WE SUPPORT RUTLAND MANOR - WHAT'S A PUPPY MILL ANYWAY?

Let's Compare a Puppy Mill vs. Rutland Manor

Definition of A PUPPY MILL (Wikipedia encyclopedia)

A Puppy Mill, sometimes known as a puppy farm, is a large-scale commercial dog breeding facility that some consider to operate under substandard conditions regarding the well-being of dogs in their care.

PETA'S Definition of a puppy mill

CONTROVERSY

The term "puppy mill" has been widely used by animal rights groups in protests against smaller breeders who may appear to have substandard breeding conditions. Such breeders, occasionally labeled hobby breeders, are often cited by animal rights groups as puppy mills. Hobby breeders claim that emotional rhetoric, sensationalism, and pictures of dirty kennels are used to justify additional legislation or additional restrictive licensing that travels well beyond the initial goal of removing dogs from truly deplorable conditions.^[12]

THE DILEMMA

Twenty years ago, people knew that a "puppy mill" was a substandard kennel where unhealthy, over bred dogs were kept in horrendous conditions.

Today it's not so easy. In the last decade of the 20th Century, activist groups began to broaden the term to cover just about any kennel that they didn't like. As a result, commercial kennels and hobby breeders with more than an arbitrary number of dogs or litters have become targets for anti-breeding groups that lobby for laws to restrict these Law-Abiding Operations. These organizations stir up public support for breeding restrictions and high license fees by deliberately blurring the lines between responsible breeding operations and real puppy mills. They use emotional rhetoric and pictures of dirty kennels and stickly dogs to imply that most or all breeders will subject their dogs to abusive lives unless they are regulated.

(info from http://www.canismajor.com/dog/puppymil.html)