Petland Uses Puppy Mills
Jane Weaver of MSNBC writes:
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.
While puppy mills aren't illegal, they're also not places where dogs are treated as anything more than merchandise—and the Humane Society says that the 21 Petland stores they investigated mislead buyers on where the dogs actually come from.
From Weaver's article:
"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."
Among the poor conditions cited, investigators found puppies in commercial breeders "living in filthy cages reeking of urine, with inadequate care and socialization," according to the release. The Humane Society says dogs at the mills were found in cages with wire flooring so large that the puppies' paws and even the paws of the mother dogs would fall through.
Petland did not return calls to Weaver about the allegations, but she notes that their website seemingly absolves them from corporate responsibility by stating that each store is independently owned and individually "responsible for choosing healthy pets offered to Petland customers."
While that may be true, there's no reason for Petland to offer such an unrestricted, hands-off policy to its franchisees. By way of example, this week Subway asked one of its franchisees to rescind a corporate-branded donation to California's anti-gay "Yes on 8" campaign, citing that their agreement prohibits using "the Trademark in a manner that degrades, diminishes, or detracts from the goodwill of the business associated with the Trademark."
So, uh, how come you don't protect your brand like that, Petland?
"Investigation ties pet chain to puppy mills" [MSNBC]
(Photo: Getty Images)
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Comments:
Not surprising. Petland stores are DISGUSTING. If the store itself is presented that poorly to customers, imagine what we don't see.
@Yankees368: OOPS! Turned out the story was about a different petland. I was referring to Petland Discounts in the NYC area.
While this is pretty much exactly what you always knew and expected about Petland, it's nice (in a horrible way) to have it confirmed.
Petland responds to the report here:
[www.petland.com]
But it's really not an adequate response to the allegations as much as a teardown of HSUS based on the corporate funded consumerfreedom.com.
I don't think they get it.
I liked that when I worked at Petsmart we did not sell dogs, cats, or feeder mice.
@djanes1: That's true. All the Petsmarts I ever went to brought in dogs and cats on weekends for adoption from the humane societies.
Why would anyone buy a dog, don't you just go down to the pound a pick one out?
@djanes1:
Petsmart absolutely sells feeder mice. And feeder finches, and feeder rats, and feeder whatever other small animals one wants to buy there, and then feed to their snakes. My green tree python eats a delicious Petsmart zebra finch once every week or so. My ball python eats a delicious petsmart mouse or two every week. The whole "These are not for feeding your animals"! thing lecture they give every time I go in there certainly doesn't stop me from buying them. Nor does it stop them from selling them to me every 7 days, despite them knowing exactly what I do with them.
And even if you're hellbent on getting a purebred dog, there are "rescue" organizations out there for pretty much every breed that would be more than happy to match you up with a dog. The same goes for cats. There is absolutely no reason why a shelter shouldn't be your first stop when picking out a pet.
Though I agree that Humane Societies and Rescues are the way to go, Humane societies are far from free. So you are still buying a pet, just for less then at a pet store or a breeder. I really dont know what or if rescues charge for adoption so that might be an alternative.
@MightyDwarf56: You aren't buying the pet, you're paying for the board the animal was given, the shots, the spay/neuter, and for them to keep those abandoned animals in a shelter and not let them die. Not letting them go for free keep the shelters operational. Those animals were put there because people couldn't (or wouldn't) care for them and adoption gives them another chance at life.
You could argue breeders are doing just that, but it's not the same at all.
@Ratty: Remember, theres also a ton of breeders who aren't uppity or are trying to make an obscene profit on every dog, seek them out, they actually care about the hobby and the breed. Breeding for profit and a living (as many, many, many breeders try to) is appalling considering most people are just trying to find a friend, not a champion. Pet stores do well because they offer a product at the right price with no questions but "you wanted a puppy". Some breeders interview every person and ask for so much money people decide its far easier to go to the pet store or the mini-mills. Fix how people look for pets by making it easier to do the right thing, not by admonishing them.
@MightyDwarf56: Rescues do charge for adoption, at least all the rescues I've known. The adoption fee covers things like veterinary care, shelter fees (some rescues pull from kill shelters and that still costs), boarding, spaying/neutering, etc.
