Ending Substandard Puppy Mills

Missouri has the absolute shame of leading the nation in the number of substandard puppy mills in our state. The atrocities your Humane Society of Missouri has witnessed in substandard facilities are so egregious that even those of us who have seen every type of abuse and neglect imaginable are horrified that mankind can inflict such cruelty on another living creature. These substandard facilities fail to provide adequate shelter, food, water and veterinary care for their breeding stock subjecting the animals to an utterly miserable existence in a two-by-two cage for their entire lives. These animals have never experienced the kindness of a human touch, never had their paws touch the grass, never been socialized and never been groomed. Moreover, the lack of veterinary care and basic nutrition severely compromises their health. Advanced dental disease, severe skin afflictions, eye and ear infections and parasites are all too common in these animals. Written by Kathryn Wright Warnick