Buying Puppy Mill dogs

I was talking to my friend who is also in rescue and she said to me "Amy what are we doing? Is it really worth all this? We run around, having no lives, doing nothing but dogs day in and day out. For what?"

"Are we really making a difference?" she always asks me.

I got off the phone with her seeing her point, are we really making a difference?

Here is my the issue she and I are facing. We bust are butts to save a dog from a shelter that is going to be killed. We take that dog get it 100% vetted costing us a lot of time and money and spend weeks, months finding a good home for the dog. Then there are rescues out there that ship dogs in from other states that were purchased from puppy mills. Or just go to Amish country and buy some puppies. They take the puppies get them vetted and put them up for adoption and have them adopted in days at the most. I actually had a rescue say to me "we rarely have dogs more then a week"

Why is that? Because they have puppies from puppy mills and I mean puppies.... 10 weeks, 12 weeks, etc. Not 1 year old dogs, not 5 year old dogs, not random puppy mutts.

Now, forgive me here but to me that isn't helping. #1 why ship dogs in from out of state? We have PLENTY of dogs in Ohio that need help. #2 why would you buy a dog from a puppy mill?

I have asked rescue people who do buy puppies / dogs from puppy mills why they do it. The answer I get is WE ARE SAVING THE DOGS. Are you really? Think about it this way....

There is a crack dealer that is in your neighborhood. He is selling crack to the kids and he doesn't care that kids are dieing, going to jail, ruining their lives. All he cares is the almighty dollar and crack selling is a very easy way to make money. For some reason the laws in your town will not do anything about that crack dealer, everyone knows he sells crack but yet none of the law enforcement agencies will do anything about it.

You are frustrated and just can't take it any more. You go up to the crack dealer and you beg him to stop. He laughs at you. You say fine, I will buy all the crack you have today. He is so excited you are going to buy all his crack. He would have stayed on the street corner all day to sell that much crack but you came along and bought it all. Now he can go home, spend his money and get more crack for tomorrow.

You go home and flush all the crack down the toilet. WOOHOO! No, crack will be sold today.

The next day you see the same crack dealer standing there selling his crack. You go up to him and explain to him why crack is bad. He doesn't care, not his problem. You once again buy all his crack. He is excited all his crack is gone for the day. WOW he thinks. Sometimes I can't sell all my crack. He goes home and thinks ok if this keeps up I can make a lot of money.

The next day the crack dealer comes right up to your house and knocks on the door. You are excited to see him. You think to yourself, he finally understands. You answer the door and he says I have 3 times the amount of crack I normal have. You want to buy it? He says if you don't buy it he will just go sell it at the playground. You know if you don't buy it he will!

So, what have you accomplished? Instead of making things harder on the crack dealer you just made life so much easier for him. All he has to do is make threats and produce more crack and you will buy it. He doesn't care you flush it, all he cares is there is money in his pocket.

See my point?? These rescues are going to the puppy mills and buying the puppies. Just like the pet stores does. They are putting money in the hands of the people that force poor dogs into a life of hell. They are spaying and neutering the dogs before they go to their new homes but they are not helping the over population problem because the puppy mills are just making more puppies but instead of pet stores buying them rescues are.

People go on Pet Finder and Adopt A Pet knowing that "rescuing" a puppy is better then buying a puppy from a pet store but the problem is the rescue paid the puppy mill for the puppy. So, in the end all they have is a puppy mill dog... the same puppy mill dog they could have just gone to the pet store and buy. Granted it would have been WAY more expensive and not spayed or neutered but still same puppy. So, rescues have just picked up where the pet stores left off.

There are so many faces staring at me everyday through the cage wires at a pound... each one is minutes, hours, days a way from being walked to the gassing room, placed in a box that slowly fills with smelly gas, they start to get scared and panic, their heart races until they get sleepy, their eye lids get heavy.....

I stand firmly in my belief I will NOT pay ANYONE for a dog. I will only take in dogs that if I didn't take them they would be dead but am I really make a difference? Am I really making a dent? If I didn't do what I do would it really matter?