Animal Planet Investigates PETLAND

[wolfy-hound]

Sorry. Pet store is a business.. not a shelter. They are entirely entitled to sell pets, including purebreds if they like.
Why not say the shelters should do their job of finding homes for all their animals.. and the pet stores can sell the purebred pups? Why do you automatically think "pounds" are all bad? The pound up the road from me has been pretty darned good at rehoming animals and keeping everything clean.

I'm not saying bad places don't exist. I'm saying stop relying on those labels to say "wrong" and "right".

It's not the pet stores fault that people buy/adopt pups or dogs and then give them up to shelters. It's not the breeder's fault that someone buys a dog then decides later they want a new one and they "dump" it into a local shelter. No matter how much you try to research the new owner, sometimes they fool you, or sometimes they plain change their mind, or the economy makes them need to give up their pet.

It's akin to saying that all big breeders of snakes are evil mills and they should only sell direct to buyers and never supply pet stores with well-bred snakes. There's rescues with thousands of snakes needing homes.

People who WANT a dog, snake, cat, kitten, etc can CHOOSE to adopt from a rescuer, pay for one from a shelter or pound, or buy from a breeder, or buy from a pet store. Those people are then responsible for their pet. They are supposed to care for it. I'm all for encouraging people to adopt homeless pets from the shelter, but I won't tell someone they are wrong for wanting to buy a purebred puppy. I WILL encourage them to make sure of where that puppy is from, whether it's checking out the breeder or checking to see where the store gets puppies from.

One tactic I see locally is that large breeders 'farm' out the puppies to people so that it appears that the person 'selling' the pups only breeds a couple litters. They send pups to the flea markets with a person.. again, so it looks like it's just a person with a couple dogs. That encourages folks to buy pups, and they will never know that the pups came from a large commercial operation, sometimes with very inhumane conditions.

The way to stop inhumane treatment of animals is use the existing laws to punish people who don't give humane care to their dogs. Don't worry about how many dogs, or whether they sell the dogs, or "adopt" the dogs, or keep them forever as a no-kill shelter. Worry instead about whether the dogs are being given proper shelter, food, water and vet care.

Labels like "pound", "shelter", "no-kill", "petstore", or "puppy mill" don't tell you whether the animals are cared for properly or not.

[catawhat75]

Entitled to sell pets, right and wrong... How about morality and ethics? Not that those two things matter much anymore.
Wolfy, would you support a mass BP breeder who kept them in horrendous conditions and ONLY cared about selling the babies and making money. I truly thought that with you working in a pet related field would be a bit more educated when it came to how stores like Petland operate.
Yes, it would be great if people were responsible enough to research before they buy that cute puppy in the window. But that's what those stores rely upon, the IMPULSE buy.

Nothing wrong at all with purebred animals, nothing wrong with responsible breeders- lots wrong with mass/mill breeders.

[wolfy-hound]

If you read what I wrote.. I said anyone who is neglecting the animals should be charged with neglect.. but I believe it's whether it's a small breeder or a large breeder.

If the big breeder of snakes is neglecting the snakes and keeping them inhumanely, I'm against it.

If any supplier of puppies(large or small) is not meeting the proper requirements for the dogs, they should be prosecuted. I'm against labeling places as "good" or "bad" strictly on that whole label of "large scale breeder" or "pound" or "no-kill" or "backyard breeder".

The repeated comments that "are you sure it wasn't a pound?" is a perfect example. All pounds are not bad, all large scale breeders are not bad, all small scale breeders are not bad. Trying to say that someone is abusing animals just because they fit a label is wrong.

Am I a python mill because I have 35 pythons? Am I bad because I sell the babies instead of adopting them out for free or nearly free? But pet stores are bad becuase they sell puppies, rather than adopting out puppies.

I have no doubt that some Petlands bought puppies out of horrible places for resale. I also know that not ALL Petlands bought puppies from horrible places, not all corporate pet stores buy from horrible places, and not all large scale breeders are horrible places.

I do happen to know how petstores operate. I also see a lot of labeling. People are quick to jump on the bandwagon of "outlaw puppy mills" but they don't think about the definitions of "puppy mill". Why should anyone NEED a legal label of "puppy mill" when they have laws regarding the care of dogs? Instead of passing a new law without properly defining what you're outlawing, why not ENFORCE the existing laws that state you MUST provide proper housing, food, water and vet care for the dogs you own?

[PurplePython]

Petland is pathetic in my area. All of the reptiles are treated like trash and the dogs are in 4 x 4 foot cages like they are items and not animals.

[Shyshoos]

Petland is pathetic in my area. All of the reptiles are treated like trash and the dogs are in 4 x 4 foot cages like they are items and not animals.

Hopefully they don't sit for too long in that window. I wouldn't think a cute puppy would. And hopefully they're coming from a good breeder.

[Shyshoos]

If any supplier of puppies(large or small) is not meeting the proper requirements for the dogs, they should be prosecuted. I'm against labeling places as "good" or "bad" strictly on that whole label of "large scale breeder" or "pound" or "no-kill" or "backyard breeder".

The repeated comments that "are you sure it wasn't a pound?" is a perfect example. All pounds are not bad, all large scale breeders are not bad, all small scale breeders are not bad. Trying to say that someone is abusing animals just because they fit a label is wrong.

Am I a python mill because I have 35 pythons? Am I bad because I sell the babies instead of adopting them out for free or nearly free? But pet stores are bad becuase they sell puppies, rather than adopting out puppies.

Okay, I CLEARLY described what best fits a "puppy mill" facility. Pretty much a down right filthy and unfit "living" environment. As much as anyone hates a label, it makes it very easy for people to have a stand on things. To say "I am against people who farm puppies in dirty homes and give them hardly any attention and veterinarian care" can easily be translated into "puppy mill".

As much as you hate a label being put on things, they will always exist because there will always be some terrible person who will breed animals in terrible conditions. So, society will continue to label these places as "puppy mills" because it's the most fitting title of the definition. Sadly some breeders are scrutinized for having a lot of animals who ARE well taken care of, and they are just idiots, so they should be dismissed.

Now a breeder who may house 35 dogs, snakes, cats, whatever, and is rightfully taking care of them all would be called a breeder. A reputable, good breeder.

And not all pounds are bad, just like I've said not all humane society offer what other humane society can. But it's common that pounds are not highly funded. They are generally where lost animals are taken and their isn't a lot of profit for them. In general, pounds are not what a shelter or humane society is. That's how they get those labels. Is a pound a bad place? No, not all of them are. But like I've said, I've lived all over the united states, and I've seen a lot of pet stores, shelters, pounds, and pounds are, from my experience, the least funded and thus I merely asked if it was a pound. I didn't slander the statement, I just asked.