Angry in Ohio

I occasionally go into Petland to see if there is anything to report to our local humane society and/or rescue groups.

They had a cav that has been there for over 2 months! he was soooo hyper and biting the other dog he was with. I asked to see him (to investigate) and he was priced to sell at $495???? this poor dog. I dislike that place so much and so many people purchase from them?

I looked at his papers and it was interesting that he as AC registered and
all his relatives were "foreign" not one was from the States????

Thought this was interesting.

That's good of you to check on him. Poor things. it must be very upsetting to see that :hug:

There are lots of people just waiting to "catch" them to shut them down!

I know what you mean -- I did a little sigh of relief when the Petland in our town closed down a couple of months ago.

I was in the only other pet store in town that still carries puppies the other day. As I've posted before, I'm never quite sure what to think of this place. It's a local store and the owner seems very nice. She often has rescue puppies and kittens in the store, but she also has a few purebred dogs for sale there most of the time. For the first time ever, she had a Cavalier puppy (actually 2) in there last Sunday! He was a tiny little guy who was entirely black and white (he looked just like a tri, but with no tan points). The sign said his mother was 9 pounds and his father was 13 pounds! Then, even weirder, downstairs they had his litter mate, and he was huge! They were about 3 1/2 months old. They were only $395.

I finally asked her about where she gets her dogs. She said she buys them from a kennel in Alabama, and never from brokers. She said the lady drives them up herself from Alabama to TN, and if there is a problem with a puppy, she drives back up and gets them. She said she only raises Japanese Chins and Cavaliers. The owner admited she has never been to the lady's place, but she's seen pictures and she's checked with the county where the kennel is registered and there's never been a complaint against her. I've looked online under the name she gave me, but I couldn't find anything. Clearly, it's not likely to be a good breeder, but hopefully it isn't a horrible place for the doggy parents.

I went into Petland once. Big mistake - I worried endlessly about a Cavalier pup with an umbilical hernia and an apparent URI. *sigh* I at least learned my lesson to never go back in, since I can't handle it! Thanks for checking up on them though. I too would be thrilled to see them shut down.

I would of bought her and given to the cav rescue or local re homing.I would of found it hard to walk away.

It is really sad that a pet store would be advertising a grossly undersized parent as a good thing! A 9 pound cavalier is seriously undersized and should never be bred from. I think the nice pet store lady is being duped by the breeder. No way those two would be litter mates unless one was a sickly runt. I'd say they come from a puppy mill/large scale BYB. Lots and lots of puppy farmers set up websites that make it look like they just have two -- sometimes three-- breeds. But google their name or address and you start to find loads of additional websites, all with two or three other breeds. Millers and BYBs can be very adept at disguising their activity. I checked out a site like this -- they had supposedly just home raised cavaliers and yorkies or something like that -- and found 19 other breeds of all sizes spread around other websites.

The reason the other pet store dog had foreign parents is that backyard breeders and puppy mills import the parent dogs with dual registration -- this enables them to get AKC registration on the puppies and their little puppy factory is all set up to go. Always be very cautious when people advertise the fact that the parents are foreign 'champion line' dogs -- especially Irish, Eastern European or UK. Chances are they are puppy millers/large scale BYBs with poor quality imported dogs.

Totally distressing, but they just opened a Petland in Dallas. I was in the area the other day and it took every ounce of self control I could muster up to not go in there. I knew that if I did I would not be able to leave any of those poor puppies behind.

We are planning a major campaign to get this store shut down so if you live in the Dallas area and would like to join our cause, PM me and I can fill you in.

We are teaming up with a group who successfully got the last Petland that opened in the area to close within 6 months of opening. I have high hopes!

My own Petland story about Odin-long

I have my own weird connection with a Petland. Our Vizsla, Odin, was originally at a Petland in Augusta, GA in 2003. At the time, we had Samantha, a 2 year old female, and Riley, (a 5 month old male vizsla who wound up getting hit by a car at a year old ) We were shocked to see this vizsla puppy in Petland! Not only could you not find vizslas, you just never found them somewhere like a pet shop! We jumped through hoops to get Sam and Riley, and wound up rescuing Sam thru a rescue in Kansas and flying her to Atlanta, and finding a reputable breeder for Riley, but had to drive from Georgia to Kansas to pick him up. Anyway, I digress. Petland had a $1,300 price tag on the pup in the pet shop. He was already 4 months old and in that tiny cage going nuts. We asked about the breeder and found out he was in Iowa... quite a ways from Georgia! We were too ignorant of the whole puppy mill problem at the time, so I understand how plain ignorance and an inability for your average person to picture something as awful as puppy mills actually existing fuel the pet shop business. People just have no idea!). We just knew vizsla breeders were supposed to be against pet shops, selling pups only to carefully screened homes, which was obviously not happening with this puppy! We could not afford to take him at his exorbitant price, plus we already had two vizslas so we had to leave him there.