@Ratty: It is not just puppies that are obtained through nefarious sources. Pet stores are to buy food and supplies only. No dog, cat, reptile, or bird should ever be bought from a pet store. Fish maybe, but I still would stick to a specialty store dealing only with fish.
@MightyDwarf56: Humane societies generally have a fee that does not cover the cost of vaccination, screening, health check, neuter/spay, etc. The fees along with donations provide facilities and personnel to intake any animal, no questions asked. Rescues and no-kill shelters do not generally have such a mandate, and intake based on criteria rather than have to kill animals themselves.
@ThickSkinned: Oh, i know. All of my pets have been adopted from shelters or taken from craigslist from people who just can't handle it anymore.
ALL pet "stock" from pet stores come from puppy mills (or ferret mills, or hamster mills...), backyard breeders, and purchasing them supports these terrible practices. it isn't rescue--it's putting money into their hands and showing them there's a demand for selling more of this stuff.
And I hope more people realize this and consider shelters, rescues, and other adoption methods. They are picky enough to make sure the pets are cared for!
If you're buying from a pet store, chances are that cute little pup originated in a puppy mill somewhere and has the health problems and genetic defects to prove it. Please, please, please, people - go to your local shelter first, or if you must have a purebred find a reputable breeder. Save yourself the heartache of a puppy mill puppy and help shut the miserable business down.
You complain about this, but what happens when they can't sell a dog? I would assume they put them down after a certain age so they are always selling puppies.
@djanes1: What about goldfish, guppies, and minnows? You know they are mostly used as feeder fish, don't you?
How about crickets? Did you have a problem selling customers crickets? I really hope you didn't think the crickets were being taken home as pets. Or does your compassion only apply to the cute, fuzzy creatures?
And what is your problem with feeder mice? What if I have a lizard or snake that needs feeder mice to survive? I have had several snakes in my lifetime and none of them would eat non-live food. The natural progression is pinky mice, feeder mice, rats, rabbits, and finally small children. Ok, I never got a snake to eat small children, but not for lack of trying. I had to get rid of two snakes because it was too difficult to find rabbits. If stores like Petsmart sold feeder animals I could still have my two reticulated pythons, Milo and Otis, whom I cared about very much.
Way to bring a irrelevant biased view of prop 8 into the story!
We got lucky, we wanted a Standard Poodle and happened to notice one in a puppy store. We assumed that it was a mutt from a mill, but were surprised that they had AKC papers for the dog, including breeder info and lineage.
The sad part was that the dog had caught kennel cough at the store before we bought it; fortunately we negotiated with the store owner and got complete medical coverage until a licensed vet declared the kennel cough cured.
In the end, our story turned out great. We got an AKC purebred Standard for around a grand, the puppy store owner spent easily $600 on vet bills in the first three months, and now he (the dog that is) is perfectly healthy and happy in our home.
But we were very, very lucky. This sort of thing almost never happens in a pet store, and we would probably never try going that route ever again. The pet store owner was a complete sleazebag.
No, no, no. They've got it all wrong. You don't use the store puppy mill; that releases their canine flavoniods too early and you end up with stale puppies by the time you get them home.
To ensure puppy freshness, keep them whole til you get home and then use your own puppy mill just before serving.
@humphrmi: AKC papers do not mean the puppy was bred from a good breeder or that it has a quality genetic line. AKC papers don't really mean anything. Most puppies in a pet store for sale will advertise they are AKC registered.
AKC is no guarantee against an awful backyard breeder.
@Ratty: the akc makes all of its money on factory breeders, selling "wholesale" registrations for $25 each. no good breeder sells dogs through pet stores. you've got a puppy mill dog.
I belong to a rescue organization specializing in Bichon's. We have been innundated by breeder rescues this year as when the economy sours, breeders think nothing about taking surplus dogs out and shooting them. Fortunately, our group has been able to get many of these dogs.
Still, the costs of bringing these dogs (particularly the breeding females) back from the brink is something horrible. Dogs come out with splayed feet from walking on wire floors their entire life, they are not socialized, and health ailments are just ignored.
