Investigation ties pet chain to puppy mills

[DainBramaged]

After an eight-month investigation, the Humane Society of the United States accused Petland, the national pet store chain, of selling dogs bred under appalling conditions at puppy mills around the country.

The animal protection group made the charges at a news conference in Washington Thursday. The investigation involved 21 Petland stores and dozens of breeders and brokers. The Petland stores are being supplied by large-scale puppy mills, although customers are routinely informed that the dogs come only from good breeders, the Humane Society said.

"They are buying from puppy mills where these dogs are not treated like pets," Michael Markarian, an executive vice president with the Humane Society, told a news conference. "They're treated like a cash crop, where mother dogs live in wire cages, sometimes stacked on top of each other in filthy, dirty, cramped conditions, where they receive little socialization or human interaction or exercise."

Dogs from puppy mills are sold at Petland stores for as much as $3,500 each, according to the Humane Society.

Investigators reviewed interstate import records of an additional 322 breeders, U.S. Department of Agriculture reports and more than 17,000 individual puppies linked to Petland stores, according to a release on the group's Web site.

http://www.hsus.org/pets/pets_related_news_and_events/petland_puppy_mill_112008.html


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27822309/

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I hope Petland and the puppy mills get the book thrown at them.

I hope the puppies they find can be saved, and eventually given decent homes.

[DainBramaged]

2. I was bawling like a baby while I read the articles

we are responsible for our own lives, the animals we keep as pets are part of our responsibility. If we treat them like lifeless toys, we are the ones who are lifeless.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. Last week, a DUer posted about her experience rescuing puppies from a puppy mill.

It had me sobbing and tears are welling up from this article. Those mills have to close and the dogs be given to good non-kill shelters.

I think our new President and his family could very easily find their hypo-allergenic dog among the rescued dogs.

[CountAllVotes]

20. I agree

Obama et al. could easily find a hypo-allergenic dog at a rescue or a shelter.

I have 3 cats - all of them are rescues and all 3 of them would be long gone had I not adopted them and I know it (they were all sick when I got them).

That said, the health of a pet bought from a store is likely even worse given the inbreeding that goes on along with the general disgusting/unhealthy conditions found at a pet store or most (not all) breeders that I happen to know.

:dem:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. All but one of the cats that have been in my life were rescue kitties.

Our last arrival actually came to us, crying on our doorstep a little over a year ago. We searched high and low for his people and no one claimed him. He is an adult neutered male who loves the creature comforts of home and is affectionate, so someone must have cared about him in past. When he found us, he had ticks, but overall his health was very good. I still can't understand how this beautiful furbaby wound up being a stray and sometimes still wonder about his past.

The only dog that I had ever purchased came from a home breeder and I deliberately stayed clear of pet stores, no matter how tempting and cute the puppies were. Puppy mills have been around for decades and I heard too many sad stories of how someone would bring their puppy home, only to find out that it was sick or suffered from genetic problems.

If I were ever to get a dog in the future (which I doubt), it would be a rescue dog.

People are deserting and giving up their pets in high numbers. People who are being displaced, either through foreclosure or escalating rents, can't find many places that accept pets. I scanned over an article in today's NY Daily News that talked about how people are struggling to pay for their pets, from health care to food.

[flvegan]

3. Sadly it won't happen. APHIS is the most worthless branch of our govt.

They don't do shit.

[DainBramaged]

4. That will change on January 20th 2009, the end of an error

:hi:

[flvegan]

5. I sure hope Obama goes over the USDA and APHIS thoroughly.

Or, appoints a kickass Sec of Ag to do it for him.

[CountAllVotes]

6. add the AKC to the list

The AKC attends those god awful dog auctions run by the Amish and they register these poor sick dogs for sale spot on and collect the money.

It is this same batch of sad dogs that are from these puppy mills.

Get rid of the auctions and get rid of the puppy mills.

Go get 'em OBAMA!!

:dem: :kick:

[BrklynLiberal]

11. You are right. I was shocked when I learned how much puppy mill business the Amish do.

[CountAllVotes]

12. yes, this is their dirty little secret

and yes, they advertise on puppyfind.com and other places online. I recognize the names in fact.

Not all Amish are in the puppy mill business but some are. Long gone are those horse and buggy days. These people have cell phones, computers, and every other thing known to modern technology at their immediate disposal. Don't be fooled!

Such a crock of shameful lies IMO.

I hope that some laws pass soon in Ohio. They are making progress. This is but one state that has far too many Amish auctions and puppy mills running full speed ahead.

The Amish view dogs, etc. as "livestock" and nothing more. I seriously wonder how they can look at themselves in the mirror given the hypocrisy.
:grr: :mad:

[BrklynLiberal]

13. PA must be next. That is the location of many puppy mills.

[Nevernose]

8. Worse than the puppy mills,Petland sells inappropriate dogs

We adopted a rescued German Shorthaired Pointer from the pound. It was too big for our small townhouse, we knew it, but she was really sweet and we just felt bad for her. Eventually we found a lady who had another GSP and lived on a former horse lot on the edge of town. We're sadder, but the dog is much, much happier: she has some place to run free for hours on end, and was never meant for the city. GSPs are country dogs, born and bred to run and hunt. It is downright CRUEL to try and keep one of these dogs in an urban environment -- it's like clipping a bald eagle's wings and stuffing it into a parakeet cage.

