America has a nasty secret. All of those cute puppies that are sold in pet stores come from “puppy mills.” Their mothers spend their entire lives in a tiny, unsanitary cages, never walked, never petted, never doing anything but making puppies . When these dogs can no longer produce litters or money for their owners, they are put to death – stoned, shot, drowned or starved.

“Madonna of the Mills” is a documentary about Laura, an office manager from Staten Island, who stumbled on this secret four years ago and vowed to save as many of these breeding dogs as she possibly could. Laura has now rescued over 2,000 dogs from Amish and Mennonite farmers in Pennsylvania. In the process, she has forever changed her life and the lives of those families fortunate enough to adopt one of these remarkable “puppy mill” survivors.

“Madonna of the Mills” is opening the Artivist Film Festival in NYC on Dec 9th-12th.