I would describe backyard breeders as just individual people that keep one or more dogs for the purpose of making money off their litters. A small scale greed industry. They don't know anything about what they are doing (genetic research, the importance of different aspects of breeding), they just pump out litters to make a buck. I am a bit of a rebel wrt backyard breeders and find time during the week to flag all breeder ads on my local Craig's List where they are obviously selling litters they bred for profit as opposed to trying to find a home because something happened and they can't keep the animal (very easy to tell the difference). I know that's kind of stupid (and sometimes overwhelming since CL gets innundated [it's free so to greeders, what better place to sell something]), but it makes me feel like I'm reaching out in some small way to b**** slap them a bit

BYB obviously don't care what kind of home their puppies wind up in - whoever ponies up the cash first gets them.
Puppymills are on a larger scale, often selling more than one type of breed (see this website for more mill info, although it Will break your heart :
Puppymills - Information about puppy mills and how to shut them down.)
The life for these poor breeding dogs is horrendous and heartbreaking - receiving little or no care or even love and positive interactions from humans. Puppymillers are the scum of the earth. Backyard breeders are not much better IMO.
There is a good "what can you do" tab on the Prisoners of Greed website... but the most important thing is to try to educate people as to what the life was like for that cute puppy in the petstore to steer people away from buying them. If none sold, the millers would go out of business. I also don't shop in stores that sell live dogs and cats. And support your local rescues and shelters...even if you don't have spare money right now, they always are short on things like towels, newspaper, dog food, toys and chewies, whatever... or your Time (helping walk and socialize these babies).
((((((Thank you so much for caring!!!))))))))