We were in Petland in the mall, though, about a year later, just browsing (and I'm fascinated by aquatic plant life, but that's really a whole 'nother thread). Anyway, they had GSP puppies. A dozen of them, at least. Little and cuddly and just perfect puppies. If Norman Rockwell were going to paint a puppy, the GSP puppy is what he would paint. They sell these puppies for 500 or 1000 dollars, but don't tell the purchaser that these are working dogs and it wil be virtually impossible for any owner who lives in this city to give them a good home. THe dog will act out, and the animal shelters will be flooded with them. And yet they still keep selling them.

I'm getting a little teary-eyed. I've had many dogs over the years -- the dog I've got now, William Jefferson Clinton Chihuahua -- is about the best canine you could possibly hope to have, but he ain't like my German Shorthair, Ladybird. That dog LOVED me.

[JeanGrey]

9. What a surprise. I've been saying this for years. Their dogs

are skinny, have bad boning, and are terrible examples of most breeds, plus they aren't registered AKC most of them are registered to mysterious places like ACA and CKC. What a joke. Their kittens aren't any better. Nine hundred dollar "persians" that look like alley cats with long hair.................

[DainBramaged]

14. Around NY late night, this weird looking guy did commercials for Petland

sort of a cross between carpet salesman and car sales man with a bad toupee and ego to boot. And he whined when he spoke. Always selling Tetra products.


I goes to PetSmart.

[JeanGrey]

10. By the way NO GOOD BREEDER will ever sell to a pet store.

Period.

[LeftyMom]

16. There is no such thing as a "good breeder"

Animals are dying for lack of homes. Right now. Right this very moment.

People who contribute to overpopulation- and thus suffering and death- by breeding still more animals, do not have the best interests of our animal friends at heart. If they did they'd do rescue instead.

[JeanGrey]

17. Sorry I beg to disagree. I was a cat breeder for ten years, and

showed as well. I WAS a good breeder. And I got my minature schnauzer from a fantastic breeder and she has proven to be a healthy, fantastic dog who is a good example of the breed.

To say there are no good breeders is ridiculous.

[LeftyMom]

18. You didn't address the overpopulation issue at all.

There are already more dogs and cats (especially cats) than homes willing to take them. The disparity is deadly. Making it worse is absolutely irresponsible.

[JeanGrey]

22. Do you really believe that we should let every pure bred animal

just die out because of over population? I'm sorry but I cannot go there. I've had many strays in my life as well.

[LeftyMom]

23. "Breeds" are an artificial concept. I'd rather save actual animals.

"Just because of overpopulation?" :wow: There are MILLIONS and MILLIONS of living feeling animals killed in shelters in this country each year, most for absolutely no other reason than lack of an adoptive home.

Breeding more animals when we already have more than we as a species have already created more than we can possibly house is irresponsible bullshit.

[alittlelark]

15. Off to the Greatest.....

These connections need to be publicized by moral pet products producers.

[Hidden Stillness]

19. All Pet Stores Rely on the Cruelty of Puppy Mills, and They Know What They Do

There were a few investigations recently on this scandal, leading to breakups of truly appalling puppy mills. A couple were in what seemed to be dirty, unattended garages in neighborhoods in Montreal, on CBC news, and another was on a recent Animal Planet series/expose, "Wild Rescues," I think. What was sickening was the way these people exploit the "living in a home in a neighborhood" situation, to escape commercial regulations, about what the living conditions for the animals have to be. Of course, every single one was the same, maddening, infuriating condition: dogs grouped together in very small, dirty, never-cleaned cages, dogs attacking each other because crowded and starving and no one ever coming to stop it, no medical care, no human contact except for the oppressor/exploiter, no exercise, little or no food, on and on. The Animal Planet expose was about a woman who had the dogs--beagles--living by themselves in a house where she did not even stay, (claiming it is a "home business"), the house looking like it should be--and maybe was eventually--condemned. One "breeder," (dwell on that, as your one and only course of life), was totally and completely restrained by a choke-chain collar being fixed to a nail on a wall in a room. The dog was completely unable to move, ever.

The thing you have to understand about the global corporate profit-making scheme they call capitalism, is that, just like Wal-Mart some years ago being discovered importing clothes from forced child-labor factories in India, then putting fake "Made in U.S.A." labels on them, then having no legal consequences of any kind for it, just like the cruelty shown to very sick "downer cows" being tortured to get them to slaughter where they should not even be, just like poisonous melamine "accidently" being found now in products all over the world, these corporations know that this is happening, do not ask questions, and do not care. One point made by investigators over and over, as they do undercover investigations of pet stores, is that the stores never ask any questions about where the puppies are from, how they have been treated, their "medical" backgrounds (none), or anything else. There is a complete lack of concern for anything relating to the animals, except exploiting them for price; cruelty to animals every time they appear under the corporate system. This is why you can go into a pet store, pick up highly expensive purebreed puppies, and the puppies have ear mites, are panicky and uncontrollable, etc.--no care of any kind.

Of course, with a prick who refers to "girly" dogs, and other assholes who defend it, I don't expect any of this to be taken on. It takes courage to take on a huge corporate profit-making network of corruption and exploitation. Only those who don't think it is "trivial," would even think to do it.
http://stoppuppymills.org/inside_a_puppy_mill.html