Stopped by the pet store today...

[binka_nugget]

I went to the mall today and decided to go look at the pups. I saw the sweetest little thing...here's it's pic



It just angers me that for that little soul...many more are suffering...ugh. I tried to drive away as many customers as I could. I hope it worked.

Can you see that thing it's standing on? That's the only thing in it's TINY cage that isn't wire..it's a friggin cutting board! I'd love to report them and close them down but I don't think they're doing anything illegal...or at least, that I can see. They treat their pups nicely in front of us..they have food available..they don't look very unhealthy...but any animal lover knows that this should be just as illegal as anything else...UGh..poor thing

[tikeyas_mom]

omg he has a water bottle to drink from, I have never seen that done befor .... ... is he a hamster/dog??

[binka_nugget]

with a darn small cage like that, he might as well be a hamster.

[primabella]

Poor sweetie. I don't know I wuld rather you didn't drive away customers so one of them could *hopefully* save this poor baby. Anything illegal? How about his comfort? The poor thing has to do everything on that damn cutting board!

[KYS]

Good for you Binka,
Maybe that will be one less person buying
from a petshop. It's not that pet shops our
bad places, it's just usually they purchase
their dogs from puppy mills.
I know it's hard to pass up that cute little sad puppy,
but by purchasing, you are helping those horrible puppy mills,
to stay in business.

Binka, you can complain to the manager that
you do not approve of them selling puppies, and
the least they can do is get bigger cages.
Maybe your friends can do the same.

Their is a pet shop in the mall,
that use the water bottles too.
The water bottles keep the water cleaner plus
do not tip over.

[gotta_hava_dog]

Poor little guy. I wonder if telling those shops that PetSmart does not sell animals, but offers space to shelters for their animals to be adopted and that PetSmart is a huge chain and very successful, if that would help. Maybe they would see there is more profit in selling accessories than in selling animals, and there is certainly more good will involved. The public would look on them more kindly and probably buy stuff from them instead of their competitors because they don't sell animals. Our local pet store will not sell animals and, on a more limited basis because it's small, offers space for shelter animals to be shown and made available for adoption. If these stores could see that selling animals is driving away customers, maybe they'd change.

[primabella]

Karen, I didn't think of it that way. Poor guy, no one will buy him and he'll end up being shipped off to a kill shelter or something. In any case, the whole idea of him being their, suffering...

[KYS]

primabella: Karen, I didn't think of it that way. Poor guy, no one will buy him and he'll end up being shipped off to a kill shelter or something. >>>>>>

I know, how you feel. Even I look at the puppies in
our local petshop and my heart breaks. It's a vicious
cycle that needs to be broken.

I might be wrong, but if the poor little puppy doesn't sell.
The pet shop will slash it's price till he or she finds a
home. Than if the pet shop doesn't make a profit
they might change their minds about future puppies.

P.S.
Hows my little Mickey boy.
Sending him some hugs.

[Amber]

Binka it was very good of you do try to drive costomers away..
If someone got this dog, it would leave a empty cage for another soul to suffer. poor baby
Katie sends all her love <3

[primabella]

That's very true. Hopefully it all works out for the best.

Mickey is doing fine. Thanks! He sends some kisses back.

[Aspen and Misty]

I hate pet stores that sells puppies.


Ok, at our petstore I'm a extellent friends with the assisatant manager, Shella. We have done things outside of the pet store, throwing patries when she adopterd her newest addition her BC (i forget the name ) She would tell me HORRIBLE stories about how some of the dogs there were dieing because no one would take them to the vet I felt so bad for her, but she didn't want to leave. Why? Cause she would, after hours take the sick dogs to the vet and use HER money to treat them. The Owner didn't care as long as HE didn't have to pay. Now this might sound mean or w/e but thankfully the old owner died and a new owner took over. This guy is super duper nice. They only buy there dogs from places that breed there dogs at the MOST once a year and only are breeding 3 types of dogs (ex. Shelties, Labs and Goldens) There puppies go to the vets when they need vet care, I know cause I was giveing medicine to a little Dachuhound the other day at the store (ok, I pratically work there, I help customers and I take care of some of the animals) I've gotten in good with this owner cause I work there for free and he doesn't have to pay me a dime. he likes what I do. So, what changed this managers mind to run his pet store diffrently then the first? LOL me and Shella. Now would we do anything like that we put a puppy in his arms and explained to him where the puppy came from and how horrible it was, by the end of it he was almost in tears. He told us he wouldn't buy from another bredder in PA (as we are the worst state) and never accept another pupy who was just dropped off by the Amoish.

