SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - They look irresistible at the pet shop; ready to become part of your family, but under all that cuteness lurks a big problem. It is a fight to save these emotionally-scarred puppies.
Puppies. Just saying the word instantly derives the definition of cute. These little animals add life to any home, but the situations where they come from are anything but great.
From cages, to brokers, to pet stores, millions of puppy mill dogs are sold each year.
But for dogs like Andy, they're often in for a lifetime of isolation. She's greying on her nose and her belly nearly drags on the ground, but Andy is only four years old.
Owner Debby Church says, "The vet has pretty much said that she's been bred non-stop probably since she was about six months."
Debby adopted Andy after she'd been in a rescue shelter for six months. Andy suffers from extreme separation anxiety, has no idea what toys are, and is affection-craved. A constant, but very sweet work in progress.
"It's all the time because if you just, if you give it up just a little bit, they'll slip back."
It takes patience and persaverance, and it will take a lifetime of nurturing to make Andy feel safe again, but not until after hundreds of dollars in vet bills are spent to keep her alive.
"When we went to get her spayed they even found a mummified puppy inside of her."
A puppy left to decompose inside her womb, a problem her vet said would have soon killed her.
Debby says she was, "just brutalized,absolutely brutalized."
Andy also had four mammory tumors, one as big as a lemon, a broken tail, and years of neglect.
Animal rights advocate Temma Martin says there are 4,000 USDA licensed breeders, and some 10,000-15,000 unlicensed.
"To know the type of emotional and psychological effect that life in a small cage has on the parent dogs is something that hasn't gotten enough attention."
Doctor Frank McMillan, a veterinarian with Best Friends Animal Society, co-conducted a study that followed about eleven-hundred former breeding dogs from puppy mills, and about 300 dogs without mill history. The dogs from the mills showed significantly higher levels of fears and phobias, compulsive and repetitive behaviors, and a heightened sensitivity of being touched.
Debby says that behavior is confirmed in her dog, Andy.
"She has extreme separation anxiety. She will absolutely panic if she's left alone somewhere."
Andy has to go everywhere with Debby. She can't stand to be put in a kennel, and when left with the vet she goes limp.
"She just shuts completely down in that situation."
Martin says the best way to help dogs like Andy is to stay away from pet store puppies. They may be USDA licensed, and AKC registered, but she says 98% of them come from mills.
"But the bottom line is they're coming from these puppy mills where the parents are living these horrible, miserable lives."
Coming from a mom like Andy, who has had countless litters, and almost died as a result.
"It's so wonderful to know that at least some of the those dogs have a second chance of being a family dog and know what it's like to be a dog."
"I love her to death and I wouldn't trade it for anything."
Andy's physical wounds are healing. She has spunk and loves to cuddle, but Debby says Andy may always have a fear of being left behind.
