How do you feel when you see a puppy in the pet shop? Now, Japan is experiencing a pet boom and especially dogs are popular. You can see a lot of puppies in the pet shop. People pay lots of money to get a puppy and to spend good time together, but the pet boom has also caused terrible things. Have you ever thought where puppies come from? There are many miserable parent dogs behind each cute puppy.

Have you heard the word "puppy mill"? A puppy mill is like dog factory. Puppy mills are usually in the remote countryside and they are run by unscrupulous breeders. Real breeders usually handle just a few kinds of dogs, but unscrupulous breeders handle many kinds of dogs, because selling many kinds of dogs can earn more money than a few kinds of dogs.

Unscrupulous breeders treat dogs like machines to earn money for their business. One unscrupulous breeder said on TV, "Dogs are machines to breed puppies". There are a large number of dogs and they are shut in dirty, small, and dark cages. The scene is beyond your imagination. Puppys' parents spend their life and keep being bred until they die in the darkness. Can you image how stressed they get? Most dogs in a puppy mill are only skin and bones and they don't have hair because of stress. Some dogs tear out their hair by themselves because they go crazy. Usually, dogs need exercise, but they can't enough exercise in a small cage so their muscles don't develop. Unscrupulous breeders are never concerned about a dog's health and heart. If a dog gets sick and can't breed puppies, the breeder throws them away. On the other hand, puppies are sold to pet shops and separated from their parents soon after the birth. They are put into a small cage and moved a long distance to go to pet shop. After that, they are displayed in show cases. Unsold puppies go back to the puppy mill again or they are thrown away.

Not all puppies in pet shops come from puppy mills but actually the number of unscrupulous puppy breeders is increasing with the expansion of the pet boom. The pet boom gave birth to this terrible fact. Japanese standard is obscure. Japanese breeders have a registration system. Everyone can become a breeder easily. The number of puppies and the puppy's ages aren't decided clearly. However, in United Kingdom, breeders need a license. There is a yearly restriction on the number of puppies a breeder can provide. A puppy can't leave parents until eight weeks after the birth. The law in the UK prohibits selling dogs in pet shops. According to strong restriction, the UK has a good reputation in animal protection. Japanese regulations against breeders don't work well, so it is difficult to take action against unscrupulous breeders.

When I knew about puppy mill, I was very shocked and surprised, but there was nothing I can do. In Japan, the existence of puppy mills is not known well. I believe if many people know about them it will become a powerful motive and I have a suggestion. How about adopting a dog from the dog health center? I adopted a dog from the health center five years ago. She was an abandoned dog and on the verge of being put down. Now, she is a member of my family. Before you buy puppy, please think about it. Humans created the pet boom and it also caused terrible things but to be able to protect dog's life is only human.