Don’t necessarily believe a pet store if they tell you that their puppies don’t come from a puppy mill. Pet store employees are not always well trained to spot signs of abuse and mistreatment seen in puppy mills.
Often, pet store owners and managers and their staff don’t know the conditions that their pets are bred in. Sadly, the cold reality of many puppy mills is that dogs in puppy mills are often kept in small cages, fed as little as needed to keep them alive, denied adequate medical care, and receive little or no positive human attention.
The parents are seen as breeding machines to create as much profit as possible. Many female breeding dogs are euthanized as soon as they stop producing enough puppies. The puppies are seen as little products, and given only what is needed to get them shipped to a store where they can bring in money.