2-4 million dogs are produced annually by puppy mills while another 3-4 million dogs are destroyed in animal shelters yearly by euthanasia, Humane Society reports show. Puppy mills are factory-like locations in which dogs are mass-produced without care for proper housing, feeding, and veterinary care. Animal advocates have noted that dogs and puppies from puppy mills are bred with relatives and bred more than their bodies can healthily produce.

Glen Mutch, a volunteer at the Agoura Animal Shelter for the past two years has cared for dogs who were rescued from puppy mills and nursed them back to health to prepare them for adoption.

"Puppy mills, I'd say, almost allof them are a bad thing," Mutch said. "They're mainly only for profit, they'renot for the furtherance of the breed. The people who work in puppy mills treatthem just like livestock."

StopPuppyMills.org, a branch of the Humane Society that is dedicated to ending America's abundance of puppy mills, said that there are thousands of puppy mills in the United States, but due tot heir secretive and illegal nature they can be hard to find and frequently move their locations, names, and owners. Puppy mills rarely sell directly to acustomer looking for a puppy, but instead to brokers who sell them to individualpet stores. Puppy mills are notorious for being prevalent in the Midwest,however, they exist in virtually every state. Two months ago, the HumaneSociety and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) raided a puppy mill in Valencia and distributed the dogs between the six Los Angeles county animal shelters. The Humane Society has said that those looking for pets should not purchase them but instead visit shelters and rescue groups. They believe this will help put puppy mills out of business and help lower the need for millions of euthanasia's to be performed. Over 20% of shelter dogs are purebreds, so those looking for a purebred dog should check the shelter first, say Humane Society officials. Larry Horn, owner of Agoura Hills pet store LovesPets II has been in the pet business for 26 years. He only sells dogs from local breeders that he knows and trusts.

"What's wrong with puppy mills is that they come from a breeder's house and these breeders do not follow normal guidelines for breeding their puppies; they're either over-bred, or they're not well to begin with and those puppies are sold to a broker which houses them with lots of other types of dogs in the same warehouse; where they are fed and cared for;and they're fed very cheap food, they try to do it the cheapest way possible," Horn said."And then they're taken from the broker's place and placed in pet stores around the country; and they're either flown by air or driven by truck and if they're sick to begin with it spreads throughout all the dogs they're bringing into the petstore. The stress and trauma of being in trucks or being flown usually ends up with the puppies being put into a pet store that are sick or in bad condition and that's passed on to the consumer and it's just a nightmare."

Pet stores are not the only place puppy mill dogs are sold. Many puppy mill dogs are sold online or through newspaper ads. A recent study conducted by the Humane Society found that many puppies purchased sight unseen had congenital defects, behavioral problems, and severe illnesses. 20% of these puppies died within weeks of purchase.

The Humane Society said that not all pet stores are bad, and buying a dog versus adopting one is a viable option as long as the potential buyer is informed. They have a list of guidelines and questions that the buyer should be able to ask of the breeder or pet storeowner available on their website.

Larry Horn also said that a buyer should ask questions and be informed before deciding whether or not to purchasea new pet.

"If you go into a store that carries more than six or seven puppies and they're in cages behind glass doors and they have header cards on the cages saying they're from the Midwest; Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, generally speaking, that's a store that's probably selling nightmare-type dogs," Horn said.