To the lady who “adopted” two puppies from a pet store:
You did not rescue, or “adopt” these puppies. You paid a total of $1300 for two sickly, poor quality, puppy mill products. You are a consumer and a contributor to their sad lives and the even sadder lives of their parents. You are a nice lady, I really enjoyed talking to you- you seem geniunely concerned about the health and well being of your new pups. However, you paying $500 for a 5 1/2 month sheltie pup that is bone thin, won’t eat, won’t play, is severely ill and barely weighs 5 lbs because it was “pathetic” is not a good deed. Why do you think the pet store still has the pup after 2-3 months- Shelties usually sell in the first two weeks? What you don’t know is that the pet store brought in that pups sister last week, nearly DOA …(we mercifully ended her life)- both of those pups have been ill for a long time.
If you had to have a purebred, a rescue would have been a good source, or a responsible breeder would have sold you a healthy ,guaranteed pup for not much more, and in many cases less than the $500 you paid.
You are concerned that your children will have to watch this puppy get sick and die. Guess what… they probably will- and you’ve paid for the pleasure. You got snowed, so the fault is not entirely yours- but next time you want to rescue a pathetic puppy- try your local shelter. They will actually take your money and put it to a good cause- like covering the cost of care and spay/neuters for other “pathetic” animals in your area.
You “just couldn’t help it”, you “couldn’t leave that poor puppy there”… I understand that. The pup was a very sad case and it sucks that it has had a horrible, short life and one that is likely to end soon. However, your $500 just bought 3-4 more puppies for the pet store. The $900 you paid for you other, sick but curable pup bought about 8 more. So you have contributed to at least 11 more pups going through the pet store experience and have lined the pockets of the greedy jerks who supply them.
Please, you seem like a nice, caring person- I hope the experience of what happens to this pup at least keeps you from buying another- but I’ve seen that happen too many times to have much faith anymore
I won’t even buy pet supplies at a pet store that sells Puppy mill pups. I think giving any money what so ever to these types of stores is contributing to the puppy mill problem.
I don’t either- I hate petstores, after being in the vet business (as an office manager) for over 7 years, I’ve seen too many cases like this to ever see any justification for it… I do want to correct myself though- it should be a total of $1400.00 spent ($500 for the deathly ill sheltie, $900 for the somewhat sick American Eskimo).
Glad I had somewhere to vent this, the sad thing was that this was a nice lady, would have been a wonderful home for any dog- too bad that turns into a destructive thing when she gets the dogs from the wrong source.
The Petsmart around here does allow the rescue groups to bring their dogs down to be adopted on the weekends. These aren’t the puppy mill dogs though. They’re all rescued. Just wanted to clarify that sometimes you can really adopt a needy dog at a petstore.
Yeah, you can, a lot of pet stores work with the local humane society and you can adopt cats and dogs through them. (I’ve only seen it done with cats though.)
The Pet Store here has had parvo in their store for the past year. A couple of months ago they took an entire litter of very sick poodle puppies to the pound, rather than spending the money of vet bills. All of them died, plus about 25 dogs at the shelter got parvo from them, and had to be killed.
And I have talked to countless people who have bought sick puppies from them, because they have’t cleaned their damn store properly, so puppies are still getting parvo.
I can’t tell you the blank stares I would get from customers who came into my pet store (independent; DOWN WITH PETSMART!) asking if we sold puppies, and I’d say, “No, and you shouldn’t buy puppies from a pet store.”
Lost a couple customers because they refused to understand the problem, but hopefully converted a lot of people too.
Smokinjbc, you’re right. The lady is an idiot. Just curious, did you share any of this with her (in a more palatable form, of course.) I hope so. I would have.
Ditto what Stephi said - I don’t buy pet supplies for my two cats (I got them from a “free kittens” ad in the paper) or my dog (purchased from a responsible breeder) because I don’t want a store that buys from puppy mills and irresponsible “back-yard” breeders to make any money off me at all, not even a few dollars. If I happened to be in the mall, I used to go to the pet shop to look at the puppies and kittens, but it was generally far too depressing, so I stopped years ago.
I have a friend who is a dog trainer at a Petsmart and she hates hates HATES when people buy dogs from petstores because they are damn near impossible to housebreak and train properly.
Metalmaven
filmore, my local Petsmart and Pet Supplies Plus and various other stores work with some of the local rescue groups and shelters, too. It’s pretty clear, though, that you’re not buying a dog or cat from the store - I don’t think that the stores get anything at all from it other than goodwill. I buy from these type of stores with no problem - I tend to think of them as pet supply stores, not pet stores (though I know some do sell fish and small animals like ferrets, gerbils, hamsters). Frankly, my preference is to buy supplies from someone who doesn’t sell any animals at all except maybe fish, but those are sometimes difficult to find.
While my experiance is with cats (I was neutral; my wife’s insistance) I’ve had the best experiances with shelters. If you are looking for a dog or a cat, Please take a look there first. I’ve never been disapointed nor have I ever known anyone who has been who adopted from a shelter.
And as for pure-bred, ask your self this: Would your dog turn You down because your ancestors weren’t all Irish or all English or all German or all Whatever…?
I won’t buy from a petstore because of eveyrthing stated above, but my issue is with the Humane Society.
Adopting a pet out of there requires more paperwork application than nearly a mortgage. I understand the needs of a screening process, however, why would anyone put themselves through such a long process for a pet (that probably has been abused or abandoned) when you can get a puppy or kitten or older pet through friends, vet referrals, classifieds and the ever present
" Free Kittens" signs.
