Surely this a huge mistake on the part of some unknown person in your organization. Who in their right mind would condone this story on a child brokering for puppy mills and making money off of it? Look at the statistics to see how many dogs and cats are put to death every year. Visit your local shelter, ask which animals are to be put down that day. Look into their eyes. We in rescue cannot save them all, but we can try to educate the public about responsible pet ownership which includes spaying/neutering. NOT breeding indiscriminantly just to produce puppies to make money. This is morally and economically wrong. How about helping to solve the problem of animal overpopulation instead of publishing stories to encourage it?
People magazine: You now need to run a story showing the 'real' story behind the 16 year old's business. Yes, run an article on puppy mills and show the heartbreaking pictures. And then apologize for having glorified a teenager that is a puppymill broker.
Admitt you were wrong to have praised him!
This just goes to show how money hungry people are. We wonder what's wrong with the kids today and this is a prime example of a mother failing her child, and the media is not helping by publishing this article. People magazine should be ashamed but I suppose since it has caused attention to their magazine, they will look on it as being successful. I will no longer purchase this magazine ... will my voice be heard? The voices of all the tortured dogs in puppy mills is definately not being heard.
I disagree that this thoughtless kid is someone to admire or emulate. The US public needs to be educated NOT to purchase a living, feeling, vulnerable puppy in the same way you would order up a new pair of shoes. Pity the puppies!!
Puppymillers, whether young or old, are a disgrace and should
NEVER be given the kind of recognition your Nov. 8th issue of People Magazine has given Timothy Hampson! I will not be purchasing any further issues of your magazine until this story is retracted!
I do not think the editors thought out this story to its end. Its sad this child thinks only of money and has no conscience as to what he is selling. Free enterprise at its worse.
This is appalling and deplorable. This type of disregard for the emotional well being and future physical well being of a living animal does nothing to instill ethics in a young person. Homes for puppies and kittens - all animals actually -should be chosen carefully. These are not inantimate objects, and should not be bought and sold like books and DVDs from Amazon!!!
This young man should not be lauded for this idea, but pitied that he has so little concern for another living creature.
Irresponsible journalism at its best. I notice there are no photos or description of the "cuddle tester" holding the often misused and poorly cared for parents of these "cuddly" puppies. As an adopter of an adult dog who survived a puppy mill, I know all too well the trauma- both physical and mental to which the dogs are subjected. Let your readers view this side of the enterprise.
PLEASE don't promote the sale of these poor puppies. For every puppy that is bought, more room is made for these back yard breeders to have some more. Some of the poor female dogs owned by these "Breeders" are bred during EVERY heat cycle until they dry up or die. Please encourage people to go to shelters and adopt one of the millions of availble puppies and dogs that don't have any homes. If we stop buying from these supposed "Breeders", hopefully they will stop breeding.
This kid need to volunteer in a local shelter.
"Don't breed or buy as long as shelter animals die"!
Shame on People Magazine for promoting puppy mills, backyard breeders and sellers of puppies who are only out for the money. He has no idea whatsoever what kind of home these puppies are going to, nor what they will be used for.
He should learn to do something useful with his life.......
I'm a long time subscriber to People. If People is encouraging something this terrible it will certainly make me think twice when my renewal comes up. This is horrible.
It makes me sick to see this! Working with breed rescue, and knowing that we can't save them all from certain death in the high kill shelters, then knowing that these mills are creating "new" breeds and unhealthy puppies is just inhumane! Why, with so many mixed dogs die would ANYONE purposely breed a mix?? This child is obviously clueless about what really happens in the REAL world, as is his mother. I think they need to stay in a rabbit cage for a week without any contact and see how it feels!
I have devoted my time to rescuing dogs - many of which wind up in shelter due to the puppy mills and irresponsible breeders that are in it to Make a Buck. I can't believe People is "honoring" this behavior.
Teens or anyone running such an establishment should not been featured. An expo on those who are working tirelessly at shelters to brighten the lives of these animals (rather than make a quick buck) is in order!
As a leading publication and information source People Magazine has a responsiblity not to promote cruelty. Your article Teen Titans holds up as a model a puppy business that creates unnecessary suffering. I can only say I'm very, very disappointed.
In Harris CO, TX alone more than 100,000 animals are euthanized in local shelters many of which are tiny breed dogs. Shame on PEOPLE for promoting people like this.
very disturbing, this young man and his family are NOT entrepreneurs...they are puppymillers. Shame on PEOPLE magazine for this article. What kind of message is this magazine sending...that it's ok for people to exploit animals for profit.PEOPLE magazine needs to do an article on puppymills and the horrific conditions the dogs and puppies endure all in the name of the almighty dollar.
This is terrible that this sort of thing is glorified, puppy mills are terrible things where the dogs suffer both physically and mentally, and then are sold to anyone who want's one no matter what they plan to do with them, it needs to be stopped, not promoted.
To raise a healthy puppy requires time, effort and lots of money. I know, I took 6 weeks off of work when I had my one and only litter (I bought the show Golden Retriever on a co-ownership). I will never do it again. Puppies are not chickens - they need their mothers and lots of TLC and only a good match with a prospective home. Check out the pounds - full of pure bred puppies. This teenager is nothing but a glorified puppy mill. How about an article to counter this - check out www.smallpawsrescue.com
I would like to give People the benefit of the doubt and believe that on matters of responsible pet ownership you are "uninformed" rather than deliberately irresponsible. You need to publish a follow-up to this ooutrageous article and educate your readers about a responsible human/canine relationship. Your 'Teen Titan" may wish to reassess his "merchandising" of living beings. He is young enough to 'do the right thing,' and People Magazine is, likewise, morally obligated to set the facts on puppymills vs. responsible breeders straight.
