 10 Things to Know About Puppy Mills.