About 8 months later, approx. a month after Riley was killed, we see an ad in the paper about a vizsla that was a year old needing to be rehomed because the owners were unable to keep him anymore (new baby, tiny apartment). We went to see him since my ex wanted another vizsla, and thought he might be the answer. Imagine our surprise to find Odin was the very same pet shop puppy we had seen all those months ago and worried about. This couple had bought him about 3 weeks after we saw him for $950.00. We wound up bringing him home, and I wound up with him in the divorce. Recently I googled his breeder and found that the AKC had suspended him for 5 years in 2001 for registering ineligible dogs or some such stuff. He was under that suspension when Odin was born, and so he is registered with some crap registry.

The main thing fueling the pet shop puppy business is buyers being naïve and unaware of the puppy mill business. Even after hearing about it, some people don’t grasp the horror of it until you show them photos. My mom just was shocked when that mill close to her home got shut down while I was visiting her this summer and there was so much detail about the magnitude of the rescue and horrid condition of those dogs in the news. Only after that did she truly “get it”. I wish more prime-time news shows would run short segments on the problem…short enough so people stay tuned, but long enough to show the problem and what we have to do to stop it.

I know what you mean about pet shop puppy buyers. The ones I know are incredibly sweet people who just happened to fall in love with a puppy and couldn't walk away. They probably never really thought about where the puppy might have come from.

A lady I know from church bought her chihuahua at Petland. She didn't tell me till after the fact, so I didn't say anything. But when the Petland closed, I did tell her I was very glad that it did, so that it was one less outlet for puppy mills.

She admitted that she was never given the registration for her dog, even after many, many visits and phone calls to Petland. The manager finally told her that she only paid $750 for her puppy (only!), which was half price, so she shouldn't complain about not getting her papers! Her puppy was getting "old" so she got a discount. Plus, her dog was very sick and she racked up $200 in vet bills the first weekend she brought her home. Very similar experience to two other ladies I know who bought a Cavalier and a Japanese Chin there.

What is so weird to me is that they pay top dollar for these puppies! If you weren't at all picky or concerned about your puppy's background and breeding, why would you be willing to pay top dollar?! I could see the temptation more if it was a real bargain, but not at the prices they charge. You could probably pay half as much from a halfways decent breeder.

It is sometimes hard to believe that most even modestly intelligent and informed adults nowadays have not heard about the puppy mill/petshop connection. I remember knowing about it when I worked in the mall in high school because there was a pet shop with puppies in the mall that I would walk by and get depressed. And that was in 1979! I also remember going to a movie in the mall and thinking about all those puppies in the store in the dark alone and being very sad for them.

I think denial sets in when you look at those adorable puppies. I know I keep thinking about that little tri-color (really bi-color) in the petstore....

Before I knew anything about dogs, I purchased my first Cavalier for $2500 from a pet store in an upscale shopping mall in Scottsdale. She was the sweetest thing but only 8 weeks old (red flag one). I had been a cat owner up to this point and didn't know the dangers of buying from a pet store.

Red flag two was that my husband bought me the puppy right before Christmas.

The puppy became ill a few days after coming home. She had bloody diarrhea and began throwing up green fluids. I took her to the hospital immediately and she was diagnosed with parvo. She stayed there several days struggling to stay alive and finally died.

After the grief subsided a bit I did some research into her pedigree. The dog was breed in Iowa (red flag three). I called the breeder thinking she'd want to know the puppy was infected with Parvo in case the siblings also had it. I learned the puppy had left it's mother at 6 weeks and was put on a Hunte Corporation truck and spent several days being trucked to Scottsdale. The breeder didn't really seem to care that one of her pups has passed away.

This is when I learned that my puppy was from a "puppy mill" and what that meant.

The vet suspected that the puppy contracted parvo in that horrific truck she was in with who knows how many other puppies.

Horrid story I know, there's actually alot more to the story that is just heartwrenching....but at least I did learn alot from this. When I was ready for another Cavalier, I went to a local dog show (Palm Springs Kennel Club show in Indio) and met several breeders who gave me help in how to choose a good breeder, and the questions I should ask. I took the program book and called or emailed every breeder that was recommended to me. Several didn't return my emails or calls, but a few did. I finally was able to meet Cream's breeder, and then DJ's, and now have two beautiful sweet, healthy Cavaliers whose parents and several generations have CERF testing, etc.