Not to lob rocks at anyone who unknowingly buys from a pet store. We bought our first dog that way years ago, and it was only later we discovered what really went on. Far better to buy from a reputable breeder directly or from a family breeder where the dogs are kept in home and infrequently mated. These dogs are far better socialized, adapt better to homes, and are less prone to accidents.
If you're interested, here is a link to Small Paws Rescue (the Bichon group we work with) that talks about breeders and has information on what they've seen through the years.
photo is for a different petland (petland discounts--local NY metro chain)
I tend to believe HSUS and support them with my wallet.
I used to work at a Petland store about ten years ago. A big concern should be also (besides the puppy mills, which is true) that they don't really train the employees or "kennel technicians" who work with the pets. Also the cage space for the dogs is not enough. I was actually let go from Petland for walking a dog - a 40lb chow who needed a real outdoor walk!
That's the dilemma with pet stores. Your heart goes out to the poor animals, and you want to take one home so it won't suffer in a store any longer. But by buying the animal, you're allowing the pet store to stay in business (and, in a way, telling the pet store owner that what they're doing is OK). In the long run, unfortunately for the animals in the pet stores, you're still best off going to a shelter or breeder.
(I can't stand to walk by pet stores in malls, it makes me want to cry.)
@humphrmi: You wanted a "Standard Poodle"???
I realize I'm not the bar when it comes to common (and I use that word loosely) sensibility, but isn't wanting a specific breed of dog akin someone saying "I'd really like a white/brown/black/yellow friend and ONLY that kind of friend"?
I find it appalling you had predetermined the breed of animal you wanted and went out of your way to "verify" how inbred it was.
I find that evil. You perpetuated the practice of breeding for profit when there are perfectly healthy animals that need a home lest be destroyed. You can see how those 2 are orthogonal.
Good luck with your puppy. Hopefully you treat him/her well.
Duh.
Anyone who has ever been to a Petland will tell you that product come first and live things, well they're somewhere around here,..
@laserjobs: Yeah, I've never understood that. A friend paid several hundred dollars for a purebred husky puppy, and while she is adorable, I didn't understand why he didn't just adopt a puppy or young dog instead.
Honestly, I'm shocked that this would really surprise anyone in this day and age. What good breeder would EVER send such little puppies away from their mamas to live in a cage and be sold to the first person to walk in with enough money in their pocket?
Unfortunately, if you have a particular type of dog in mind, waiting for that type of dog to show up in rescue or for a reputable breeder to have a litter takes time ... and people nowadays just don't have any sense of delayed gratification. They'd rather head down to Petland and buy a puppy NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW than get on a waiting list.
Ironically, most pet stores actually charge as much or MORE than reputable breeders do. I've even seen some online stories selling very obviously poorly-bred Maltese puppies for as much as you would pay for a finished champion! But people like to think "you get what you pay for," I guess ... sadly, in this case, what you pay for is generally a lifetime of behavior issues caused by poor socialization, and health problems caused by indiscriminate breeding.
Now I hope they go after Happiness is Pets. It turns my stomach every time I see their giant "PUPPIES!!!" sign.
@ThickSkinned: Well, fish and crickets are a little different than mammals. I wouldn't have really cared if we sold feeder mice, but I appreciated the thought. It did seem silly to pay 2$ more for a mouse bred to be a pet than for feeder mice from another store in town. I'm not really buying your sob story -- if you live somewhere rural where the only pet store is a Petsmart you could have bred your own rabbits or found someone who did. They breed like, well, rabbits you know. Pretty much every store other than Petsmart sells feeder animals. I know this may be difficult, but if you can manage not bragging about how many small children your python can consume Petsmart will sell you them too. Either way these are logistics that can easily be considered before purchasing a pet; would you be just as surprised that a child outgrows a crib and needs a bed?
@Ratty: As far as I know, no Petsmarts sell cats or dogs. Our local store has cats all the time and dogs on the weekends from our local Humane Society. Petsmart coming here and opening is just about the best thing that's happened to our Humane Society, in terms of their support for them and especially in the number of animals adopted (and saved from euthanasia).
I had a friend who worked at a Petland here 5 or 6 years ago and she quit for this very reason.
You seemed not to mention that this is not the same Petland that can be found in the tri-state area which I don't think sells dogs.
