At TomKings Puppies we make serious efforts to fight against unethical breeding and educate puppy parents on how to recognize false intentions. It’s not always easy, as puppy farms and dealers have tricky methods to fake their activity and can be easily mixed with honest breeders. Follow our tips below and you’ll improve your chances of getting a healthy and happy puppy.
What is a puppy farm?
The name is misleading, as in most cases it’s not even a proper farm, but rather a factory: a house where several puppies of various breeds are kept in poor conditions. For these breeders, profit is above all. Above the health of the dogs, above their right to a certain level of conditions.
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How can puppy farms keep their costs at a minimum and increase their profit margin?
They buy the parents from uncertified and uncontrolled sources at the cheapest possible price. This increases the chances of genetic illnesses, poor physical conditions, and psychological troubles.
They keep the mum in poor conditions, before and during the pregnancy, not giving her the best food, attention, and the rest she needs. Then she is made to breed each time she comes into season, so she will have no time to recover and be able to give life to puppies destined for a healthier life.
In these farms, inbreeding is also common: the breeders make two dogs breed even if they are closely related, which results in serious health problem of the babies.
What’s the result?
Pups sold at puppy farms are in poor health conditions and have a higher chance of developing a hereditary illness at some point of their lives. They don’t get the proper attention from a vet, and no or poor quality vaccination.
The pups are kept in small rooms where they don’t have enough space to exercise and grow their muscles. They are not fed properly and completely lack the dose of vitamins they need. Poor hygiene results in an increased number of infections which are not treated properly.
Health is not the only problem. They will not learn to socialize and be a functional member of the family, they have serious psychological problems that can’t be cured later.
What to do against puppy farms?
To avoid buying from a puppy farm, do your homework. Check the ads: anybody can use fake photos downloaded from the net and fake reviews of puppy parents they have never had as clients.
Be suspicious if a breeder runs several ads with the same telephone number, and advertises several breeds.
The best screening of all is the physical or skype meeting and calls. These give you an excellent chance to explore more. Be attentive and see how passionate the breeder is. Their love for the pups should be obvious and they should be able to answer your questions in detail and have some questions themselves about your needs.
Ask the breeder to show the living conditions and look for the details: do the dogs look like they enjoy themselves? The breeder should be open to several calls if needed and you should always see the same conditions around the dogs.
If a breeder disappears once you start asking questions, or always finds excuses why they can’t show you the pups, start being suspicious.
The best is to walk away, and in case of serious suspicion, report them to the police, as animal cruelty is strictly illegal in the US.
As ethical breeders, we do our share to fight against the above practices not only for the sake of the future puppy parents but for these poor puppies themselves. When we started farming more than 10 years ago, we decided to breed healthy and happy puppies and find a forever loving family for them. This mission hasn’t changed at all! Hundreds of our Frenchies live all over the world, and through their caring parents, we are still in touch with them.
The article was written based on the experience and the services of the TomKings Puppies Team. TomKings Puppies have been breeding French Bulldogs for 10 years on their farm. All the pictures in the post belong to them and show a puppy from their breed. Check their available puppies here, or if you have any questions or comments let us know below the article.
6 thoughts on “Why and how to avoid ‘puppy farms’”
Wonderful Article and a reminder to all of us please do not support puppy mills or unscrupulous breeders , frenchies are a lovely sensible breed let’s do our best to support those who truly care about them thank you for sharing ?
Hi Mona, thanks so much for your feedback and we’re so glad we’re not alone in the battle against puppy mills, we can never do enough. Thanks again.
Great article! Puppy mills are run by unconscionable, cruel people and the main reason for overpopulation of animals in many areas of the world (as well as overcrowding in animal shelters in the US!). There were over 700 animals recently rescued from a Georgia breeder, and that was only one of god-knows how many. It’s outrageous! While nobody wants to be duped by these people when getting a new pet, the real victims are the animals. Thank you for putting this article together and sharing!
Thanks a lot for your feedback, Dania, it’s good to see that we are not alone in this battle.
Thank you so much for the article. I wish there was a way to stop it!!! My floppy eared Frenchie was a rescue from a puppy mill that was shut down. She’s a character and has changed our life. She rescued us along with our other fur babies.
Thanks so much for your comment and for sharing your story with us. It’s wonderful to hear you rescued a pup and how she also rescued you.