If you sit back and think about the numbers, the for-profit animal breeders are injecting a huge number of dogs and cats into the market. They treat them like commodities and make large sums of money selling them.

Now look at it with a touch of compassion.

The Humane Society estimates that there are at least 10,000 puppy mills in the U.S. producing more than 2.4 million a year—and less than 3,000 of those are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, according to the ASPCA, approximately 3.9 million dogs enter shelters every year—and each year, 1.2 million dogs are euthanized.

This is evidence that these for-profit breeders, running “puppy mills,” are bringing so many animals into the world that over a million of them need to be put down every year.

This is why states are taking a stand. The New Jersey senate is preparing a bill that will outlaw the sale of animals by pet stores opened after January 12, 2016, unless they were recovered from a shelter or rescue organization.

“These puppy mills have gained a notorious reputation for putting profits ahead of the humane treatment of dogs and cats,” Senator Raymond Lesniak, who introduced the bill, told reporters last December. “Their mass breeding has created inbred health and behavioral problems and the inhumane conditions have left too many of these pets to suffer from neglect and mistreatment.”

The bill will pass into the state Assembly where it will be debated.

*Article originally appeared at Minds.