Oprah's segment on puppy mills

I was pleasantly surprised to find today's Oprah show a fair, balanced and objective report. They brought light to the issue of puppy mills which supply pet stores and urged families not to purchase puppies from pet stores. They stated to adopt from rescue, which I strongly agree with. I'm an affiliate of Col Potter Cairn rescue and recommend adopting if your family is able http://www.cairnrescue.com/. It is a loving organization rescuing and rehoming thousand's of Cairn Terriers from poor home environments, puppy mills, and abuse. I waited for the hate against all breeders message, but they didn't say that at all. In fact, they said they aren't worried about ethical breeders, because they don't hear from ethical breeders. Ethical breeders take their own puppies back and are not part of the pet overpopulation issue. They educated about spay/neuter and urged owners to be responsible pet owners by spaying & neutering their pets. They showed how simple a neuter surgery is and gave facts about the 99-100% reduction of mammary and testicular cancers in spayed/neutered pets. I thought it was well done, heart tugging but not pure propoganda, very objective and realistic reporting. The part that brought tears to my eyes, were the shelter dogs who were being euthanized only because of the lack of space. It is a serious problem, and the reason that mass production of puppies and sales of puppies through stores is unethical. Families purchase them on impulse or with inaccurate information, have no where to turn for assistance when their cute puppy develops behavior problems, and they are dumped in shelters. Pet stores don't take adults back and we know breeding farms or puppy mills certainly don't. It breaks my heart to see so many otherwise healthy animals, who just happened to wind up in the wrong home, euthanized because they have no where to go. This is not propoganda or sensationalizing, it's a real problem in our nation. I'm continually amazed at how many people do not know what a puppy mill is (and I've seen far worse than shown on the show today). I'm amazed that some show breeders label ethical breeders who don't happen to play the game of showing, puppy mills. Since we know what a true "puppy mill" is, this is an abusive phrase inappropriate applied to those who ethically and passionately breed for the love of the breed and their dogs. I'm amazed at how many pet stores "claim" to purchase from breeders when in fact, no ethical breeder will sell to a pet store. I'm amazed at how much of the public doesn't understand what ethical breeding is and that we should never purchase from pet stores. I'm delighted that the public was shown this message by Oprah and support the message in today's show. I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did. For more information, go to http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200804/tows_past_20080404.jhtml?promocode=HP21