While our shelters are bursting at the seams with unwanted animals looking for good homes, pet shops encourage the irresponsible and negligent proliferation of dogs and cats. About 360,000 puppies sold in pet shops each year come from "puppy mills," breeding kennels located mostly in the midwestern states where "farmers" churn out hundreds of yorkies, spaniels, poodles, and other pups in outdoor cages, then ship them off like vegetables to market. These places are notorious for their cramped, crude, and filthy conditions and continuous inbreeding of unhealthy and hard-to-socialize animals. Female dogs are bred continuously with no rest between heat cycles, and they are killed when their bodies give out.

Remember, four out of five animals who enter an animal shelter are put to sleep. Try getting your next pet at an animal shelter instead of a pet shop. This saves the animal's life and by going to an animal shelter you are not supporting the cruelty at the puppy mills.

Currently, Congressman Glen Poshard and Senator Rick Santorum are working on a bill called the Poshard/Santorum letter. The letter will help put an end to the cruelty in puppy mills, but they need more senators and congressmen to sign on. Please: write to your senators and congressmen and ask them to sign on to the Poshard/Santorum letter. [If you have access to e-mail and you would like a list of senators' and congressmen's e-mail addresses, please e-mail to [email protected]] ^