What's a better purchase than an adorable new friend from a pet store? Just about anything! In many people's minds, pet shops are fun places, full of adorable animals romping and playing while patiently awaiting their "forever home."

But the reality of life in a pet shop is far different. That "doggie in the window" likely came from a puppy mill, where dogs are often bred repeatedly; kept in small, barren cages; and treated solely as merchandise, not as feeling beings. Life for dogs …quot; and other animals …quot; in pet shops is no better. Serious welfare problems abound when animals are kept in retail environments.

Hundreds of thousands of dogs suffer in puppy mills in this country. The dogs are prisoners of greed. They are locked in small cages. They freeze in the winter and swelter in the summer. The dogs never get out of their prisons. They are bred over and over again until they die. The only way to free them from the misery of these horrid puppymills is to eliminate the demand for puppies by refusing to buy a puppy in a pet store and boycotting those pet stores that sell puppies. When people stop buying puppies in pet stores, the puppy mills will go out of business and the misery will end. The state and federal governments do not enforce the laws to protect the dogs. The commercial breeders and brokers have huge well-funded lobbying efforts.

Please join this fight to free the prisoners of greed. The only person who is going to make a difference for the dogs suffering in puppy mills is you. You, the people, can free them from their puppy mill prisons.