Puppy Mills and Pet Stores

The fact that the vast majority (estimates are as high as 95%) of puppies sold in pet stores come from puppy mills has been well documented.  This fact accounts for the advice given by veterinarians, rescue workers, and serious breeders against buying a puppy in a pet store.

But it’s amazing to see how badly people who are thinking of buying a puppy in a pet store want to believe that it isn’t true.  The response is always, “But I asked the people in the pet store and they assured me that all of their puppies come from home breeders.”  Of course that’s what they say!  They want you to plunk down your $800 or $1000 for one of the puppies they have for sale.  But these claims have been disproved.

• First, ask yourself this question:  How would it be possible for a store that has dozens and dozens of puppies of different breeds for sale every day to obtain all their dogs from home breeders?  The logistics alone would be impossible, since home breeders, by definition, are small-scale and can produce only a few puppies a year.

• Second, television programs such as Dateline NBC have proved absolutely that these claims are false, by getting the names of the “home breeders” from pet store employees, then hunting them down.  Without exception, the pet stores’ “home breeders” were puppy mills.

There are new pet stores -- stores that position themselves as "upscale" and "lifestyle stores" -- that admit that the puppies in their stores come from commercial volume breeders. The puppies are sold for $750 to $1800. Putting a puppy mill dog into a fancy retail setting and sticking an outrageous price tag on it does not change anything about the origins of the puppy. And none of that fancy price tag does anything to alleviate the misery of the mill dogs used as breeding machines.

Click on this link. Then click on Where Do Pet Store Puppies Come From? Watch the movie, then read the page that follows it.

Pet Store Cruelty is another excellent watchdog site, focusing on puppy mills and pet stores, especially Petland, a large chain that obtains its puppies from the Hunte Corporation.

THIS IS WHAT YOU SUPPORT WHEN YOU BUY A PUPPY AT A PET STORE! This is Mary Ann, a precious eight-year-old girl who spent her entire life as a breeder in a puppy mill. A rescuer recently bought her at a puppy mill auction, so instead of going to another mill, she went into rescue. When she was first examined, the man who checked her mouth had to run from the exam room to the bathroom, where he vomited. Although he has been working with rescued dogs for a decade, he had never seen anything like Mary Ann's mouth. Not only were her teeth rotten, but so were her gums, and impacted in everything were the feces and hair Mary Ann had eaten in her puppy mill cage just to survive. As a result, Mary Ann had to have almost all of her teeth extracted, and she might have to have more oral surgery. This is what her behind looks like, after years of sitting in a wire cage: As bad as her health problems are, what is worse is that Mary Ann doesn't behave like a dog. She sits and stares. When her foster mom picks her up and cuddles her, Mary Ann just stares straight ahead. She has no idea what human contact is about. She doesn't respond to love because "love" is something she has never known. Having taken care of countless litters of puppies -- that were then sold to brokers and ended up for sale in pet stores -- Mary Ann is comfortable with dogs and loves the other dogs and cats in her foster home. People are just a mystery to her. There is no excuse for this kind of abuse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is supposed to monitor puppy mills for health and safety violations, did nothing for Mary Ann. Not only was she neglected, horribly abused, and bred half to death for her entire life in a "commercial breeding facility," which the USDA is supposed to regulate, but she was actually put up for sale so that another puppy mill could buy her and continue breeding her until she simply died--or outlived her usefulness and was shot or beaten to death. There are thousands and thousands of dogs just like Mary Ann in puppy mills all over this country. That cute puppy you want to buy or "rescue" from a pet store was produced by a dog suffering the same horrors that Mary Ann suffered. ------------ UPDATE, 5/21/05 After being cared for by People for Pets, a small rescue group in Iowa, Mary Ann began to respond to human contact and to appreciate touching and affection. She will have medical problems for the rest of her life, but Mary Ann has been adopted by a dachshund rescuer in New Jersey. STOP THE MISERY AND ABUSE! STOP BUYING PUPPIES FROM PET STORES!

 

How Much Is that Doggie in the Window?...More than You Think! If you are tempted to "rescue" a puppy from a pet store, think of Loki before you write that check! Loki is a three-year-old dapple who was bought at a pet store for $1000. Like most pet store puppies, he had been bred in a puppy mill. The family that bought him surrendered him to rescue because, they said, their son had changed his mind and wanted a different breed. He was adopted by one of our rescuers, who has spent a fortune on vet bills to deal with the genetic health problems that resulted from his poor breeding. Like his epilepsy, which requires ongoing medication and blood tests ($2500 for blood tests in three years, $300 a year for medication). And his constant dental problems, which have resulted in the extraction of most of his teeth, to the tune of more than $1000. So when you see that sweet face staring out at you from the pet store window and you wonder how much is that doggie in the window, remember: The lifetime costs of caring for a poorly bred puppy mill dog will add up fast. At least Loki survived, unlike many puppy mill puppies, who are so poorly bred that they die before they reach their first birthday.

PLEASE DON'T SUPPORT THE PUPPY MILLS!
DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM STORES THAT SELL PUPPIES!