Adopt! Don’t buy!
Adopting a rescue animal is one of the most impactful and rewarding ways to help animals. Because mills exist for the money and not the animals, puppy mills would cease to exist without the ability to profit. Adopting an animal instead of buying helps in the fight against puppy mills. You can see some of our adoption partners here: animalrescuecorps.org/adopt, or look for reputable rescues local to you!
Consider adopting a puppy mill survivor, and give them the extra time and understanding they sometimes require. They can be fearful, nervous, and unsure of the most common things like grass, stairways, doorways, solid surfaces, and even the sky or open spaces. They may be fearful of other dogs or comforted by them. Having known nothing but deprivation they may try to resource guard food, toys and people. Many will suffer from “nightmares”, PTSD, and separation anxiety.
It’s important to be aware of the challenges one may face when adopting a puppy mill dog, but it’s even more important to remember the forgiving and resilient nature of dogs. The vast majority of puppy mill survivors recover completely and become wonderful companions and family members.
Fostering animals to support shelters and rescue organizations
Even if you’re not ready or prepared to bring a rescued animal into your home permanently, signing up to temporarily foster rescued animals in need is a fantastic way to put your compassion in action. It relieves the burden on animal rescue organizations and provides time and space to recover for animals in need until they move on to their forever homes.
Support ARC and other trusted animal welfare organizations by volunteering and donating
The generosity and compassion of donors and volunteers powers ARC! ARC is a nonprofit funded solely by the generosity of compassionate donors and we rely extensively on volunteer help. Here are some of the most popular ways to get involved and help animals with ARC:
We have a Rescue Center outside Nashville, Tennessee, and we rescue across the US and beyond and can always use good volunteers across North America
Legal Protections
Stronger legal protections are the most effective way to protect the most animals in need. Although the Animal Welfare Act as enforced by the USDA offers some protections to a small portion of the dogs suffering in mills, it is both sorely outdated, originating in 1966, and under-enforced.
ARC supports stronger measures and federal protections to prevent animals from suffering the cruelty of puppy mills. However, many of the most effective advancements in animal protection have been local. Small changes in the law can have an enormous impact for animals in need. To protect animals, some towns or counties adopt stronger laws that may enforce breeding bans, breeder registration and licensing restrictions, stricter definitions of the food, water, or shelter that must be provided to animals, or stronger penalties for failing to license vaccinate, or otherwise violating these laws.
Many states have more stringent regulations for puppy mill licensing, and other areas ban mill sales or require stores selling animals to show deserving dogs from local rescues, instead!
Learning more about your local animal protection laws- and then acting to improve them- is an incredible way to have an enormous impact on the lives of animals in need.
One of the easiest ways to support stronger regulations against puppy mills is by voting on these issues every time you have a chance, and supporting any candidates who share your priorities on these issues! Be aware of what is on the ballot in your area, and make sure to support any measures that would enact stronger protections for animals. Encourage your friends and family to do the same!
If you’d like to get more actively involved in changing the laws that protect animals, a great way to start is by checking your representatives’ stances on puppy mills and other animal protections and working to elect representatives whose values align with yours in protecting animals.
if you suspect someone is operating a puppy mill in your area, or that any other animal cruelty may be occurring, document the situation and report it to your local law enforcement and animal control authorities. You may additionally file a report with ARC or refer your local law enforcement to ARC as a potential resource.
Animal Rescue Corps operates at the request of and in partnership with the appropriate local law enforcement or animal control. In many cases, repeated, persistent, and friendly communication to the local authorities from a concerned citizen while referring them to a resource for their community, such as Animal Rescue Corps or another animal protection organization, is the only solution.
Spread the word and let your friends, family, and other networks know about the realities of puppy mills- and the transformative power of choosing adoption and rescue instead!