Fighting puppy mills is easy. Now that you know that most puppies come from cruel puppy mills, here’s how to make sure you never support them.

When you are thinking of welcoming a dog into your home, please always consider adopting an animal from your local shelter, or search for your perfect companion on Pet Rescue. You’ll save a life right there and then.

If you decide to buy a puppy from a commercial business, it is important to be very careful and do your research first. Never buy your puppy from the internet or a pet shop as you will have no guarantee where they came from. Find a breeder who allows you to visit the premises and see the parent animals and the conditions in which they live. The RSPCA’s Smart Puppy Buyer’s Guide provides comprehensive information on how to ensure that your puppy had a great start in life.

CAUTION: Many dog breeders claim to be a ‘registered breeder’, but this doesn’t give any guarantees. Often this simply means that they have registered as a business with their council which may have no relevance for the welfare of the animals in their care. But even when a breeder is a member of a breed association or breeders organisation one still has to be careful. While such organisations do have rules and guidelines for their members, being ‘registered’ does not necessarily mean a breeder is responsible or meets good animal welfare standards.

Puppy mills exist only because they remain hidden from public view. Share this campaign to expose the truth.

Australia is failing to protect the animals we as a nation love most. In one in three Australian households the family is not complete without a beloved dog. But they may have received very little love before they joined our families.

A lack of mandatory animal welfare standards for dog breeders and failure to clamp down on unscrupulous breeders* make it possible for puppy mills and backyard breeders to continue their operations unhindered. Dogs in these facilities are often kept in small pens with no quality of life and a lack of veterinary care. They have no ability to exercise, socialise, play or interact with humans. In many cases puppies from such facilities have already developed long-term behavioural or health problems as a result of the poor conditions they are bred in before they find a home.

Mother dogs may suffer years in isolation, with their babies taken away from them when they are only a few weeks old. They are kept in a cycle of breeding until they can no longer produce enough puppies to be profitable. Only few are lucky enough to be offered to a good home, with breeders legally allowed to shoot their dogs.

To learn more about companion animal issues in Australia, please click here.

*Minimum animal welfare standards for breeders are currently only in place in Victoria and NSW. And only Victoria and the ACT have laws that require breeders to be registered. In Victoria this only applies to breeders with more than 3 fertile dogs, or, for members of an ‘applicable breeding organisation’ such as Dogs Victoria, to breeders with more than 10 fertile dogs.