puppy mills

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Five ways to tell a puppy is from a puppy mill

from Humane World blog
Puppy for sale at pet store.

Date: June 2, 2025

Author: Kathleen Summers

Every year, an estimated 2.1 million puppies are sold from roughly 10,000 puppy mills across the United States. In these massive breeding facilities, nearly 500,000 dogs are kept solely for the purpose of breeding. Many of them will be killed or discarded when they become too old to breed, never knowing what a loving home feels like. We are changing this: Earlier this year, our fight to end puppy mill cruelty reached a milestone worth celebrating: 500 localities across the U.S. have banned the sale of puppy mill puppies in pet shops. Kathleen Summers, outreach and research director for our Stop Puppy Mills campaign, was the very first full-time staff member at Humane World for Animals focused solely on stopping puppy mills. Summers has spent 19 years working to expose and shut down puppy mills. Here, she discusses five signs that a dog is from a puppy mill. Share these tips with your family and friends to spare them the heartache of ending up with a dog whose puppy mill past casts a long shadow over their lives.

“We noticed she had a runny nose, but the pet store said it was just a cold.”

“The puppy slept the whole way home, but we thought that meant she was just a laid-back dog.”

“We weren’t able to meet the puppy’s mother because the breeder said their house was hard to find and met us at the gas station instead.”

These are the kinds of messages we receive from families who become heartbroken and stressed when the seemingly perfect puppy they bought from a pet store, online or a questionable breeder turns out to have serious health problems. When we receive these types of complaints, buyers often add that when they look back, they realize there were red flags. A love of animals and an enthusiasm about the idea of bringing a puppy home can lead people to overlook signs that puppies or their mothers are not healthy, that conditions are not ideal, or that a seller is not being transparent. This is the exploitative business model of puppy mills and the pet stores that sell puppy mill dogs—obscuring the truth of how dismal puppy mills are while capitalizing on people’s natural love for animals.

Our puppy mills team has been collecting complaints from the public for 20 years. The warning signs we hear about most often are the following:

  1. The puppy seems unwell or overly tired. If a puppy has a runny nose or seems lethargic, the pet store or breeder may describe them as “having a cold.” But puppies should be clean, alert and lively. While puppies do nap a lot, they should not seem drowsy or lethargic all the time, should not be coughing or sneezing, and should have clear eyes, ears and nose. Puppies should also be a minimum of 8 weeks old before offered for sale.
  2. Something doesn’t smell right. Literally. A puppy (and their mother) should look and smell clean. If they have been living in poor conditions, they may smell or look dirty or even show signs of fleas. That being said, anyone can give a puppy a bath, so you should also see for yourself exactly where the puppies and parents have been living. It should be in a clean and spacious location, not in stacked cages.
  3. The puppy doesn’t have veterinary documents. A list of vaccinations provided by the seller is not enough. A puppy should come with paperwork on veterinary letterhead, and that paperwork should include the dates and lot numbers of all vaccinations given, as well as information on the puppy’s wellness examination and deworming schedule. Otherwise, you have no way of knowing if the dog received the right vaccinations at the right time, or at the correct dosage and intervals.
  4. You aren’t sure where the puppy has been. If a breeder offers to meet you in a parking lot or other third-party location, that’s a red flag. Responsible breeders will be proud to let you see where the puppies and their parent(s) spend their time. This is also why we caution against purchasing a puppy from a pet store or online. Puppy mills hide behind these third-party sellers or fancy websites.
  5. The puppy’s mother seems to be afraid of you. Responsible breeders should allow you to meet the parents of a puppy—at a minimum, the mother. The mother dog should be friendly, clean, alert and happy to see you. A mother dog who seems afraid, lethargic or aggressive may be maladapted because she’s been living in poor conditions.

Our investigations into pet stores that sell puppies from puppy mills show time and again that these dogs suffer because they do not receive appropriate attention, socialization or veterinary care. 

https://www.humaneworld.org/en/media/oembed?url=https%3A//www.youtube.com/shorts/MXNTUVYXztg&max_width=0&max_height=0&hash=jzj06KJ99a6BcvcQnyBShTD4fLzWZ0hiKBJY2ZgkKnM

The best way to avoid supporting the puppy mill industry is to adopt a dog from an animal shelter or reputable rescue group instead. If you’re seeking to add a puppy to your family, there’s no shortage: Of the 2.9 million dogs who entered shelters and rescue organizations in the U.S. last year, 29% were puppies. You’ll not only be giving a home to a pup who needs one, but you’ll be keeping your hard-earned money out of the pockets of puppy mills. Learn more.

