Puppy mill- need advice

I met a young girl today with a 6 month old female pit bull. She told me there was a kid in a nearby neighborhood holding up a puppy on a street corner. She approached him, and he said the puppy (which was only 4 weeks old at the time) was for sale for $150. The girl bought him (I don't fault her, she seemed young and niave, and I could tell she loves this dog). The dog is now 6 months old, and seems well fed and happy and loved. But...I asked her if she considered the origins of this puppy.

She then said she ran into the kid a few weeks ago as he walked down the street with a fully grown male pit bull. She recognized him, and asked about the dog. The kid said it was the father of her female, oh and by the way, they had MORE puppies now. I urged her to turn them in, but could tell she would never be able to. The neighborhood is small, and I am planning to drive around it every chance I get. If I see a kid with a puppy, or grown male, I'm planning to pretend to want to buy a puppy.

Question- once I find out where this puppy mill is, what do I do. And, how do I protect myself in case these are dangerous people?

Sadly to say if it is a puppy mill that is licensed there's not much you can do as long as the dogs are getting the minimum standards of care. If it is unlicensed though then you can contact the SPCA and ask them for the animal law enforcement officer. Of course there's no way for you to know if it is licensed or not but they will know if it is.

It could also be a back yard breeder and in that case if they sell 5 or more puppies here in NJ they would be what I think is called a pet dealer and in that case there are certain laws that must be followed. Some states have tougher laws than others on breeding facilities and dealers. New York for example only has to give a 2 week health guarantee. New Jersey has to give a 14 day health guarantee also but in addition must cover genetic defects for 6 months. In New Jersey the dealer is responsible for the vet bills and the customer can collect up to 2x the amount of the vet bills up to two times the price of the dog. Rescue organizations are exempt. The pet dealer definition can be found in the third link.

Division of Consumer Affairs Press Release-Know Your Rights Before Buying a Puppy or Kitten

http://www.state.nj.us/lps/ca/vetmed/vetforms.pdf

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/9899/Bills/PL99/336_.PDF

It sounds more like a BYB, just some people who think it's fun/cool/profitable to breed dogs without considering the bigger things like whether a dog is truly healthy and temperamentally stable (with proof!). These people are most certainly a problem, I'm sure they are a good amount of the shelter dogs, but you can do even less about them than you can about mills. Only thing you can do is encourage them to stop and encourage others not to buy from them. So long as dogs have food, water and shelter they can pump out as many pups as they want.

That doesn't sound like a puppy mill to me either, like was already said it sounds more like a byb. Trust me, if it were a puppy mill the kid wouldn't have been walking the dad, he would be locked in a cage somewhere.

Unfortunately, if the dogs are being well fed and reasonably housed there isn't much AC is going to do. Well that and they would get in trouble for selling puppies under 8 weeks in certain areas.