Sunday, April 17, 2011

Puppy mills and puppy meals

Zeus at Tanglin 56
 If you've heard about reunion event at Mutts & Mittens for the 75 mistreated dogs rescued from a puppy mill yesterday, well that's where we brought Zeus. It was raining doggedly, but we still went anyway. A crowd of exhibitors and visitors were huddled under a small tent. Some were avidly hawking their wares. In the name of charity, we bought quite a few things, including a bacon & cheese muffin for Zeus. It was nice to see so many people turn up in support of the dogs. Zeus got his feet quite wet, but he also had fun sniffing all the other dogs.

Puppy mills are essentially dog farms, in which cruel breeders force female dogs to mate repeatedly and produce as many puppies as possible so that they could be sold for profit. The pregnant dogs suffer the most as they are forced to live in cramped and unsanitary conditions before, during, and after pregnancy, fed poor nutrition, and are not allowed to nurse their puppies until the recommended separation age (3 months).

Therefore puppies from puppy mills are often susceptible to poor health and usually have behavioural problems. They are as well kept in cages, often under the hot sun, or in poorly ventilated areas, fed poor nutrition, and suffer until they are sold to a pet shop.

That's why there's so much advocacy for adoption and to bring down puppy mills. Most people do not know most pet shop puppies come from puppy mills. That's why pet shops DO NOT reveal details of where the puppy comes from. A good breeder will ALWAYS provide accurate details of your puppy and encourage you to contact her/him with any questions about your puppy. 

The surest and only way to close down puppy mills is to NOT buy puppies from pet shops and ADOPT, so that these mills will close down.

We brought Zeus to Tanglin 56 after our visit to Mutts & Mittens. It's a rather cosy place that consists of comfortable sofas, serves beer and good but rather expensive food :( . They come in very small portions :(
But it's one of the only places to go because of the weather. Plus they allow smoking, and they are dog and children friendly. Swiss Butchery and Friven are just upstairs for convenient shopping, and there's a playground just next door at the Tanglin Tree.There's hardly anything you can complain about except for the prices.
Daddy's a bit shy about being semi naked here, but mummy thought this was a good photo of Zeus, and anyway he covers most of daddy's nakedness.

Hope you had a good weekend with your fur kids :D

PS: Mummy bought some chicken drumsticks from Swiss Butchery and fed one to Zeus. To mummy's horror, after gnawing and tearing the meat off the drumstick for a bit, there was a crack and swallow, and few more cracks and swallows, and the entire drumstick was gone. Mummy couldn't stop imagining splintered bones in Zeus's tummy up till now. Thankfully Zeus seems okay. 24 hours and counting.

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