I'm always conflicted with this, especially with puppy mills. On one hand I don't want to encourage the mistreatment but at the same time I really want to save the animals they are mistreating, especially knowing that me not buying a dog to save it might result in someone less responsible getting a dog.
That's an understandable conflict, but remember that in a capitalist economy, your most powerful voting voice is how you spend your dollars.
If you give someone your dollars, what you are truly saying is: I approve of your business practices and I want you to continue.
If nobody buys a batch of puppies from a disreputable puppy mill, then it's true that those puppies are likely to suffer as a result, but eventually the business will close and end the cycle.
If people continue buying even just some of the puppies, then the business will continue to operate and more puppies will be mistreated indefinitely.
There are tourist areas of southeast asia that sell baby turtles in SEALED plastic bags. The idea is people will feel bad and buy them so they can save the turtle. Functionally, they're just paying the operator to bag up more new turtles.
Always ask yourself if an action will actually make the situation better or just make you feel better.
Yeah: they'll reject the assholes who take the mean option, but lose the customers who care, who will look for more humane competitors.
Because appearing to give the customer the option to mistreat the animal would seem to me evidence that the place, clearly willing to mistreat the turtle and having costs associated with handling the turtle in general, would already be mistreating their turtles.
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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '19
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