You guys were saying how horrible it is for the puppies and stuff in the pet store. I agree. Now our pet store lets the puppies out for 2 hours a day (i know not alot but it's a start) one hour in the morning while openeing up and one hour at night. At least they get out. I know this may not be the best situation for these dogs and the places they came from probly were NOT quility breeders.

Ok, so now I'm sure you all are wondering what me and Shella are doing, are doing now? We are working towards getting dogs from the SPCA behind that glass and not puppy mills dogs. Of course it would be run like PETCO's adoption day (or is it Petsmart?). People from our SPCA would bring the dogs in a hang out at the store for a couple of hours wiht the dogs every saturday or sunday or something. The owner is thinking about it because of what he now knows abotu puppie mills and since he is having a hard time selling the puppies and full grown labs do NOT fit in those cages.

I guess the moral of this story is, work hard and you'll make a diffrence. yes you may tell some customers not to buy the dogs, I've done that to. But try make friends with the employees, I walk in our pet store and everyone says hi to me and yells at me cause I didn't bring Nova (lol). I feel like I've at least made a small change in our petstore and am still making changes. Sometimes you can do good behind the scenes. I know, I know most of you are probly going ot think our pet store is still horrible, no it's not the best and no it's not a Petco or Petsmart, but me and Shella are trying really hard to help them be a better place. I'm not saying you have to work at one, I don't. You could always drop of some papers on puppy mills or even ask to speak to the manager and ask where there puppies come from or even don't buy things from the pet store, Boycott them. Or get the word out. At the moment I'm in the process of making a teshirt that says Adopt your next best friend on he front and then Lycoming county Spca and here phone number on the back. Now I don'tk now what you would want to do, try making flyers and putting them in peoples mail boxes about puppy mills and pet store. Really it's up to you to try and help them cause with out us animal lovers they have no one.

Ash

[binka_nugget]

I'm glad you're involved with the petstore Ash. The thing is, it's so hard to get the spca involved around here. There've been stories on the news and on sites about how our spca went to puppy mills and obviously saw enough to decide to take all the dogs in and help them but they never did. They didn't have clean water, barely any food, malnourished, filthy yet they still didn't close them. Ughhhh

Here's my plan/goal..
I really want to become a dog trainer. After I'm all settled and when I'm taking in enough money, I'm going to try running a little independant rescue. If I can help one dog, that's good enough for me. Since I'll be (hopefully) running a centre with doggie daycare in the morning and obedience classes at the evenings, I can take the dogs with me to work. And I'll have little things that the adoptable dogs wear that say "adopt me". Lol.. So then they have exposure when other dog lovers come by...and they don't have to stay in a kennel or at a home all by themselves. They'll be with me and other dogs. Another great thing I'd like to do is include a set of obedience free when they rescue a dog.

[Aspen and Misty]

Thats so neat Ash!

I also hope that in the near future I will be able to own a shelter. And infact thats what I want to do with my life is own a shelter. I also love ot train dogs but I never thought about doing it for living!

I hope to own a Doggie Day care type thing where people bring there dogs and we do a bunch of fun activities with them all day long.

I am very exited that you want to own a shelter! And think you've changed 2 lives, the dogs and the new owners!


Ash

[Uabassoon]

Poor guy, no one will buy him and he'll end up being shipped off to a kill shelter or something. In any case, the whole idea of him being their, suffering...

I wuld rather you didn't drive away customers so one of them could *hopefully* save this poor baby

Prima while I know you have the best intentions, you may want to reread some of the puppy mill thread. For everydog that gets sold that means room for one more dog from a puppy mill. If no one bought dogs from pet stores (which buy from puppy mills) then the puppy mills would have to shut down. While yes, it's hard to look at these cute petstore dogs and not take them home or want someone to adopt them, it's better to leave them there. While I know that if everyone just stopped buying these dogs the dogs already in the pet store might end up dying, but that would mean saving so many more dogs. Dogs that will be born in puppymills, female dogs that are forced to breed every heat cycle and live their entire life in a tiny cage. Dogs that get killed because they can no longer produce or they aren't producing large enough litters. Dogs that spend their entire life never seeing sunlight, never getting pet, never knowing love, never going for a walk. So the next time you see that cute doggie at the petstore please know that when somebody buys him all of these things I listed are being supported.

Great job Binka

[wolf_Q]

Originally posted by tikeyas_mom
omg he has a water bottle to drink from, I have never seen that done befor .... ... is he a hamster/dog??

The dogs drink from water bottles at my work. I also attach a water bottle to Nebo's kennel at night. He *loves* drinking from the water bottle. They do make them for dogs.

That poor pup looks so sad though....pet store dogs always look sad... The last pet store I went to that had dogs had a 1 year old long haired chihuahua. She was in a cage like the size of a fish tank. No toys or anything. And they wanted like $550 for her.