Puppy farms are terrible places... we know of 2 in Belgium, where as much as 60% of the puppies die, and the bodies are thrown onto a pile and burned...
Although this is illegal in Belgium, those places still exist and thrive, for 2 reasons:
-most people decide they want a dog, and do not want to wait untill a good litter of the breed of their choice becomes available with a responsible breeder (or a hobby breeder like Alter Ego's brother)
-a lot of those places offer dogs, which can be paid for in installments... We always say... if you cannot afford to pay for the dog, you cannot pay for its upkeep, shots, operations, etc...
If you want a dog now, go to a responsible shelter and adopt one... there are plenty of nice dogs looking for a new home... one word of advice though to first-time owners of a dog... if you go to a shelter take a person, preferably trainer, who knows about dogs... It is a sad fact that a lot of shelters will tell you what you want to hear about their guests, in the hope of you adopting one (is he good with children... sure... and you come home and he has lunch on your 2 boys... lol). A lot of dogs in shelters have an unfortunate history, which has influenced their characters... be aware...
JD, our rescued Aussie is a lovely dog, but as he was brought up with 2 Staffords, he has also learned how to fight (for survival), and he has caused a number of problems in our group because of this... and it took us almost 2 years to get him to trust us completely, as he was abused by his former owner...
Then again, he is a lovable dog and we would not want to miss him for the world...