It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the Petland chain of petstore sells puppies from puppy mills. Pretty much anyone who knows anything knows that the largest majority of puppies in petstores do come from puppy mills. Sure, owners and employees can say they come from USDA licenses breeders but unfortunately the two are not mutually exclusive.
Sadly, many puppy mills carry a USDA license, so sure, they may come from USDA licensed kennels but that doesn’t mean they are not puppy mills.
So it’s great that the HSUS came out with this report on their eight month investigation into the Petland chain of petstores. Their investigation involved 21 different stores in numerous states as well as breeders and brokers. Investigators also reviewed interstate import records of an additional 322 breeders, USDA reports and more than 17,000 individual puppies linked to Petland stores.
“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.”
America’s largest chain of puppy-selling pet stores, Petland Inc., is also the nation’s largest retail supporter of puppy mills. Our national, eight-month investigation shows that Petland stores in multiple states are marketing dogs from cruel puppy mills to unsuspecting dog buyers. The investigation into Petland stores in Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio and other states revealed that many of the puppies sold at these stores came from massive commercial breeders in Missouri and other states in the Midwest where hundreds of breeding dogs are packed into filthy, crowded cages.
Most of the puppies bred at puppy mills are eventually sold over the Internet or through pet stores, including many Petlands in the U.S. The unseen victims are the mother dogs who are forced to live their entire lives behind bars – without exercise, without socialization, without ever being part of a family or even seeing the outside of their cages.
The HSUS asks that you ‘take action’ and make it very easy for you to do so – Take Action!
After initially refraining from comment, Elizabeth Kunzelman, Petland’s director of marketing and communications said, “Reports such as those posted on the HSUS Website surface every year around the holiday season in conjunction with their annual fund-raising efforts. Unfortunately, we were not interviewed or consulted, nor were we a part of any of the editing process.”
“We get our puppies from USDA licensed facilities and hobby breeders as well, but we’ve established humane guidelines that we’ve developed in conjunction with the USDA. We do not and we never supported any substandard breeding facilities, never. The number one priority for all of us is the healthy living for the puppies in our care. It always has been. It always will be.”
You can read more details from HSUS’ press release HERE as well as watch a video.
Petland can deny, deny, deny all they want but these allegation are absolutely nothing new. Anyone who actually buys into their line of rhetoric is just closing their eyes to reality and the horrors of puppy mills.
So help to get the word out to anyone who actually still does not know about puppy mills and Petland! Share this, email it, let people know!!
Also take the time to read Interview with a Former Petland Employee – it is definitely enlightening!
Petland has been on the Consumer Affairs radar for a few years now. Go to: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/petland.htm and read the complaints.
Apparently there is a Florida store called Petland Wesley Chapel that has some complaints. After that, people have been putting in little *testimonials* about how great the store is. If you believe that have I got swamp gas for you.
@AIR – Andrea, people who are astute and 'in the know' are not at all surprised at this, it's taken for granted. It's everyone else that needs to see the reality.
It's easy enough to fake testimonials and hopefully people are smart enough to see through the BS because that's all it is.
I've got an interview with an employee of Petland that is very enlightening that I will have to post yet… very enlightening!
Oh for Pete sake!!Here we go again…The same ol tired attempt to direct attention away from reality..As if HSUS' only motivation is their fund-raising..That's the whole reason for this…Yea, Right!!.WTF!!The irony!!Trying to portray the HSUS as the greedy ones…I guess it's beyond some peoples ability to grasp that everything is not all about the green paper…That there are people who do not worship the green stuff, and actually care about animals being tortured more than their own financial gain…What a concept huh?The lifeless paper takes a backseat to a living,breathing,feeling creature for a change….Go ahead Petland…Lie and deny!!!Unfortunately for you guys…People are not nearly as stupid or soulless as you would like for them to be!!!
Puppy mills are one of the most disgusting,heartless,soulless ways to make a damn buck on this earth!!And anyone who has a toe in it, whether it be the POS millers themselves, or some big shot sitting in Petland's corporate office..OR,sadly, the consumer who would support such a sadistic form of greed….They are equally as guilty and have blood and suffering on their hands!!!I'm getting on a roll…better stop…That last espresso might have been a mistake..sorry for the rant…
amen kerry!
I wanna see that petland employee article. Hurry!
@AIR – Ok, ok, ok…
Thanks for the nudge, going in so many directions I can't keep track. Just published it, there's a link at the bottom of the story above.
@Kerry – **applause, applause**
Kerry, you always have a way of cutting through all the BS and getting right to the point. Don't apologize, you know how much I'd like to say some of what you do.
D.