Writing Showcase
Scicomm Article
The purpose of a Scicomm article is to inform readers about a scientific study in a simplified way that makes it easy to read and intriguing for readers. This is supposed to engage with a wide range of audiences, especially those who are not familiar with the sciences to see the significant findings that are produced from those long and complex research articles. This is also to incorporate narrative and figurative language elements for it into more of a story that takes you through the research rather than just reflecting on the research itself.
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From writing my own some of the most important things I learned was the challenge of integrating story elements into the research and the art of simplifying the research. While writing this article, at first I found it difficult to place the story elements into the research portion since this is not what I was used to but this only challenged me to try and figure out different ways to involve different story elements to try and make it interesting. Another important thing that I learned was how to simplify the research article and decide what information was important and was able to be excluded from the explanation. Overall, this style of writing is not what I’m used to but I really enjoyed trying new things.
Below is the link to my SciComm article!!
Advocacy Project
This project asked me to look at various problems that dogs are facing today. For my topic, I chose puppy mills after researching and seeing the horrific truth about what goes on inside those mills that continue to this day. To read more about this issue, go ahead and read the article below!
Barking Up The Wrong Tree: Understanding The Gravity of Puppy Mills and Why Our Canine Companions Deserve Better
Growing up with dogs, you get to see their personality shine through in their own quirks and tasks that they take on throughout their life. Like us, dogs have complex thoughts and cognitive abilities that they use to explore their everyday lives. They have the ability to discern issues and problem solve in patterns that are similar to humans involving our “g-factor” or general intelligence (Adams, Arden. 2016). General intelligence looks at if humans are strong in one task or problem, they’re most likely to be good at solving another task, which means that the g-factor predicts the patterns of human intelligence and was also found to be applicable to dogs (Coren, 2016). Dogs who were good at finding food hidden behind various barriers, following the pointing hands of the researchers, and going towards the plate that had the most food on it, which showed that dogs do contain the g-factor needed to determine their overall intelligence which an now be predicted through their strengths and weaknesses of various problem solving tests (Elgier., et al. 2012). Dogs' brains and cognitive abilities are more like us than we realize.
Defining the problem.
When you’re looking for your family's new best friend, there is often a checklist in your mind of the kind of dog you want. These questions that flow onto the paper could include if you want a big or small dog? Energetic and working dog or someone to chill with? Is it okay if they shed or do you want a dog that hardly sheds? Maybe you already have a specific breed in mind that would be good for you, your daily life, and your environment. The first place you think to go may not be your local animal shelters because in your mind it has to be this specific dog. You can go online and find some in your area and this is it! You’ve finally found the missing piece to your family. You’re not thinking twice about where they came from, what matters is that this new puppy is really cute and is seemingly healthy.
With all of the excitement of the new puppy, this can overshadow any thoughts of the ethics of getting the puppy itself. Notice how the questions that flow onto the checklist are normally not, what environment is the dog coming from? Is their environment clean? Have they been treated well? Is the mother and father of the litter healthy and treated well? When we are looking at these questions and reflecting back on how dogs are so similar to the complex creatures that we as humans are, these questions need to be considered to ensure the welfare of the newest part of the family.
With dogs' brains being so similar to ours, they deserve the same care and respect that we give to others. Puppies are not treated with that respect when they are bred and sold from puppy mills across the United States. Puppy mills are large scale commercial breeding facilities that produce puppies for profit by either selling them theirselves or selling them to various pet stores without adequate regard for the puppies and their mothers health, safety, behavioral, or psychological needs. While there are laws that attempt to protect against such inhumane conditions presented in puppy mills such as the Animal Welfare Act, it is extremely difficult to continuously enforce and there are many loopholes in this system which significantly affect its efficiency (ASPCA, 2020).