I applaud Consumerist for covering issues that concern the treatment of animals. A lot of people unknowingly purchase dogs from puppy mills posed as a reputable store. Many times, due to the conditions the animal is bred in, dogs from puppy mill can experience terrible health problems for the rest of their lives. Save a life and some cash buy getting your puppy from the local animal shelter. Also, if you are looking for a specific breed, there are a lot of pet rescue centers that specialize in certain breeds looking for loving homes to place their animals in.
@TVGenius: The local PetSmart and petco both do adoptions on fridays and saturdays respectively, and it's great for the local shelter. The PetSmart even brings in local breed rescues in addition to the regular Humane Society showings. I like getting my supplies when they're in!
However, there are plenty of other chains or smaller places like petland that do buy and sell puppies and kittens in their stores. I saw it all the time in Canada. And the petcos and petsmarts around here also sell a lot of live other animals--mice, reptiles, birds, etc.. they've become better over the years but that kind of animal milling (or with reptiles, capturing) needs to stop as well.
@MightyDwarf56: This is true but oftentimes the shelter fees will cover the animals shots and spaying/neutering. Also, the cost of buying a purebred animals is often many times higher than the adoptions fees charged by a shelter. I even know of a shelter close to me that offers free spaying/neutering clinics once a year.
@Ratty: Agreed! The only difficult thing about adopting a pet from the shelter is deciding which one to take. If I had lots of cash I would love to go into a shelter and say I will take em all.
@ryatziv: I enjoyed that little snippet. I am not gay but I could care less if 2 consenting adults wish to get married. Proposition 8 was nothing more than a way to legally discriminate against a minority. If a church chooses not to marry certain people, that's their choice. Its just sad to see our government telling us who we can and can't marry now.
@Mr_Human: They are just expressing the fact the HSUS has no credibility. They are ultra extreme and no rational person cares what HSUS says.
Well - I doubt this will change many opinions, especially when I don't have the time to properly register to comment on this story (I'm supposed to be writing an essay right now!)
I myself work at a Canadian Petland store, and while I obviously cannot comment on other stores I have not personally seen - I know that our own store does NOT deal with puppy mills. I wouldn't work there if we did. I know in the canadian stores we offer a year of health insurance with the purchase of a puppy (3 months with the purchase of a kitten), would we really be insuring animals who (if from puppy mills) would have a predisposition to bad health?
Also, our store has its own vet who closely monitors the health of our animals.
What I am trying to get at is don't judge an entire chain based on a few bad apples. The article itself says that each store is run by a franchisee that is responcible for getting the puppies. Our own breeders are those who enjoy the act of breeding dogs, maybe looking for an extra stream of income (who can blame them here), but do NOT want to deal with the public - so they go to us.
I would not be working there if I wasnt totally confident in the health and happiness of all of our animals, and I hope that whichever store does follow such horrific policies has the book thrown at them...hard and repeatedly.
I'll be watching this thread and I'll try to answer any questions people pose - but obviously I cannot say too much...corporations usually don't take kindly to workers taking place of the media representitives.
@Mr_Human: HSUS uses the "Humane Society" wording to make people believe they're associated with your local animal shelter. They're really a radical animal rights organization whose objectives are to destroy the meat and dairy industries.
I couldn't care less about the HSUS. They are dishonest and not driven by a desire to help. HSUS is scum. HSUS has tried to limit the choices of American consumers, opposing dog breeding, captive reptile breeding, conventional livestock and poultry farming, rodeos, circuses, horse racing, marine aquariums, and hunting.
HSUS and PETA share the same goals. No meat. No dairy. No animal agriculture. Period.
HSUS even has connections to ALF, the Animal Liberation Front. ALF is widely known for its firebombs and arson attacks against innocent people.
Don't abandon the local Humane Society animal shelters in your own community - they're still doing their commendable work as always. Humane Society shelters are not connected to the Humane Society of the United States and they receive no funding from the HSUS.
@jwissick: Also there are much better organizations to support out there like www.veganoutreach.org that seem to be more careful with their spending compared to organizations like HSUS in my opinion.
Pretty much every pet store uses puppy mills. Reputable breeders do not sell to pet stores.
Please adopt, or look into responsible breeders in your area.