We’re sometimes asked why we are so strongly opposed to allowing our foods to be sold in retail outlets that sell puppies and kittens. Some people have also questioned our support of special pricing for approved breeders. Here is a little insight on our policy and if you have more questions, do feel free to ask.
We have refused to allow Honest Kitchen products to be sold in stores that sell puppies and kittens for the past eight years and remain committed to this policy today.
We believe that puppy mills do not constitute ‘responsible breeders’, since puppy-mill pets are not sufficiently socialized to normal everyday situations, causing them to suffer various social problems and making them difficult house pets – which in turn makes them even more at risk of ending their days in a shelter.
There are about 100,000 to 200,000 dogs inside puppy mills at any given time in the United States. In addition, puppy mills do not offer lifetime support to puppy owners and do not agree to take back any puppy they have raised, for the duration of its entire life, as a responsible breeder does. Also, when puppies are sold in retail outlets, there is insufficient vetting of new homes to ensure that owners are sufficiently educated on how to care for their new animal, have the means to care for their new family member and properly understand the lifetime responsibility they are undertaking.
The mass scale breeding of puppies on farms, transportation across the country and re-sale in shops is the single biggest cause of massive over-population of companion animals in the United States and has caused puppies to be considered as commodities or possessions rather than members of the family. The greatest victims in the puppy mill problem are the breeding parents, because they will live their life in a cage and it generally ends fairly brutally.
We do, however, support the sale of our Honest Kitchen products to, and by, responsible breeders. A truly responsible breeder’s puppies would never be sold through a retail store and most certainly would not end up living or dying in a shelter. Why? Because a) responsible breeders thoroughly ‘vet’ prospective new homes to ensure they have the knowledge, time and resources to care for one of their pups and b) a responsible breeder takes responsibility for the life of any animal they breed and would take back an animal in the event that the unthinkable happened and the dog had to be re-homed.
Responsible breeders are involved in the preservation of their breed, not for financial gain. They breed for temperament, soundness and good genetics and take great care to select parents that possess various traits desired in offspring. Responsible breeders are often involved with breed-specific rescue groups, and have the best intentions for the welfare of the breed they love and respect so much. That’s not to say that every breeder does this. We all know that some unscrupulous breeders, over-breed or breed irresponsibly for unacceptable traits (such as an excessively squished nose, or too small a head or body, causing terrible congenital health problems in offspring).
The real problem the pet-retention problem, where people do not retain or provide a lifetime home for the pets they acquire and are too quick to give them up to shelters due to a move or other changes in circumstances. Many wonderful animals are currently in shelters waiting for a loving home. Some of us at The Hones Kitchen and many of our customers, have been able to offer homes to such animals and as a company, we frequently donate food, and money to various rescue organizations.
Of course with a sensitive subject such as this, there are lots of opinions about what is right and wrong. But we do feel there is a very important difference between responsible breeders and those who have unplanned litters, fail to screen prospective owners, sell animals as ‘goods’ and don’t offer a lifetime of support to the animals they breed.
If you’d like further information on what constitutes a responsible breeder, The Whole Dog Journal has an outstanding article. For additional information and resources please contact us — we’re happy to help.
Tags: General Articles, Puppies
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My breeded does not run a puppy mill. I have been to her home 2-3 x (she lives 4+ hours from us) so I know that her property is clean and while I disagree with dogs in crates for convenience, they are well treated.
But unfortunately she is quite ignorant about digestion and due to a mistake in choosing her ‘stud’ without doing some heavy investigation, we almost lost our baby at 8 mos when as a 25″ Boxer gangly child she went down to 38 lbs and had “pancreatitis twice.” Matty was saved by our well known veterinary med school, mucho money spent over 4 mos, and HK mixed with love and care. She was born without a gall bladder which in her case made fat digestion very difficult, she requires pancreatic enzymes as well, and has a ‘benign’ blood condition since she was born which we check on every 3 mos.
I guess my point is its not just puppy mills that cause the problem. The kennel I purchased Matty from has been in business minimally 40 years. Yet the only comment of our breeder was ‘you didn’t spay her did you?’…yes we did..our contracr allowed us a legal out by insisting we use ABC ethics…you don’t breed when there is a potential genetic problem.
Barbie, kudos to you for taking in your little boy! We have two rescue dogs; one is fine & the other has ‘issues’. (not as bad as yours though!) You are right to point out that it can take ALOT of patience to work with some rescue dogs … some are ‘normal’, some not so much! This can, of course, be the case wherever your dog comes from, though.
Here is a great blog chronicling the post-rescue life of Gracie, a puppy-mill rescue sheltie who was adopted through the same rescue group that we adopted our dogs from: http://www.amazinggraciedog.com. You can see it takes much time, patience, gentleness, humor and a big heart! But the tiny steps these dogs take towards being ‘regular dogs’ are beautiful to behold.
By the way, I want to give a shout out to Pueblo Collie & Sheltie Rescue: http://www.pueblocolliesheltie.org … they do a FANTASTIC job! Attention collie fans: they are full up with many beautiful collies (and even some collie-mix puppies) that are waiting for their forever homes.
BRAVO!!! Educating the public that we refuse to tolerate and buy into the suffering and mass-breeding of the cruel puppy mill industry is, to me, the most important key to winning this battle! Thank you for taking a stand. I stand with you 100%!!!