The Impacts of Puppy Mills On Dogs
With that, 4.3 million puppies are produced and sold from puppy mills each year and 90% of dogs sold from puppy stores are sourced from puppy mills (Puppy Mills: Facts and Figures). While kids walk by these stores with puppies in the windows and displayed in small clear boxes, excited to find their lifelong companion, 90% of these fun loving puppies come from horrific conditions surrounding puppy mills which leave everlasting mental scars that will affect them the rest of their lives. According to the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association veterinary report on puppy mills displays the environmental impact on dog health. They report that dogs who were purchased from puppy mills, “have significantly elevated levels of fears and phobias, compulsive and repetitive behaviors, and heightened sensitivity to being touched.” (HSVMA, 2013). Many studies and reports such as these have been able to show that these puppy mills dogs have a variety of psychological or behavioral issues due to the environment that they are raised in. Not only are they emotionally scared for the rest of their life but this stress leads to significantly diminished welfare. A research study conducted by Franklin D. McMillan, James A Serpell, Deborah L. Duff, Elmabrok Masaoud, and Ian Dohoo in the scientific reports journal examines the behavioral differences between dogs bought from pet stores compared to puppies obtained from non commercial breeders. The results of the behavioral questionnaire showed that puppies who were obtained from pet stores were significantly more aggressive, had a greater fear of other dogs, separation problems and house soiling (McMillan, Franklin D., et al., 2013). With their conclusions, obtaining pups from pet stores has a certain risk factor associated with various behavioral issues and the researchers would not recommend purchasing your puppy from a pet store (McMillan, Franklin D., et al., 2013). These issues are not the dogs fault alone, they stem from underlying psychological issues that were not addressed due to the improper treatment of them conducted by these puppy mill facilities
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Figure 1: The Danger Behind Puppy Mills infographic by Cailin Clements
The Harm on Breeding Mothers
The puppy mills are not only harmful to the welfare of the puppies that are born within them. According to the SPCA charity organization, “The female breeding dogs suffer most, forced to live their lives in small cages and reproduce until they can no longer handle pregnancy or die. Many times when a female breeding dog is no longer able to reproduce, she is brutally killed or abandoned.” (SPCA International, 2019). According to the Humane Society of the United States, breeding females have around 9.4 puppies per year, which is around 2 liters (Puppy Mills: Facts and Figures). On the surface, this may seem like not a significant number. However, females are only recommended to be bred once a year but most breeders wait even longer to allow the females to heal and recuperate. Being bred as often as they can in order for the mills to keep a continuous stock of puppies that they can sell, often leads to welfare strain and health issues on the mothers and when they are no longer able to breed, they can be killed or sent to a shelter. With the constant struggles of enforcing laws that ban or regulate commercial breeding facilities such as the Animal Welfare Act and many states having vague laws that protect these facilities, there is more that needs to be done. With the continuous harm these facilities cause their puppies and the mothers along with the issues they deal with throughout their lives, most of these facilities are not illegally run therefore there needs to be greater regulations and consequences for offenders.
Figure 2: Picture displaying the horrific puppy mill environment from “The Dog Factory: Inside the Sickening World of Puppy Mills”, Rolling Stone, 2017.
Solutions
Tackling the puppy mills crisis requires more than a simple band-aid solution, there needs to be a comprehensive effort against them. Imagine turning a light on in a dark room, that's what stronger laws and community support efforts can do for the lives of puppy mill dogs. With strengthening the Animal Welfare Act, introducing stronger laws that can be adapted world wide, and showing the true impact of community support efforts by simply supporting your local shelters can help create a brighter future for our four-legged friends.
Community Solutions
To do something at a local scale is to catalyze real change within your community first, something that is attainable and can be seen by everyone within the community. One of the easiest ways to curb the impact of puppy mills is for people to support their local animal shelters. Animal shelters are overrun with homeless animals looking for their fur-ever family (Seven Ways You Can Stop Puppy Mills). Whether it is donating to your local shelter or humane society, referring your friends and family there when they’re looking for a new addition to the family, or fostering a dog this can help curb the impact of puppy mills. Although. some may argue that supporting local shelters will not entirely overrun the puppy mills system since the puppy mill systems are catered to supplying purebred dogs which shelters normally can’t supply in large amounts. However, 25 - 30 percent of dogs in shelters are purebred and come with their vaccines and are neutered with only an adoption fee whereas compared to puppy mill dogs who normally do not come with their vaccines and are not neutered that cost thousands of dollars (Lebeau, 2014). Supporting your local shelters and refusing to buy dogs from puppy stores who’s suppliers are puppy mills can stop the cycle of money flowing back into these facilities and cut off the monetary gain they get from these puppy stores.
There are other ways to ensure that the puppy is coming from a good and safe home if they are not from your local shelter. If you are looking for a specific breed that you are wanting to find from a breeder, to ensure that it is reputable and not a puppy mill there are multiple questions you can ask. Such as asking if you can see the mother, asking to come and get the puppy to see their living conditions and where they are raised, and asking to speak to parents who have gotten their puppies from this breeder. Another good sign that they are a reputable breeder can be if they interview prospective parents of their puppies to ensure that they are going to a fit environment with new puppy parents that love them (Llera, Buzhardt). Not all breeders are puppy mills but it’s a great thing to make sure the puppy is coming from a good home and stop supporting puppy mills.
If you are ever questioning if you are making a safe choice with who you get your puppy from, there are many informational videos that can help you with that process. Below is the video, “Puppy Mills: What They Are & How To Stop Them”, by dog psychology 101 that explains the facade of puppy stores and how we can help stop puppy mills by supporting local rescues and helping dogs that have come from these horrific conditions. If you want to learn more, click on the picture below and it will take you straight to the video that can assist you n becoming more informed and lead you to other helpful sources.
Figure 3: Picture cover of the video “Puppy mills: What They Are & How to Stop Them”, Dog Psychology, 2020.
