Retail store switches to selling shelter dogs

[Are_grits_groceries]

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- One pet store is taking a stand by not selling pets that come from so-called puppy mills. It's teaming up with a national pet organization and only offers dogs and cats from animal shelters.

For the first time, many shelter dogs will be permanently displayed front and center at a local pet store window in a mall, displacing their commercially bred counterparts who typically get top billing.

This pet store will no longer sell commercially bred dogs, and people who avoid shelters because of their stigma will be able to adopt a dog or cat that otherwise might have been euthanized. It's all thanks to Pet Connections Inc., a national organization that devised the Pet Transport Program.

The pilot program went so well, the rescue dogs were so popular, that come March 1 a Barkworks store here in the Westside Pavilion will become an official adoption center for rescues.
More: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=8503367

I hope this idea catches on. There still may be kinks to work out, but it beats supporting puppy mills!

[ejpoeta]

1. petsmart here is associated with a shelter.

i think it's a good idea. Love to hear there are more of them.

[RockaFowler]

2. The Petsmart here, too

Every Saturday they hold Adoptathons for the local Shelter Dogs. I wish I could bring home all of them. They are so cute. They just want to be loved

[HockeyMom]

3. Petsmart here in Florida too

Not dogs, but cats. They hold adoption days and charge a fee, but with that fee all the kittens and cats have had their shots, been spayed and neutered, and a voucher is given for 6 months free vet care. Besides this, they include free litter and box, bowls, and a week's worth of food. I like this better than actually charging a price for a animal.

We adopted brother and sister littermates from them almost 2 years ago.

[WolverineDG]

4. the local Petcos do this

not so much Petland.

[MarianJack]

5. The Pet Stores Here in Augusta, Maine...

...are all connected to local animal shelters. We got one of our cats in this manner. The other we brought in as a stray and he worked his way into the family.

PEACE!

[mopinko]

6. between the pet stores and the small shelters in chicago,

about the only dogs left at the pound are pits. i was surprised when we went there looking for a dog and the adoption area was half empty.
even the little independent stores here are doing this.

[Kalidurga]

7. Great idea...

puppy mills break my heart. If this puts them out of business it is good for everyone even people. I knew a guy who got a puppy with his girlfriend from a puppy mill it was a rescue situation, they knew the puppy was sick, they had no idea how sick until $2000 in vet bills later, sadly even that didn't save the puppy.

[jsmirman]

8. GREAT program - the idea that people BUY puppies and kittens

puppies and kittens that have been *added* to the animal population is heartbreaking, when there are so many animals desperate for good homes.

I had to walk past such a store all summer, and each time it filled me with anger and despair.

I think this gives me the courage to confront them and ask them just where in heck are they getting their animals.

(and puppy mills - don't even get me started. There is a special place in hell for the people who run those.)

[xchrom]

9. very cool. nt

[Booster]

10. A feral cat had kittens in my yard and when they were old enough I took them to a local pet store

and asked them if they would try and sell them. They took them in and everyone of them was sold. There are alternatives to drowning kittens and puppies in the bathtub. Good for all of these store owners.