Giving Petland a hard time

[Marigold2]

This is so sad. There was a pet store here like that as well. My daughter would go in there and find hamsters, bunnies, rats no food or water. Birds no toys or not the proper perch, puppies drugged. The list goes on and on. The birds sitting on the cage floor made her cry

She called the news stations, wrote letters to animal groups and governement agencys and many others in power. What she heard back was that this store was already under investagation.

When she or I would go into the store we would gently point out to the dumb, uncaring, stupid and lazy employees that the hamsters had no water and those kids just walked away or said "we just gave them water" Not one ever seemed to care, it was truly strange.

The owner who also owned exotics bears, lions, tigers) would sit in the store and oversee everyone. He looked like Jabba the Hut. Fat ulgy slob that he was.

Anyway my daughter and I would stand outside the store (it was in a mall) and pretend we just came out of the store. Then when a patron would walk up we would pretend we were talking to each other and say loud enough for the patrons to hear things like this

"oh those poor bunnies had no water"
"did you notice the birds had no perches"
"those puppies looked drugged to me"
"did you notice how dirty the cages where"
"what is that smell in there"
"the hamsters looked sick"

We did this over and over, this way the people going in would also notice these things. The public has the POWER to shut these places down by not buying anything there. It takes time on our part. You have to go there and try and video tape if possible, call and complain to the proper agenceys and inform the public most of all. I always felt that the time there was so worth it.

[CagneyDog]

CagneyDog, check out the premises a little closer, I think you'll find

I'm in Canada so it is clearly very different. I worked there for awhile. Sure, the animals aren't from reputable breeders, we all know that, however they are not from puppy mills. The animals are taken care of as well as possible. Of course so many animals should not be packed into one store however, considering they are I think we do a very good job taking care of them. They always have water, always are cleaned up after, and the ones that don't sell remain in the store until they do. We've had 8 months old dogs in our store. They all get vet checked, we do vet runs twice a week. I think our stores are a bit different...

[Giselle]

But it's the ethics that's involved. Can you, with good faith and heart, endorse the selling of pet store puppies?

Puppy millers are large backyard breeders. In my book, there's no difference between PM's and BYBs. The puppies didn't just come from "unreputable" breeders. They came from backyard breeders breeding for the almighty dollar. Canada may not have as bad of an overpopulation problem as we do, but the ethics remain the same. Did you see that video that of the armless Chihuahuas that Sheena's mom posted up in Dog General? That was due to backyard breeding. I despise any and all Petland stores no matter their euphemism for their actions. I believe we had one down here, but it was closed down after vehement action against its selling of puppies.

[Kalei]

Since I'm in a small part of Canada, the petstore we have here is called Pet's Unlimited, as far as I know they seem pretty good. They don't have puppies here but get kittens in every now and then. Does anyone know if Pet's Unlimited is a good petstore?

[CagneyDog]

But it's the ethics that's involved. Can you, with good faith and heart, endorse the selling of pet store puppies?

Puppy millers are large backyard breeders. In my book, there's no difference between PM's and BYBs. The puppies didn't just come from "unreputable" breeders. They came from backyard breeders breeding for the almighty dollar. Canada may not have as bad of an overpopulation problem as we do, but the ethics remain the same. Did you see that video that of the armless Chihuahuas that Sheena's mom posted up in Dog General? That was due to backyard breeding. I despise any and all Petland stores no matter their euphemism for their actions. I believe we had one down here, but it was closed down after vehement action against its selling of puppies.

No, of course pet stores anywhere do not have good ethics, nor do I believe what they are doing is right. What I'm getting at is that you can say that petland has bad ethics without spewing incorrect facts and generalizations. I've never once seen an animal without water at my petland, nor have seen animals just being put down when they get too old. When the odd tiny animal dies we get them cremated and sprinkle their ashes in a field. I think that it's great for people to educate others on petstores but generalizing the facts makes us look just as uneducated as those who buy from them.

[Giselle]

I know I shouldn't generalize as there are exceptions to every rule, but there's just something inherently disturbing about selling puppies in pet stores. I just don't like it. My general belief is that pet stores that do so belong to a same general group of people who do so for money. They don't all withhold water or food or stick aggressive animals in shared cages, but their underlying purpose remains the same - to sell animals and to gain profit from doing so. With animals, money should be a secondary concern, at least, in a perfect world. Then, again, I'm preaching to the choir

[crow_noir]

Here's two links for you. I tried to get information for only recent years. These are both from LATE 2006.

http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache...lnk&cd=3&gl=us

http://jowlflapper.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=49

Since I'm in a small part of Canada, the petstore we have here is called Pet's Unlimited, as far as I know they seem pretty good. They don't have puppies here but get kittens in every now and then. Does anyone know if Pet's Unlimited is a good petstore?

[Hellow]

I love petsmart but i utterly dispise pet land. Did you know that petsmart sued petland for animal cruelty? In our two local petsmarts, i see around five hamsters and gerbils to a cage, kept seperate, and then the two sexes are kept seperate. There is about two birds to a cage and they all have food and water. They also have an animal shelter inside both and they do "adoption days" every week. I see petsmart pet care specialists plying with all of the animals every day. All in all i love petsmart.

[SemaviLady]

Over here in California, there is legislation called AB 1634 which endorses and fully exempts commercial breeders (aka puppy mills) and breeders of animals used for research from some new legislation.

The current language of the bill further more mandates that immature dogs be bred before being health tested. I think the supporters are not reading the bill.

There have been opinions voicing support for above bill from some members of this message board. It can be seen here. The point is many people feel that the bill is only going to help save lives of some animals. They are not aware, or must be comfortable with the fine print they are supporting.

There is also what started out as a well meaninged bill in New Jersey, to fight various types of animal abuse, more elements have been added to that bill now, which gives no exemption for some types of care necessary for animals.

Many of the academic forums I'm on have people trying to raise awareness of these problems. But on many social forums with "regular people", if one so much dares as point out 'no fix' and 'broken' problems with various 'feel good' legislation, others assume that the person speaking must be a bad guy.

At least the California Veterinary Medical Association has given up on the bill and withdrawn support for AB 1634.

But celebrities who are busy promoting their images like being seen in the limelight and are very busy sinking money into passing this bill. Some celebs have bought their pets from such places like this.

Check out the prices of a Celebrity Bloodline.