There are basically 4 different types of breeders
-accidental breeders
-show/hobby breeders
-backyard breeders (byb)
-mill/lab breeders
Accidental breeders – cannot truly be considered breeders. These are people who had a pet boar and sow accidentally get together, were sold a mating pair under the belief that they were a same sex couple or simply did not know better/think things through. These litters are unplanned and for the most part unwanted. The young produced will be properly rehomed if the owner does their research, dumped at a petshop (often with no financial gain, dumped at a shelter or kept by the owner/given to friends.
Show/Hobby Breeders – They breed to "improve the breed" (or so they say). Their main concern is perfect markings and body type. They claim that they are trying to improve the breed but the fact is that
GPs need to be bred so young that they have no true idea of what the health in like in the
GPs they breed. There is little profit in show breeding as so much of the money goes to entrance fees, traveling to shows, etc. Their main concern is to win a little prestige and ribbons in the show world. Unwanted stock is culled by killing them, selling them at shows or privately or selling excess stock or off-type animals to petshops.
Backyard Breeder (BYB) – These are people who breed their pet quality animals for no other reason (that I can fathom) then because they can. Perhaps they want cute babies, want to witness the miracle of birth or simply do not care that there mix-sex animals are breeding. Usually they do not make a profit. Often they sell some of their animals to "mom and pop" petshops, trade them to those same shops for food and supplies or they may sell then to Bunchers or brokers. The terms "buncher" and "broker" will be defined below.
Mill/Lab breeder – These are large scale breeding factories. These types of set-ups do make a profit. They have a large amount of animals, which they keep breeding as often as possible. The animals are sold either directly to the lab or petshop or sold to the broker that represents said industries. Mill/lab breeders are notoriously nasty places (though not all are). Usually the animals are kept in small housing (so they can fit in more animals), the housing is inadequate and dirty (wire floors are common and cleaning is often irregular at best), are fed as low quality of a diet as possible (to maximize profits) and are bred over and over until they die, become infertile or stop having large, profitable litters at which time they are killed or sold.
More info
Broker – A broker is the person who supplies the perstores. Most large and small petstores get their animals from a broker, not directly from the breeder. The broker takes in an order from the petstore and needs to find that number of animal to deliver to the petstore. Sometimes the broker has breeders they deal with but often bunchers deliver animals to the broker.
Buncher –A buncher is a person wo finds the animals to supply to the brokers. Bunchers have no problem buying animals from the very worst of breeders. Often the animals are sick or neglected. With some types of animals bunchers are not opposed to stealing pets from people or picking up strays. Some actually have the audacity to take animals from animal shelters (if they can get them cheap or free)
If ever you wondered why so many pet store animals are sick now you may have a clue. Let’s basically follow the path of 2 healthy, young sows as they travels from breeder/owner to the petshop. Keep in mind that these animals have been bred by a BYB who takes decent care of their animals. The sows are young, healthy and ready to be weaned.
-A buncher (seems like a nice young man) show up at the breeders house to see if she has any babies available. The breeder sells him her young sows. The man places the sows in his van.
-The buncher stops at many other locations picking up animals. Many of the locations do not keep their animals well. This whole time (3-8 hours) the young sows have been in this noisy, hot van filled with animals.
-Back at the buncher's house/kennel he takes the animals out of the van and places them in cages. Many of the cages are overcrowded so he can keep cages available for the next days load. The sows are placed in a cage with many other unfamiliar
cavies. Several of the
cavies are ill.
-After a few days of this the cages are loaded back into the van and taken to the broker’s place of business. While unloading the van, the broker and buncher notice that a couple of the animals are dead or near death. They are thrown in the trash and the 2 sows are transferred to another cage with even more
cavies in it.
-The broker gets an order from a large, chain petstore and another from a mom and pop store. The chain store wants 6 females. The mom and pop store want 3 females and 2 males.
-The broker hastily sexes the
GPs. One sow is placed in a carrier with 5 other females. Her sister sow is placed in a carrier with the 2 other females and 2 males.
-The broker delivers the
GPs to the stores. As he is taking the carrier out the chain petstore manager notices that one of the
GPs is very ill. The broker takes that sow out and takes one from a cage of spare animals he has in his van. He has lost enough animals during deliveries to know he should keep extras on board. After their store vet does a quick look at the animals the sows are placed in a tank with other
GPs.
At the Mom and Pop petshop the broker has delivered their "order" the animals are not separated by sex and are put on display along with some rabbits.
Both sows are purchased within a few days. Both become seriously ill. One is dead within a week and the other has survived because their owner got her medical attention at great cost AND it turns out she is pregnant. The new owner has decided to just give the babies back to the mom and pop store where she was bought.
It does not matter if the original breeder kept those 2 sows well. By the time you go into the store to buy them they have been subjected to countless diseases and stresses that can kill. The sows have been kept with males at the buncher and broker’s homes. It does not matter that the petstore only carries females.