This might be nitpicking, I would dispute the "odd juxtaposition of compassion and cruelty" the blogger claims we American exhibit towards pets. For that statement to be true, pet owners would have to be the ones euthanizing the millions of pets in those animal shelters. No, it's two (or more) distinct groups of people. The people loving the pets are not the ones killing them. It's like saying that the compassion and hatred Americans have towards Obama is an odd juxtaposition. Also, the little comment about how many of our products come from "factories with abysmal conditions" at the very end also really bugs me. It just demonstrates the general ignorance and lack of understanding that many Americans exhibit today (sorry if I offend anyone). My dad grew up on a farm in China, and they struggled to feed themselves - the rice they farmed was too expensive for them to eat. My dad made it to the US, but some of my family works in factories there, and the thing is, they don't mind it as much as you'd think. It's better than where they came from, and at least now they have food. I know these aren't really the main points of this article (yeah yeah, puppy mills are bad), but those things really bugged me, and I just really didn't like the rhetoric the blogger tried to use.