Imagine the lights are off, the fetid steamy sticky air reeking with the stench of fecal matter urine and fear, the swarming flies, the endless howling and barking of hundreds of filthy unloved dogs, the empty putrid slime encrusted food and water bowls, and can you honestly walk away and say that this Hell Hole in Shawville Quebec is not a Puppy Mill??

All Dog Breeding Kennels in Quebec are Puppy Mills!
All Dogs sold in Pet Stores across Canada are from
!! Quebec Puppy Mills !!

Despite the overwhelming evidence the Ottawa Citizen still insists that this is a "Dog Breeding Kennel" and not a Puppy Mill, and continues to post the Paws R Us advertisement in its Classified section daily. They interestingly enough post this warning "Notice to be designated as 'purebred' in Canada must be eligible/registered with the CKC or other association recognized under the Animal Pedigree Act". The Paws R Us classified lists "Reg'd puppies, N.A.P.D.R. USA" which is a puppy mill association that is not recognized under the Animal Pedigree Act!
(this also currently being true with the Ottawa Sun, and all the other News Media organizations in the Ottawa and Montreal area)

Eye Witness Account by Carey:

There is no question that PawsRUs is a puppy mill. I actually have first hand knowledge. I have been in the barn where I would estimate there are between 300-400 dogs, around 50 breeds, most of which would never see the light of day. The stench was unbearable and the flies incredible. The smaller dogs are in raised open pens (many breeds thrown together) - with maybe half a dozen pups/dogs in each pen. Slightly bigger animals are in the cages lining the walls (all have open grated floors to allow faeces to drop onto the ground). At this point my friend had to leave - couldn't stand it. I went to the back of the barn, where the large dogs are kept, around 3 or 4 to a raised cage. All putting their heads over the bars to see me. The stench was even worse back there - hardly any light, dank, dark rows upon rows of barking dogs. The barn floor was covered in pools of water/urine. We noticed there were no water containers in the front pens - I didn't go right to the back as I was getting sick to my stomach and worried about stressing the animals. I cried all the way home.

They say they don't want people in the barn because they are concerned about disease? That's bullshit as the flies are prolific and contamination must be rampant.

I just can't believe they can sell that many animals though people visiting. There must be other ways they dispose of them (You have to make an appt to see the pups, although we just dropped in unexpectedly when the owners were away, and sweet-talked our way into the barn). Sadly, these animals are not protected in Quebec. SPCA inspectors have been there but if they are providing the basics - food, shelter, water, there is nothing they can do. Even Anima Quebec, which was supposedly developed to help shut down Quebec puppy mills, has PIJAC on its board, who, if you check their website, endorse the CFHS stand on puppy mills but at the same time have PawsRUs as a member, and actually link to them on their website!! Go figure.

Publicity is the way to go, and advocating the solid enforcement of the Animal Health Protection Act. As well, report any problems to the Better Business Bureau, write to the CFHS, the Montreal SPCA (Pierre Barnoti), and to the local municipality of Clarendon voicing your concerns.

Other Eye Witness Accounts:

The Lives of Dogs at Paws R Us
My Paws R Us Experience

Note: In the winter the old pig barn would be unheated (except for a few dangling heat lamps for the newly born). This is sadly how pigs are being raised in barns just like this all across Canada, and as the big Pork Factory Farms arrive in a community near you, most of these older smaller pig barns (mostly in Quebec) are being quickly and cheaply converted into evil Puppy Mills. In the above photos the open pens are where you'd have found a lactating sow on her side feeding her litter (the few dangling heat lamps seen in the above photos would have kept the piglets warm - dead pigs just tossed outside in the snow).