Puppy mills are terrible places. Many of the pet stores that you see today such as Petland, Petsmart, Petco, and so on, get their puppies from puppy mills. If you do not know what puppy mills are, they are basically places where puppies are bred to be sold to humans. The conditions of these places are absolutely terrible though. The mothers of these puppies are kept in cages for most of their lives, they have little to no human interaction, are hardly fed or fed very poorly, and are not given the proper veterinary care that they may need in certain situations. Basically, these dogs are not given the life that they deserve to have. They get abused and injured by the owners of the puppy mills and not to mention, the puppies that are bred are not in great condition too. They sometimes have specific illnesses and diseases that would be hard for owners to treat. Many individuals do not know where their puppies are coming from when they buy from pet stores and breeders. They just buy the dog based on its age and what breed it is, they do not care about the background of the dog or what they are supporting when they buy these dogs. A great way to help this cause is to adopt dogs when you are looking for one. There are many adoption facilities that more than likely have the breed of dog you are looking for, just maybe older. Some of these dogs in shelters end up being put down if they are not adopted at a specific point in time. Let's stop the unethical breeding of these sweet babies and educate people on where places like Petsmart, Petco, and Petland get their dogs. ADOPT DON'T SHOP!!!