Stop the International Importation of Puppy Mill Dogs
 
Every year thousands of unsuspecting Canadians purchase their dream, pure bred dog from online advertisements and ‘breeders’.  Unfortunately, what these pet owners are unaware of is many of these dogs come from overseas puppy mills and are distributed throughout Canada via a puppy mill broker.  Although these puppies look adorable and healthy at first, they are often suffering immensely.  Common illnesses from these dogs include Mycoplasma, Bordetella, Pneumovirus, Pneumonia, Worms and Giardia.  The vet bills from puppy mill dogs leave their new owners out thousands of dollars to save the puppies life, or worse, the puppy passes away shortly after purchase. Puppy mills are a major problem throughout the world with hot spots in the USA, Ukraine, Russia and Romania. The condition of these facilities is beyond inhumane, filthy and complete animal abuse.  A mother dog is forced to produce puppies multiple times a year while often in a cage too small to move and covered in her own excrement. The mother dogs only job is to produce puppies for overseas buyers.  Brokers purchase these dogs in bulk at a few hundred dollars a dog and then sell them to Canadians for a profit of thousands. 
 
Sites such as Kijiji, Craigslist and Facebook all play a role in a market place for these dogs and their unsuspecting buyers.  Puppy mill brokers will often pose as legitimate breeders even though the puppy has traveled many miles from overseas.  Just recently on June 13th, a Ukrainian Airlines flight landed in Toronto with 500 puppies aboard for distribution in Canada.  Sadly, 38 puppies had died of suffocation on this flight. Not only did the puppies suffocate but they were also packed multiple per crate at temperatures over 30 degrees for the entire flights.  French bulldog puppies are one of the most popular dogs sold in Canada now and more often than not they come from puppy mills. This importation of puppies has to STOP!
 
The Canadian Government, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Chief Veterinarian of Canada, Airlines and online marketplaces have to take responsibility.  Canada has to put an end to the importation of puppies from known puppy mill countries.  If we can put an end to this horrific importation, then we can hope that as demand dwindles so will these inhumane puppy mills.  As more people know where their purebred dog has come from sales can decline of inhumane breeding practices and animal abuse.   Animals deserve rights too and Canada has to implement those rights.  Let’s do better as a country and start by banning the importation of puppies!

Along with signing this petition you can also reach out to your provincial premier and CFIA.

News articles:

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/dog-owners-complain-after-puppies-from-same-okotoks-area-broker-arrive-with-health-problems-1.4716411?cache=yes%3FclipId%3D89750%3FautoPlay%3Dtrue​

https://nationalpost.com/news/dozens-of-puppies-found-dead-in-cargo-hold-of-ukraine-flight-that-landed-in-toronto?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3kS-NrSPY8zb-wzu0cGCcaozGnk0Nq3GTnLz2zA-pKpfDfA_gNKcuJD90#Echobox=1592606138​

https://www.cdc.gov/importation/bringing-an-animal-into-the-united-states/operation-dog-catcher.html?fbclid=IwAR1m9Uj2hbPdyy6eXrVlmdfpIRHNHAdv1b8shEigSBFDQANjTnZyTIMKRe4 

(*This is not an attack on legitimate, humane, local dog breeders.  We are focused on stopping the importation of dogs from international puppy mills.)