Its what my breeder told me. You have to remember a few years ago, there were only about 100 to 200 new IT puppies in the US each year (now its about 300). Its a very tight community and there are very few breeders. Those breeders that cared about the breed would much rather purchase a dog that is in a store and neuter or spay it, then to have it get in the hands of a backyard breeder. My breeder wanted to buy one last year just for that purpose, she has the rescue for the west half of the country.
Yes, it supports the puppy mills, however, its better to have a sterile badly bred dog out there than an intact one right?
Let me get this straight... you are claiming that a breed rescue organization that depends on donations to support their organization paid $1600 per puppy (I don't care what breed or how rare) at a petstore knowing their purchase would support a puppymill in order to spay/neuter the puppy so that *that* puppy would not pass on bad genes? And they did this frequently?