Shelter or Pet Store: Where to Get a Dog?

September is Puppy Mill Awareness Month, an effort to discourage people from buying pets at stores and instead adopt them from shelters or other sources.

Using the catchphrase, “Don’t breed or buy while shelter pets die” a national movement is growing against pet breeding under poor conditions and the sale of pets through stores that disguise the conditions of mills.

Just this week, the Fraternal Order of Police  endorsed a reward of $5,000 to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest and conviction of a puppy mill operator for illegal animal cruelty, according to Stephanie Twining of the Humane Society of the United States.

Demonstrators have been picketing a pet store in Aquebogue, protesting the sale of pups. Occasionally groups organize closer to home, for the same cause.

The Town of Huntington animal shelter in East Northport offers numerous pets for adoption.

Its hours are  Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

So if you want a puppy or adult dog, what's your move? Have you ever bought a dog from a pet store? Have you changed your mind since hearing more about puppy mills? Would you go to a shelter?