Talk:Puppy mill

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Surely it's incorrect to say that "puppy mill is a pejorative term (etc)"? After all, isn't "puppy mill" a specific term referring to the type of illegitimate operation that keeps animals in inappropriate, often cruel conditions and exploits them and those who buy them for money? Exploding Boy 01:12, August 25, 2005 (UTC)

If you were breeding dogs and someone referred to your operation as a puppy mill, would you be pleased? I doubt it, because the phrase has the very negative connotations that you mention. Which is what pejorative is. Elf | Talk 15:35, 25 August 2005 (UTC)

Yes, thank you for that little explanation. I'm quite aware what pejorative means. Are you? A pejorative is something that disparages or belittles; a puppy mill is a specific type of breeding operation. Thus, while one could not legitimately call a responsible, reputable breeding operation a "puppy mill," one could legitimately call an irresponsible, unreputable breeding operation where the dogs were confined in small cages in inhumane conditions and bred without heed for their wellbeing or health a puppy mill, because that's exactly the type of operation the term describes. Do you follow? When you call something what it is it's not a pejorative. To give an example, saying that George Bush is a Nazi is pejorative; calling Hitler a Nazi is not. Exploding Boy 17:18, August 25, 2005 (UTC)

But I believe that the Nazi Party called itself the Nazi Party; puppy mills don't call themselves puppy mills--only those who want to provide the negative connotation call them that. Elf | Talk 17:25, 25 August 2005 (UTC)

Since the description is accurate, however, it's not a pejorative term. Exploding Boy 21:44, August 25, 2005 (UTC)

??I'm puzzled by what you think a pejorative term is, then. So I'm going to cite a dictionary, which says it is something "having negative connotations; esp: tending to disparage or belittle." It doesn't say "...having inaccurate negative connotations." Compare "lazy" and "laid back". They could both be used to accurately describe the same behavior depending on your point of view, but the first is pejorative and the second isn't. Elf | Talk 22:03, 25 August 2005 (UTC)

Yeah well, I've rewritten the article to make it much more accurate. Exploding Boy 22:07, August 25, 2005 (UTC)

Good job. Hey, here's another term to debate--you added "who may also be breed or obedience champions " which is fine but something more like "breed or performance champions" might be better (thinking of herding, tracking, field, etc. ch's). I'm mentioning it because I'm not that fond of the term "performance", but that seems to be the general description for nonbreed titles used by dog people that I'm around, so it's engrained in my brain. Elf | Talk 22:18, 25 August 2005 (UTC)

That's the word I was looking for. I could get it. Sounds good to me. Maybe we could wikilink to an appropriate article (any suggestions?). Exploding Boy 02:08, August 26, 2005 (UTC)

List of dog sports is the best we've got. Have always wanted to write an article ABOUT the concept, but I keep getting involved in discussions about pejorative and other miniscule stuff.  ;-) Elf | Talk 03:31, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

Heh. I just discovered that people who keeps and show rats do rat agility! Who knew! Exploding Boy 03:40, August 26, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Animal health

I am thinking of adding a section on the skin of the west highland white terriers as I know that this is one thing which puppy farmers tend to allow to get into a very bad condition. Do you think that an example of a health problem faced by dogs which is very bad within the puppy farm population should be added to the page as an example for the readers to see.

[edit] External links

I removed most of these as Wikipedia is not intended to be used as a link directory. I left the HS link as a reference however. -- Moondyne 04:24, 19 October 2006 (UTC)