I want to help out the Humane Society, I really do, but I don’t need them doing a background check on me that is a combo of the CIA with a buttload of Vatican Guilt.
I had to share This page. Elly is a boxer who we have just received from a Humane Society, she was seized in a puppy mill raid.
I hope that people wouldn’t buy from pet stores if they knew what the parents are going through. But pet stores lie, and say all their puppies are home raised with loving families yadda yadda.
Yes, I did say what I could, with tact. Basically that can only consist of saying they pet store shouldn’t have sold her in that condition, how miserable the pup must be (so miserable that she won’t leave her crate voluntarily even though there is another playful pup living in the same household), and really emphasized that the pup was not nearly big enough for its age and that obviously something was very wrong with it. I am the office manager at the vet office, we have a contract with this store- we provide medications and treatment for their pups before and after sale. We don’t like to do pet stores, we have dumped four of them because they were such trash- this one is somewhat better- at least the pups do get medical care when they bring them to us and not just a letter and health certificate to send back to the puppy mill like many other pet stores I’ve seen. There is no defense for any pet store, but we can tolerate this one to an extent as long as they continue to do what my doctors recommend. I woudn’t stay with a hospital that does this except for two reasons- one is that its the first hospital I’ve worked for that has a positive environment for employees- with real benefits and a living wage and vets that don’t scream… the second is that we do a ton of charity work- spayed/neutered over 1200 animals for the SPCA, also have done dozens of major surgeries at charity prices for humane organziations, adopted out ourselves at least 10 animals this year, many of those hard luck cases that needed extensive medical treatment. I do Border Collie rescue- and recently rescued an adult dog with a crushed hip bone- doctor is going to do the FHO hip surgery- usually 800-1000 bucks- for about $200 for her new wonderful owners.
On screening- I think its one of those things- yes maybe it holds some people back from adopting but it also makes each home a better risk. Most kill shelters don’t screen as thoroughly, and I agree they can’t afford too without killing alot of dogs that deserve a chance. But for no kill shelters and rescues- I think screening helps insure the future for the dog. After doing quite a bit of rescue over the years, I would hate to have my money and time wasted with a poor home that will dump the dog later or mistreat it. I’ve rescued several Border Collies over the last 5 years, and never had a dog returned to me, lost, killed or dumped. I can thank my screening process for that.
As for purebred or not, I am a Border Collie snob :). I keep sheep and trial my dogs in competitions- unfortunately they must be well bred to have the correct abilities to do this. If any dog could do it, I’d go with mutts. I try to rescue when I can, when I come across a good dog, I’m usually suckered in, even though I have four of my own.
I think screening in and of itself is a good thing, but if I remember correctly from another pit thread in Shirley Ujest’s case the shelter in question required a credit check, which I think is idiotic.
Just an observation, Smokinjbc - you seem very impassioned about the subject, but your OP doesn’t really explain exactly what a “puppy mill” is, what specific things they do or don’t do that result in puppies becoming ill, and how to recognize whether a dog one is considering purchasing doesn’t come from a “puppy mill”. You seem to want to educate people, so a little more background info might be helpful.
One store in my area states that they “Do not sell purebred dogs.” - is this to denote no puppy mills?
I know that my puppy didn’t come from a puppy mill, 'cus I met both his parents (happy, healthy, haning out with other dogs) at the breeder, but I wonder about some of the stores around here. I have a friend that purchased a pet store dog and he seemed to be in good health, happy, etc. I’m curious.
Yes, that is extreme. I adopted my old cat from a shelter, and went through a screening process but it wasn’t that bad (and actually I wasn’t exactly 100% truthful). What I fudged about was I gave my parents address (this was 11 years ago) and since my family “owned” our home and I was actually living on my own in an apt rental- I didn’t have to provide a copy of a lease saying I was allowed to have pets there. I could have gotten that but I might have lost the chance to adopt that particular scroungy kitten who has been the greatest cat. He got a good home, permanent and I’ve paid for many a medical issue he’s had (crystals in his urine, removal of a defective eye, etc) gladly- but I wouldnt have passed a credit check then or now LOL. The rest of the questions were reasonable- how many pets had I had, how long did they live (they were very impressed with my families 17 year old cat and 14 year old dog at home), did I ever get rid of a pet and why (nope), etc.
I would never ask for a credit check, that is ridiculous.
alice_in_wonderland are you in Canada? Pet stores can’t sell CKC registered dogs in Canada (and a dog in Canada is only considered purebred legally speaking if it is registered with the CKC), so that’s all that means. They probably put it up because some people have the notion that all mutts are healthier than all purebred dogs (which is bs).
Pet wholesalers. Places that sell, import pets through wholesale channels, must be licensed by USDA in the States.
** Pet breeders** are those who breed for the wholesale trade, whether for selling animals to other breeders or selling to brokers or directly to pet stores or laboratories. They must be licensed by USDA.
Hobby breeders that sell directly to pet stores are exempt from licensing if they make less than $500 per year and if they own less than 3 breeding females.
There are almost 5000 USDA licensed breeders in the USA, and I think about 3000 sell only to pet stores.
Just another note on screening: A friend of mine (lifelong cat-owning family) was turned down to adopt a kitty because they lived too close to a major intersection.
And my parents (both from dog-owning families) were turned down - after their first dog died after a long and happy life - because they expected the dog to sleep in his kennel (including blankets, food, water, human company) the basement.