Ever wonder why so many pet store puppies are sick or become sick within weeks of bringing them home?

The truth about pet store puppies is disturbing. If you're an animal lover, the following paragraphs will be difficult to read, but simply doing just that could potentially spare a life.

It's hard to imagine that in this country where dogs are considered valuable members of the family, have their very own telelvision and radio shows and people dress them in designer clothes and treat them like children, that a grave place called a puppy mill could still exist.

A puppy mill or puppy farm is a breeding operation with the sole purpose of making money. The animals are not screened for potential genetic health defects or even given basic medical care. There is definitely no attention paid to producing dogs that comform to breed standard for size or temperament.

A puppy mill can be a sign along the road advertising puppies, an ad in your local newspaper or they can even have a nice website, but they are almost always behind those cute puppies you've seen in pet shop windows.

You'd never know by looking at those puppies the deplorable conditions from which they came. You'll see how excited they get when you approach their cage. You might even slip your hand through the bars despite the posted warning not to and entertain the thought of bringing home the one who seemed most eager, but it's what you won't see that would leave you gasping.

For that puppy's mother, life (if you can call it that) is a desperate struggle. Her body is used up from years of overbreeding and because of this, she will probably never see her sixth birthday. She has never been shown love or compassion and probably has no idea what it would feel like to run in the grass.

Her life is not like that of a normal dog at all. She only exists for the purpose of breeding and has lived her entire life in the same small cage where she eats and sleeps and where she's probably given birth to several litters.

But that doesn't matter to the owner of the puppy mill. He only sees dollar signs when he looks into her dark, sad eyes. In another six months he'll breed her once again for the sake of filling his wallet and the puppies will be shipped around the country to various pet stores and puppy brokers and the morbid cycle will continue.

When she's no longer able to breed, she'll finally be put her out of her misery- if she's lucky enough. The sad truth is that she will probably still be worth a few dollars to a testing facility: A laboratory that uses dogs for the sake of testing new products.

There is no hope of ever stopping this morbid cycle of abuse as long as we keep buying puppies from pet stores.

Don't be fooled by AKC papers. Although the AKC doesn't condone puppy mills, almost anyone can register a new litter providing both parents are registered purebreds.

Please help put an end to this torture. Join the fight to eliminate puppy mills by refusing to purchase a puppy from anyone other than a reputable breeder. There are also millions of animals around the world in need of adoption. You might be surprised to know that one in four dogs rescued by the ASPCA, Humane Society and similar shelters is a purebred.

Please refer this article to a fellow animal lover or anyone who might someday be in the market for a purebred puppy.

Here are lists of rescues and humane societies.