Where are puppy mills?
In this part of the country, Pennsylvania leads the list. But the mid-west is the most prolific puppy mill region. How do these puppies reach consumers? The millers sell them to puppy brokers, who then transport and sell them to pet shops nationwide, where consumers buy them at a high retail price, and without knowing the abysmal conditions they perpetuate through their purchase. Why are consumers confused? Most of these puppies are registered with the AKC, which gives people the mistaken impression that they have been bred with care and concern. But the AKC is not a regulatory agency — and in this context, they are simply a listing service that assigns each puppy a unique registration number and tabulates the number of dogs registered each year by breed. Another harsh reality is that there are puppy mill auctions. When millers go out of business, or simply want to clear out their *inventory*, they contract with auctioneers who sell the dogs to the highest bidder. Again, humane issues
