YOUR WHOLE PET / Finding a Good Breeder

One of them is a humane society or shelter. Another is an animal rescue group, which is an organization dedicated to helping homeless pets. The third is a responsible breeder.

After I wrote my last column on a group of dogs rescued from a Midwestern puppy mill, I heard from a lot of people wanting to know how to make sure the dog or cat they were planning to bring into their family did, in fact, come from a responsible breeder and not from a mill.

These concerns are well founded. Pet stores routinely assure shoppers that their pets don't come from puppy or kitten mills, and Internet pet store sites certainly won't announce that theirs do. Instead, they use the phrases people find reassuring: "Family raised." "Private breeders." "Raised with love."

Despite those marketing slogans, the reality is that nearly all puppies and kittens sold in pet stores and on the Internet are mass-produced in circumstances that range from truly hellish to sterile, lonely and boring.