Animal Welfare Act

The Animal Welfare Act was passed in 1966 to regulate commercial dog and cat breeding. This law defines the smallest amount of care needed for commercial dog, cat, and other animal breeding. The Animal Welfare Act states that commercial breeders must be licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture. (USDA)

Neglect & Intentional Cruelty

There are many different kinds of dog abuse. The some of the big ones are neglect and intentional cruelty. Neglect is the failure to give your pet what it needs to survive and just ignoring the pet. The things that an animal needs to survive are food, water, shelter, and oxygen. If an owner doesn't care for their dog and pretends it doesn't even exist, then that is definitely neglect. Many times, a person will neglect their dog because they don't have enough money to pay for it's needs anymore. If an owner does give their pet food, water, shelter, and oxygen, but doesn't give it any love, take it for walks or do anything else for the dog, then it isn't considered neglect even though they don't take as much care of it as we would like them to.

Intentional cruelty is when a person abuses a dog by kicking it, throwing it, choking it, etc. This kind of abuse is just awful and it is mostly done for pleasure. Often people will take out their anger on things smaller than them, such as dogs. In many cases, people who abuse dogs also do the same sort of things to humans, like murdering or hurting other people. These people are sometimes psychopaths, normal people who take pleasure in hurting things smaller than them, or sometimes mentally ill. Intentional cruelty can have a large psychological effect on a dog, (meaning that it stays with them for a long time.) This can lead to the dog being severely injured, handicapped for life, or even being killed.

Puppy Mills

Puppy mills are large kennels where puppies are bred. The dogs that give birth to the puppies are forced to give birth until they are physically unable to or they die. The puppies that are born there often develop illnesses or injuries because the puppy mills carry many diseases. Did you know that about 85% of dogs in pet stores are from puppy mills? These dogs are often not cared for, or they get very little care. Puppy mills started around the end of World War II, when farmers needed money, so they decided to breed (or farm) puppies. They did not care for these puppies, so they got sick, or injured. This eventually led to puppy mills.