Kathleen Summers, outreach and research director for the Stop Puppy Mills campaign at Humane World for Animals, holding Peanut the dog.

Kathleen Summers is outreach and research director for the Stop Puppy Mills campaign at Humane World for Animals.

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A Massive Blow to the Puppy Mill Industry: Illinois Ends the Sale of Puppies in Pet Stores

From Humane Society of the United States CEO Kitty Block

A massive blow to puppy mill industry: Illinois ends the sale of puppies in pet stores

Commercial dog breeders often provide little in the way of comfort or love to the animals in their operations. Illinois’ new ban on puppy sales by pet stores is a major win in the fight to shut off support for these places.

In a major win in the fight against cruel puppy mills, Illinois’ Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed the Humane Pet Store Bill (HB 1711) into law. The state’s 21 puppy-selling pet stores have 180 days from August 27, the date the bill was signed, to stop selling commercially raised puppies and kittens. This effectively closes out a profitable sales channel for puppy mills and will drive the Illinois pet market towards more humane sources like shelters, rescues and responsible breeders.

Illinois pet stores sell thousands of puppies each year from large-scale commercial breeders and brokers who treat mother dogs as little more than breeding machines and puppies as mere products to be shipped to pet stores and sold. Many of these operations have terrible animal welfare records, impacting the health of the puppies. When families acquire ill puppies, this can lead to high veterinary bills and the puppies can even die within weeks of purchase, leaving families heartbroken. The new law sends a clear message: The days when pet stores can showcase the cute puppy or kitten in the window while puppy and kitten mills hide their horrors are coming to an end. Despite the vast resources the pet stores put into fighting this legislation, it passed both the state House and Senate by strong bipartisan majorities. And Gov. Pritzker did not cave to the veto campaign that followed its passage. Instead, lawmakers, led by Republican Rep. Andrew Chesney and Democratic Sen. Cristina Castro, sided with the people of Illinois who called and emailed by the thousands to urge support for this important law.

Illinois now joins California, Maryland, Maine, Washington and nearly 400 localities across 30 states in prohibiting the sale of puppy mill puppies in pet stores. The writing is on the wall for puppy-selling pet stores: It’s time to cut ties with puppy mills and, rather than add to the pet overpopulation crisis that is currently gripping large parts of the nation, pet stores should look to join with shelters and rescues to increase adoptions of animals who would otherwise be left homeless.

Petland, the largest retailer of puppy mill puppies and a company we’ve criticized for mistreating animals, selling sick animals and sourcing from some of the worst breeders in the nation, will be affected by the Illinois law. Eight Petland stores in the state will have to stop selling puppies in the coming months, and the recent passage of pet store ordinances in Florida counties adds four more elsewhere in the country. As a dominant force in the industry, Petland should take a good look at where things are moving and shift all its stores away from selling puppies.

The strong stand by Illinois lawmakers against puppy mill cruelty this session did not stop with the pet store bill. The state also became the first in the nation to prohibit the financing of dog and cat purchases with the enactment of HB 572. Because puppy mill puppies are often sold for thousands of dollars to those who may not be able to afford them outright, some stores offer financing as an incentive to close the sale. Pet stores and large internet brokers often promise low-interest financing through third-party lenders that end up charging exorbitantly high-interest rates and hidden fees. Petland customers have complained of interest rates as high as 188%, and in some cases, customers must make payments for years after their pets died. HB 572 passed unanimously in both chambers, showing zero tolerance for these predatory practices.

With the momentum of public opinion and bipartisan lawmakers on our side, we will continue full steam ahead until puppy mills no longer exist. New York, with more than 60 puppy-selling stores, is in the middle of a two-year legislative session in which a humane pet store bill has already passed the state Senate. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts also have active bills, and there are several key local ordinance votes coming up. We are campaigning for the passage of these laws in communities around the country that are affected by the impacts of puppy mills, leading the charge for a more humane future for puppies and kittens.

Follow Kitty Block on Twitter @HSUSKittyBlock