Shirley, I'll respond to that with my own opinions.
If you are breeding too many litters to personally raise and interact, which frankly much more than 2 small or one large litter at a time covers it.. and more than 3 or 4 litters a year with most breeds, you are over breeding, imho. Would that be the only issue to make someone a puppymill? No. But the goal of breeding SHOULD be to improve the breed, particularly in health. You need to have a litter, grow it out before you know if that bitch is worth breeding, or if you need to go another way with her. So more than once a year for a bitch in any breed is too much generally. (note that health wise, it is not detrimental to a bitch to do a back to back breeding sometimes, and there are sometimes reasons for it… such as few or no puppies surviving first litter, etc).
If you have so many dogs that their lives are spent outside especially in kennels, to me that is too much. There are breeds that should be outside working... stock dogs. But those dogs take a lot of work. So numbers of dogs are limited to what you can actually care for so that the dog is a pet first. I know few homes able to handle more than 10 dogs no matter how much they say they can or do. Even that many and some go by the wayside in personal care. When you then add on litters... nope, I don't call that good pet ownership. Still just a number doesn't make a puppymill -- you could have 5 dogs you breed 2x a year and still be a puppymill.
Do I think making money is the mark of a puppymill? No. Sometimes (not often) a responsible breeder can make some money beyond that litter's expenses, which is generally poured back into the care of the adults. But yes, I will unequivocally state that someone breeding dogs TO MAKE MONEY is absolutely a puppymill. Because if you are doing the necessary health testing, evaluations for temperament, socializing the dogs, doing ANYTHING with them (be it obedience, showing, hunting, etc) it takes time and money. Puppymillers have gotten good at doing a test or 2 (in rotties they learned to do hips, in basenji it seems Fanconi is their pretend ticket to responsible). Breeding for any other reason than to improve the breed in at least health and preferably function is a puppy mill/byb.
I do not think you have to show to be responsible. I do think you have to do SOMETHING more than breed for pets though. Because having been in rescue for over 30 yrs now, I can tell you the nonsense about bringing in foreign dogs indicating a need is utter bull.
I hate HSUS, but their stats are not far off from most
How many animals enter animal shelters each year? And how many are euthanized?
The HSUS estimates that animal shelters care for 6-8 million dogs and cats every year in the United States, of whom approximately 3-4 million are euthanized. At this time, there is no central data reporting agency for animal shelters, so these numbers are estimates; however, the Asilomar Accords method is gaining momentum as a standard for more accurately tracking these numbers. Annual statistics for approximately 150 shelters across the country are posted at asilomaraccords.org. You can help us develop a more accurate picture of the problem by encouraging your local shelters to report their data.
In the 1970s, American shelters euthanized 12-20 million dogs and cats, at a time when there were 67 million pets in homes. Today, shelters euthanize around 2.7 million animals, while there are more than 135 million dogs and cats in homes. This enormous decline in euthanasia numbers—from around 25 percent of American dogs and cats euthanized every year to about 3 percent—represents substantial progress. We will make still greater progress by working together to strike at the roots of animal overpopulation.<<
As long as we are euthanizing 3 million cats and dogs a year, or over 8,000 each day, there is no need to import. They import to get LITTLE DOGS that they can sell for more. I would love to see the point where there are no byb and puppymills and it becomes an actual need for people to health test and breed for pets. Then you could label it necessary. Right now, that's a crock.
I don't equate "reputable" with "responsible". We both know there are well known breeders who are horrific. I always think of a Rottie breeder who is probably featured in a dozen books back in the 70s-90s who most people didn't know used different studs than were on the papers (yeah folks reported her but they couldn't prove it early on) and euthanized puppies if she "couldn't get her price" even when rescues begged her to let them spay/neuter and find homes without ever revealing where they came from. I don't care how many titles or health clearances, she's a low life dirt bag and far from responsible.
Sadly "detrimental" traits have to be proven. We have bred rottweilers with so much angulation they are horrific cruciate problem. Even after a study came out, I am not seeing changes. Do I call that responsible? Um no. But again, just not correcting that when all other things are on spot... not going to label as not responsible. When you have a breeder breeding colors they KNOW will likely produce some blind or deaf or both puppies to get a color, hell yes that is irresponsible.
For me, this is the bottom line. I believe we have a responsibility to the animals we create and to the people we place them with to do everything in our power within common limits to make sure they are healthy. That means eyes, hips, known genetic issues for the breed, known issues done, thyroid and heart. Some dogs never need repeat of tests, some need many repeats. But the uncrossable line for me between responsible and not is health testing. If you don't do the tests for things KNOWN to be a problem in your breed, you are not responsible. If you don't do the suspected issues until you are sure your lines are okay (ie chd in basenjis), then you are certainly not doing right by your dogs, the new owners and the breed. Part of being a RESPONSIBLE breeder is helping the breed, not just your own dogs. We need more testing in some areas. Absolutely if we get in a good percentage of hips done and the stats stay very low, I might consider a breeder who doesn't test for them. But we aren't there yet.