I still think about that first puppy. I've seen others make the mistake of buying a puppy from that store and my heart just goes out to them for the suffering they have no idea they are going to experience.

OMG -- that is so sad! Poor little puppy! And poor you, too. I can't imagine how terrible that must have been for all involved. The heartless people behind these businesses are just unbelievable.

I just hope that word is spreading among the public (I think it is), and abusing these poor dogs will someday stop being profitable. People like you who can tell others about your horrific experience have a great opportunity to spread the word. I never say too much to the people I know who bought their dogs at Petland. What's done is done, you know? Most people get immediately defensive if someone starts telling them what they did was stupid or wrong. (I know I do.) I don't want to be seen as preachy, so I literally have to grit my teeth to keep my mouth shut. I only talked to my friend about it because Petland was closing and it opened up the topic of conversation.

One of the ladies I know who bought her cavalier at Petland was very sheepish when I innocently asked her where she got her dog. She said "Well, I did exactly what you are not supposed to do..." But the other one had never owned a dog in her life, knew absolutely nothing about the breed (Japanese Chin), but she just stumbled into a pet store and fell in love. In our first conversation after she got her dog, I had to point out that there was actually information available about Japanese Chins online! She literally had no idea that people would be interested enough to have websites about a dog breed. And she has a Ph.D., so she's not stupid, but she was totally out of her element.

Anyway, I may have to stop by the pet store this weekend and see if that tiny Cavalier is still there. His alleged littermate actually looked more like a Springer spaniel! What to do? What to do?! That's always the problem -- do you rescue the one puppy knowing that it just makes it profitable and more attractive for the breeder and the store to stock more puppies?

One of the frustrating things about the puppy mill situation and pet shops is that education of the public is a never ending and ongoing thing due to the new generations that embark out on their own and decide to get a dog. If they haven't already been educated, then they keep the problem alive.
When I was growing up, we got our dog the old-fashioned way. The neighbor's cocker spaniel had a litter of pups sired by a neighborhood unknown. We got one when I was 11 years old. His name was Bandit, (and actually, our new Bandit is named after him). He was a great little dog, much loved, lived to be 13. There wasn't any internet, or trip to the pet store. Training was done in the back yard with a box of cheerios for treats (and it worked great!). I learned as I went. He was the only dog I had growing up since I had to BEG for him (my Dad isn't a dog person). There are plenty of people just like that who are not informed...then they decide they want a certain purebred, so they go looking in the paper, or the pet shop for a puppy. There will always be people you cannot reach. Until it is illegal, there will always be a market.

DOG STAR, I have been in the same Petland in your town. It was so depressing. I would actually slide next to people that were looking at the dogs behind the glass and say, "You realize they buy from puppy mills. Investigate before you buy." Once I was there and there was a small B/T in with two others that were very agressive and nipping. I told the young lady in there that that wasn't a good environment and it should be separated. She just looked at me and said, "Really?" When I got back home, I called and spoke to the manager. He seemed as unconcerned as she. Petland hires these college kids and they could care less. I just quit going it was so depressing. I liked their merchandise, but despised the fact that they were selling the dogs.

What to look for

We also have a new Petland. I have been in there and there are just so many pups. What kind of things should I look for as far as violations other than the obvious such as cleanliness, crowding, etc. The one thing that concerned me most was the age of some of the pups. The thought of them being in cages like that just broke my heart.

It's very tough to get anything done about petstores. I was part of an undercover sting of a petstore in a flea market. The conditions were horrid, the owner was disgusting and even more disgusting was the Vet behind the counter giving everyone their vaccinations. My Cavalier (mix) that I was buying had been there almost a year, and I got his price down to $100. I could see there was something wrong with his eyes, . I had the Vet look at it and he said they were fine, it was just the sawdust on the bottom of the cage that irritated him. Well he had erlichiosis (spelling is wrong) but it's a condition where eyelashes grow inward, Can you imagine that feeling 24/7? In addition , he also had bad patellas. As a result of our buying these dogs, there was an article in the news about them , and the prosecutor was supposed to indict them but I'm not sure he ever did. Their Vet care was donated and it ran thousands of dollars. We got out another dog at the time too, and they both required a long time to become adoptable. This place had sold puppies with parvo too we found out, yet nothing went forward. Conditions have to be ridiculously bad for anyone to shut these places down. All we can do is not line their pockets. If they had to keep reducing the price, then they will look at it as a loss and perhaps think twice about restocking. But so far, Petland seems to doing ok unfortunately.