In response to Kim Curtis’ comment, I would like to clarify that I certainly did not mean that all puppy mill rescues will not adjust to your family living situation, I am hoping I did not convey that message. I have also had rescues that became well adjusted right away. I think I tried more than anything to “warn” people that this may not always be the case, sometimes simply because of genetic predispositions combined with abuse. The problem lies in the fact that you just don’t know what kind of little sweetie you are getting until you get them into your home environment. Having said that, I was just hoping that people would err on the side of caution when they do bring home a rescue and understand that it may take a lot of love and patience for them to overcome the abuse. Sorry, I don’t want to turn adopting a puppy mill rescue into something negative…in fact, I advocate for it. These puppy mill rescues need to be adopted to loving homes! Thanks for bringing that point out Kim. I think it would be nice to start a puppy mill awareness group on this site… a blog where people could support and communicate anti-puppy mill activity.
Thank you so much for sharing the reasons you do not support pet stores that sell animals and for explaining why you support responsible breeders. I am one of the breeders on your breeders program and we do take pride in all the hard work, money and emotion we invest into our dogs and cats. it is our sole goal to share the joy we have in our purebred Collies and Abyssinians with others by providing them with a healthy, well socialized pet. Raising healthy animals is not something a person does for money. We spend far more then we will ever make on raw food, quality care, shows and other expenses. Our rewards are the happy faces on our pets and on the families we share our babies with. In these trying times in our country, there are far too many people denigrating any and all breeders. It has become fashionable to paint all breeders with the broad brush used to characterize puppy mills and others who do not have the best interest of the pet at heart. It is refreshing for a change to have someone acknowledge those of us who are doing our best to produce healthy, well socialized representatives of our breeds so that families may adopt a pet that best fits thier family and lifestyle. thank you so much for your support – and most of all for making such a wonderful food. Our Collies thrive on it as do our show cats!
I cannot THANK the Honest Kitchen enough for having the morals and ethics to not allow their food to be sold anywhere where puppies and kittens from puppy mills are sold!
As a volunteer and animal foster person for a large, nationwide miniature pinscher rescue group, I can vouch for everything they said and then some. The horrors I’ve witnessed after going on a dog rescue mission of what puppy mill breeding dogs have had to endure have left me crying and sleepless for weeks and are engrained on my mind forever; things too horrible to mention without upsetting people who read this. I will never be able be to understand how and why people can be so cruel to animals.
Some dogs I’ve fostered have been like the Papillon that Barbie Miller wrote about. Thank God for people like her willing to adopt a rescued puppy mill dog and accept it for what it is, but there are also some puppy mill dogs that are so forgiving and adapt to becoming a house pet, although they may never be completely normal. I wish puppy mills would be completely banned forever.
I want the very best for my foster dogs so I feed a raw food diet supplemented with The Honest Kitchen’s Embark, a meatless base mix. The foster dogs lovde it and the health improvements I’ve seen are amazing. Thank you, Honest Kitchen, for being a step above everyone else in the pet food market.
Praise be to you Honest Kitchen!! Unless you can see the ravages of puppy mill rescues first hand, it is hard to conceive that cruelty of this capacity can happen to any living creature! I adopted a Papillon named Monty who was a puppy mill rescue. He is only one and a half years old. Physically, he looks fine, emotionally he is as broken as they come. I have had him six months and it has taken me all of this time just to get him to come out from underneath the kitchen table where my dogs have their “den”. He jumps at every single noise, everything about daily living tends to stress him out, he has no idea what so ever what people want from him, what he wants from people… it is a travesty. He needs to go through a whole re-socialization process. Some dogs are easier than others but don’t think that you can just bring a puppy mill rescue home and he will automatically adapt to your living situation. Think long and hard about what it may require to help this poor baby adjust. If you don’t have tons of patience and you get easily frustrated, this is not the deal for you. You will want to cry and hang it all up before all is said and done. If you do have lots of love and patience then by all means, this is the route to go. Keep in mind that you may be lucky enough to get a dog that adjusts… but you may get a dog that will never completely recover from the abuse it has suffered. Combine a dog who was born with genetic timidness and compound that with the abuse that goes on in a puppy mill and you have a recipe for disaster! This is what I have but I am committed to making this dog the happiest dog he can be… what ever that is for him in his life! I really have no expectations… his happiness would be a huge bonus! At least he is safe here, he has love all around him and he has canine brothers to hang and romp with… which I am sure is his saving grace.
Thank you Honest Kitchen for your commitment to our canine friends. I have been using Honest Kitchen for almost a year and my dogs can’t wait to eat! They absolutely love this food! They seem to be happier with much more energy and they look great… why wouldn’t they, they are actually getting some really nutritious food! I wish I would have known about your foods long ago as I believe I lost my absolutely adored female Pomeranian and her kidney failure due to the dry kibble I thought was the “best food on the market”. Sad that it took me the loss of a beloved pet to start wondering what the heck they were putting into the dog food I was paying so much money for! I will never switch from your dog food. It is easy, convenient and affordable. You can take it with you when you travel and all you do is add water and your dogs will come running. I am highly impressed with all of this… we need great people to advocate for our vulnerable pets… thank you Honest Kitchen!
Love the article and am thankful your company cares!
I am so impressed with your ethics and how you are careful about where you sell your food. I will not buy any pet food/supplies anywhere that has puppies/kittens for sale (or the new thing is saying they are rescuing them and adopting them out because they think the public will fall for that better). After reading the above post I have ordered samples for my dogs and cats to try.
Thank you for a great article! There are many reasons I like The Honest Kitchen and now I have more: your stance on puppy mills and pet shop dogs. Someone already said something I was thinking: mill websites are very deceiving, alot of them look legit.