Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
A friend pointed out a new documentary, Madonna of the Mills. It’s about Laura Flynn Amato’s mission to save dogs from puppy mills.
The trailer demonstrates the problems associated with large scale commercial dog breeding. At one point in the movie, the camera shows a poor retriever, who turns and looks at the camera, and then turns away in an attitude of despair and dejection.
I noticed this same thing in a video made of a former Missouri blue ribbon kennel, just before the kennel closed down its business. In the video, you can see that the dogs have room in their cages, for the most part. And food and water and the place is clean. But the place is also large (over 500 dogs and puppies), and as the person holding the camera moves past the cages, many of the dogs look up and then away. All except for those who strain at the cages in a desperate attempt for attention.
Hopefully once the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act takes effect, the puppy millers who took up dog breeding to make a buck will get out of the business and the only people remaining are those who genuinely like working with dogs.