Are there puppy selling pet stores near you?

[Giselle]

Wow, I had NO idea there are still so many left in operation! I was SURE that the majority had closed by now, especially after TV God- I mean, Oprah () had that exposée on puppy mills.

If I had any near me, I'd offer my help, but I'm wondering how we can all contribute to closing down whatever stores still exist? Granted, we can send angry e-mails, but that just widens the schism between responsible pet owners and puppy-selling business owners.

Any ideas? Has anybody tried to petition or shut these stores down? What about the local humane societies? I know SPCAs sometimes try to hold petitions and group stake-outs.

[Grace]

The county where I live has a law against the sale of pets in stores. It's been in place for a very long time.

[Alysser]

Yeah, there are several. One in the mall, one called Pet Asylum right down the road, this is the most disgusting one. Let's just say you walk in and the smell alone makes you want to vomit. They also sell kittens, hedgehogs, rats, snakes, MACAWS, and possibly every animal they can cramp into such a small place. It's a horrible place and I refuse to buy even pet products I need in there. Also, there is Pet Paradise not too far away but I don't really go in there much. There used to be a REALLY bad one down the road, and around X-mas it would say "PUPPIES Make great gifts!" and stuff like "Christmas Sale!!" Thank goodness it closed a long time ago!

[Flatcoatluver]

The only thing I can think of is our local feed stores will sometimes sell mixed breed or golden pups. They don't get them from puppy mills, just from irresponsible owners. Our actual pet stores around here are to educated to sell puppies.

[moosmom]

Yup. And they're under investigation for selling sick (Parvo), under age puppies. I believe it's called The Dog House.

[anna_66]

Yep, just a few miles from me is a Petland.

[Pam]

Yes, one opened up about 10 minutes from me but I forget the name of it. I had seen the ad in the newspaper and was intrigued because it said "we only sell dogs from local breeders." Being less than two hours from Lancaster, PA I thought I wonder what they consider local? My daughter and I went in just to check them out. (Neither of us have any plans to get a puppy so don't read anything into that! ) There were maybe 20 wooden bins, or stalls, with hay inside and maybe a dozen breeds available. I checked out the info on the front of the stalls and most of them came from breeders in Ephrata, PA, which is the HEART of puppy mill land. As you looked at those little faces (I fell hard for a little pug boy) it was impossible not to think of the squallor that their parents were most likely living in.

As I was leaving the store the man said "did you see anything that you liked?" I said "Yes, the little pug" and I continued toward the door. He then said, "He won't last long. Oh by the way, were you the one who phoned today about him?" Of course the was baiting me and I wanted to tell him that I realized exactly what he was doing but decided to leave with my mouth closed but it was hard!

[Spiritwind]

Yes.. there are 2 stores that sell puppies in my small town... they are both horrible places... with the puppies kept in small, wire, rabbit cage looking cages.... with puppies that are obviously not well taken care of and sick..

Then in Greensboro, about 35-45 minutes north of me there are also 2.... "Friendly Pets" and Puppies to Guppies"...

Friendly pets is the better of the two, meaning the dogs are atleast clean and they do let them out to play, but still they are kept on wire floored cages with glass fronts kinda like petland does...

Puppies to guppies is horrible, and the dogs are SICK and nothing close to healthy and sold for over $1000 or more... the only reason I know this, is they brought in their puppies to the vet clinic I used to work at.... I can't even recall how many times they brought in sick puppies for treatment that didn't make it... or sold puppies to clients, who brought them into us sick and half dead not 2 wks after they got them from the pet store... we consitantly got sick "puppies to guppies" puppies, coming in ALL the time..

[Taz_Zoee]

There aren't any in my town or the neighboring towns. But there is (or was) a place about 30-45 mintues from us that did. It was after DJ died and before we got Zoee that we were out in Brentwood (not in LA) to get our hair done and we stopped in a small shop in the center where our hairdresser was. They had about 5 or 6 puppies. Two of them were little Cocker Spaniels like DJ. We looked at them, but they were very expensive. Remember, this is in my pre PT days, so I didn't know any better. I just asked Bruce and he thinks that place is no longer there. Thank goodness for that!! I'll have to check next time I go out that way.

[molucass]

Yes, there are several, unfortunately. One is right in one of the malls!

When we were living in Knoxville TN, there was 2 different malls there, and they both had pet stores at the malls. They were called "Pass Pets".. Both of the stores were horribly disgusting. The puppies never looked healthy, and their cages always had poop in them.. One time we went there, and there was a dead baby ferret in the cages.

[Giselle]

Oh goodness, Cindy, if there is a puppy selling pet store out near you I'd be more than happy to gather up an army and petition or stake out in front of them!! Do you remember the name of the place?

If there is one thing I CAN NOT tolerate, it is puppy mills and pet store puppies. I really hope the education gets around and everybody boycotts these stores...

[Catty1]

I think if you go to the Best Friends website, they have a plan to get puppy mills closed...there might be something there to get on board with.

Writing to city hall, your government reps might help - how about your member of Congress? There IS an election soon!

[krazyaboutkatz]

Since I've lived in CA, I've never seen any pet stores that sell puppies. Petsmart, Pet Club, Petco and a few other smaller independent pet stores have cats/kittens, and sometimes dogs for adoption through rescue groups. There are plenty of backyard breeders though. I see many ads about purebred dogs in the newspaper or in the Pennysaver which is a free flyer that I receive every week.

When I lived in S.C., there were pet stores in the mall that sold puppies and kittens. I used to love to go there and look at them. This was before I knew anything about puppymills. A friend of my mom's ending up buying a purebred cat at one of these stores and the cat had ringworm and a few other things wrong with it. She also paid several hundred dollars for it and this was back on 70's.

[MuttMomXOXO]

I live in NJ and there are still several pet stores that sell puppies here. Granted many have gone out of business, I can think of at least 10 that are still in business in my area. Many of them are strictly puppy stores selling more mixed breeds than anything else. It's so sad.

[pitc9]

Yes,

There is a Petland near my work that sells puppies and there is also a Petsupplies Plus that sells birds, ferrets, rabbits and small reptiles.