Legislative Solutions
Looking at solutions that can make a global impact we need to look at the perspective of amandine acts such as the Animal Welfare Act and introducing new laws such as The New Puppy Lemon Law that can be adapted and integrated at a global scale. According to the United States Humane Society, in the article “Puppy Mills and Animal Welfare Act they how even if the US department of Agriculture (USDA) enforces the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) properly there will still be a big problem that remains which is that the Animal Welfare Act’s terms and buildings are outdated and vague which still allow for manipulation. They proposed to amend the AWA in order to ensure that the terms are no longer vague and leave any wiggle room to increase the “Humane standards of care and safeguard the health of regulated animals”(Puppy Mills and the Animal Welfare Act). It is also emphasized that during a survey regarding amending the AWA and how the majority of people surveyed supported improved standards to be enforced on breeders in the US. This reinforces that there are people in support of making these changes, people that can assist in the efforts to bring those ideas to life. They move on to describe their rulemaking petition to improve the USDA and their standards enforced through the AWA , in fact, change has been made as the USDA have improved 6/10 of the standards proposed in this petition (Puppy Mills and the Animal Welfare Act). Encouraging and supporting petitions such as this can make real change in the AWA and allow these regulations to be properly enforced by the USDA.
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Even though this is specific to the United States, a new law has been introduced by student researchers at Rutgers University called “The NEW Puppy Lemon Law” and this can be universalized and adapted by multiple countries to stop puppy mills and animal trades alike. Echoing what the US Humane Society stated the current puppy lemon laws leave room for, “loopholes and manipulations of the regulations.”(Redelico., et al. 2010). The current laws are also only designed to protect the puppy purchaser rather than the puppy itself, even with the ‘Puppy’ in the name of the law, the law does not state any animal anywhere within its code. This new law would place the health and safety of the puppies first while also protecting the consumers, they hope that overall “this bill not only improves the law aspect behind puppy lemon law but also that such tight regulations be mandated, hopefully potential puppy purchasers will be pushed more towards adopting new dogs from shelters”(Redelico., et al. 2010). These types of laws that set tighter regulations on puppy mills do not have to just apply to the states, but other countries could apply similar methods in order to crack down on the same issue. To ensure that animal welfare laws globally are made and enforced in good faith being able to protect all parties involved, even the ones who do not have voices themselves. To be able to apply this throughout multiple countries will not only curb puppy mills but will curb the pet trade all together when it is made a global effort rather than just focusing on the US efforts.
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Works Cited
54 Years Later, the Animal Welfare Act Fails to Protect Animals.” ASPCA, 24 Aug. 2020, www.aspca.org/news/54-years-later-animal-welfare-act-fails-protect-animals.
Arden, Rosalind, and Mark James Adams. “A General Intelligence Factor in Dogs.” Intelligence, vol. 55, Mar. 2016, pp. 79–85, doi:10.1016/j.intell.2016.01.008.
Coren, Stanley. “What Makes One Dog More Intelligent than Another?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 11 Apr. 2024, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine
corner/202404/is-your-dog-generally-smart-or-is-he-not-so-brigh
“Digging up the Truth about Puppy Mills.” SPCA International, 1 Sept. 2019, www.spcai.org/take-action/puppy-mills/digging-up-the-truth-about-puppy
mills#:~:text=The%20female%20breeding%20dogs%20suffer,is%20brutally%20killed%20or%20abandoned.
Elgier, Angel M., et al. “Pointing Following in Dogs: Are Simple or Complex Cognitive Mechanisms Involved?” Animal Cognition, vol. 15, no. 6, 17 July 2012, pp.
1111–1119, doi:10.1007/s10071012-0534-6.
“Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association (HSVMA) Veterinary Report on Puppy Mills.” HSVMA, May 2013,
www.hsvma.org/assets/pdfs/hsvma_veterinary_report_puppy_mills.pdf.
Lebeau, Denise. “Adopting a Purebred Dog from a Shelter.” Best Friends Animal Society - Save Them All, 11 Apr. 2014, bestfriends.org/storihttps
Llera, Ryan, and Lynn Buzhardt. “How to Choose a Good Dog Breeder: VCA Animal Hospitals.” Vca, vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/how-to-choose-a-good-dog
breeder. Accessed 9 June 2024.
McMillan, Franklin D., et al. “Differences in behavioral characteristics between dogs obtained as puppies from Pet Stores and those obtained from noncommercial breeders.” Journal of the American
Veterinary Medical Association, vol. 242, no. 10, 15 May 2013, pp. 1359–1363, https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.242.10.1359.
“Puppy Mills: What They Are & How to Stop Them - Figure 4.” YouTube, Dog Psychology 101, 24 Feb. 2020, https://youtu.be/YY0I1kGoGHA
“Puppy Mills and the Animal Welfare Act - the Humane Society ...” Humane Society of The United States , 2020, www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/puppy
mills-awa-booklet-lores.pdf
“Puppy Mills: Facts and Figures.” Humane Society, 2021, www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/puppy-mills-facts-and-figures.pdf.
Redelico, Brittany, Alyson O'Connor, and Julie M. Fagan. "The NEW Puppy Lemon Law: A Universal Solution to Puppy Mill in discrepancies." (2010).
“Seven Ways You Can Stop Puppy Mills.” The Humane Society of the United States, www.humanesociety.org/resources/seven-ways-you-can-stop-puppy-mills. Accessed
30 May 2024.
Stubbs, Aimee. Figure 2. 3 Jan. 2017. Rolling Stone, https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture- Features/the-dog-factory-inside-the-sickening-world-of-puppy-mills
112161/sub_action=logged_in. Accessed 9 June 2024.
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