These people should be in jail not raved about in your magazine! What does this kid know about health testing or srtructural problems in the dogs that he sends off to people that buy his dogs? How much will these victims pay out each year in vet bills? No responsible breeder would ever sell pupies to someone like this!
Shame on you for placing this in your magazine!!
People Magazine should know better...does ethics and responsibility mean anything anymore? Its time to educate people on the right things to do, not encourage the ones who do things in controversial ways. Entreprenuers should be praised when their businesses are successful and HELP humanity and animals, not HURT them. Shame on cuddlypuppy.com and shame on People Magazine.
As a faithful subscriber of People for many years and a devoted Dachshund Rescuer, I am truly sickened that People chose to promote to others (including children) that selling puppies is an excellent way to make a fast buck. I cannot even fathom how many ill-advised people are going to go into puppy business for themselves after reading this article. People Magazine should be ashamed.
I am cancelling my subscription immediately. I will not support any magazine that supports puppymill personnel and calls them "entrepeneurs."Your support of someone like legitimizes the deaths of thousands of animals and also encourages others to get involved in brokering animals. People should be ashamed.
Shame, shame on you. This is not a story of a creative teen, it is a story of a greed, and cruelty. This child should be arrested for animal cruelty. What kind of a mother could be proud that her son is benefiting in the cruel, inhumane treatment of animals. There are so many compassionate and caring teens out there doing good things and you chose to glorify a greedy, materialistic, piece of scum. This little creep profits from the fact that he doesn't care what happens to the dogs as long as he gets the almighty dollar. How disgusting! He doesn't care that little dogs live for years in cages and never get to walk on the ground; then they get a bullet in the head when they can't produce any more puppies to sell. His mother should be charged with child abuse for raising her children this way.
Let's see if you have the courage to run a piece with pictures of true puppy mill life/death.
To People Magazine: Please publish an article re: rescue dogs & puppymills so that potential buyers are educated about the negative aspects of these operations. Thank You.
Im sure you thought this was a good idea, however it encourages puppy mills. Please publish a counter article on the dangers of this type of business and the inhuman treatment of animals that it spawns.
I think People magazine should be ashamed of itself for promoting such unethical and indiscriminate breeding. I hope that they will decide to let us put an article in about the millions of shelter dogs that get euthanized every year or the health problems that these puppymill dogs come along with.
I am so horrified that parents condone their child being a puppy broker. Can only imagine what sort of person they have produced - a totally unfeeling individual treating dogs as merchandise.
Great, just what we need, more backyard breeders and mills to create more dogs for rescues to try and save. So what he lists petfinder, does he take back any of his own unwanted puppies? He needs to walk a shelter or talk to the breed rescues of the breeds he breeds and see how many unwanted dogs there are already without compounding the situation. That is HORRIBLE. www.prisonersofgreed.org
Instead of acting as an agent for heartless puppy mills, this young man should volunteer for animal rescue groups in his area. Could you please print a story about what rescue groups and other animal organizations do? Thank you.
Yor writers should research their projects. You should be ashamed of yoursellf. This does nothing but further commercial puppy mills along with the abuse and neglect of companion animals. How ignorant!
Disgusting that your magazine would hold this money hungry kid and his family up as examples. They prey on the helpless and treat living beings as unfeeling merchandise. Horrible, just horrible.
Knowledgeable breeders don't mass produce puppies just to make a buck. This kid needs to deal in things not lives.
How sad that this boy would be rewarded for perpetuating the sale of puppies from puppy millers thus padding their pockets and empowering them to continue.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE SHOULD BE ASHAMED! THIS IS DISGRACEFUL AND TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE! I have tried for years to encourage friends and family to adopt homeless and unwanted pets from locat shelters and the SPCA. Millions of animals are destroyed each year for lack of someone to love and care for them. Now here comes PEOPLE magazine encouraging and holding up for acclaim a young man making money off what is, by any definition, a pupply mill. And the mother of this youg man is equally to blame. Poorly bred animals who will tend to have severe and various types of diseases and illnesses being sold to unsuspecting people. Stacking them in crates and boxes in their kitchen? No license required? Improper care for animals just to make some quick money? HOW CAN PEOPLE MAGAZINE PROMOTE SUCH ABUSE??? Pet rescue agencies all over the country, working with local authorities, shut down these type of "Puppy Mill" setups whenever they can. Shame on you PEOPLE Magazine...you need an education on Pupply Mills!
I am much prouder of the many kids who volunteer their time to help animals and people than a money-hungry family who exploit the welfare of animals for money. Please, People, help educate the public on what is really going on when they buy pups from places like this and help us stop the needless suffering of animals.
Over 5 million animals get put to death each year in US shelters. Please use this opportunity to educate your readers as to how they can help reduce this tragedy: by not supporting puppy mills, by saving an animal from a shelter or rescue group, and by spaying/neutering their pets.
PEOPLE needs to promote the countless animals that die every day! and the youth that work hard to try and find homes for each and everyone of the shelter animals! They shouldnt be praising a youth that is only out to make a buck on the innocence of an animal!
Please do not allow puppy mills to continue. Animals are not just toys that should be sold only for the look of a puppy. Breeding minature dogs can have a large number of problems, not to mention the problems that can occur from breeders who do not do their homework. Please buy a stuffed toy if a particular look is the only factor you have considered. Every puppy produced in a puppy mill takes the life of an animal in a shelter.
What a disgrace to us breeders to have a child be allowed to take advantage of this situation and to the magazine for showcasing such a money making scheme on animals lives
