Cognitive Dissonance and Puppy Mills

In 1957, psychologist Leon Festinger defined cognitive dissonance as the discomfort people feel when their behavior doesn’t align with their values or beliefs. For example, I feel cognitive dissonance when I purchase something from Amazon rather than a local store.

Cognitive dissonance as it relates to animal welfare is what I get really grumpy about. For example, it’s universal knowledge that the drumsticks, pork chops, and burgers we consume likely came from an animal that experienced a horrible life and a hideous death. Yet, 97% of American households purchase meat.

I go way beyond grumpy when people who know about puppy mills do business with them anyway. Their desire for a particular pup they’ve seen on a website or in a pet store overrides the discomfort of knowing that the parent dogs experience a lifetime of suffering.

Sarah Gradidge, primary author of A Structured Literature Review of the Meat Paradox, reviews the mental gymnastics people employ to the internal discomfort of cognitive dissonance of eating meat.

Justification: Using words like “normal,” “natural,” and “necessary”

Denial: Refusal to acknowledge animals’ intelligence and capacity for suffering

Dissociation: Mentally separating meat from its origins

Willful ignorance: Purposefully ignoring information that challenges their beliefs or choices

I’ve no doubt that people who patronize puppy mills do these same things. If I get the chance to talk to people before they give their money to a puppy miller, I can usually ratchet up the discomfort enough to change their minds.

As I often state: One less purchase from a puppy mill brings us one step closer to their eradication.

Please join me in discouraging people from shopping for a puppy online or in a pet store, and emphasize the need to visit the kennel in person to meet the mama dog.

Have you had luck talking someone out of a puppy mill purchase?

Wishing you and your four-legged family members abundant good health,

Dr. Nancy

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