Pet Store Puppy

It was $500 in my case.  And, I so hear you.  I was ignorant to the practice at the time; didn't even know what a mill was 15 years ago.  Now I know better.  I think that's the hardest part here.  Most people simply don't know what they are supporting when they purchase from the pet stores.  That's one side of it.

The other side is the poor puppy, the product.  These pups need a loving home too. 

I'll say it again...Codycoe was a member of my family.  I loved her, I miss her and I'm glad she spent her entire, healthy life with me. 

A purchase is a purchase and a rescue is a rescue. People who bring me flea infested, wormy puppies with kennel cough get told that, too. If you purchase a nasty puppy from a flea market because it broke your heart, it's no better than purchasing a Peekapoodlechitzu Terrier Hound because they're all the rage in Hollywood. It's a purchase of a dog from a horrible breeder, and it's supporting their breeding practices.

"Rescue" one pet store puppy with cash, and you have supported the creation of more puppies to be rescued aka sold for a handy profit.

Is it the fault of the puppy at the store? No. It is tragic for the pup. And it will be just as tragic for the future pups that will be bred because people pay good money for mill puppies.  Better save those too, because you (generic you) helped create the demand for more.  

Angelique

willowchow

I understand what everyone is saying but the dog is already here.  So, now on top of coming into this world in a terrible way it should not have a nice home?

I just, I have trouble with this issue I guess.

I'm right with you.

These puppies still deserve good homes and someone who'll love them.

Stop puppy-mills another way.

What other way???  As long as the pet store continues making sales, the mills will continue pumping out puppies...and they are banking on people who feel just the way you do to keep those sales happening.  Every time someone buys a pup, even if they think they are "saving" or "rescuing" it, the dealers just pop another one in its place to trap some other unsuspecting soul into doing the same thing...and the beat goes on.  All you are doing by purchasing pet store dogs is making Hunte and Debbys Petland richer, and the brood bitches and sires ever more miserable in their tiny, mostly dirty filthy cages,  with not even a blanket to lie down on at night.  

If you can't find the pet food you want, don't go to pet stores that sell puppies - use petfooddirect.com or some other internet supplier.  It's not always more expensive either.  Tonight, just for toots and giggles, I priced the Plato salmon treats that I use at the training center when I don't feel like baking my own.  $10.99 on sale.  I would have to pay $12.99 at the store here for the same bag.

My understanding  is that wolves have only one breeding season in the year.  For dogs, since they go into season every six months, manual intervention has to happen to safeguard the health of the bitch and the puppies.  What has the breeder, any of them done to our dogs. Its seems to me the breeders created the problem for fast production of puppies so they should fix the problem since the puppymiller is one of their own.

rwbeagles

I'd never call an impulse purchase of a dog, in a store

How dare you call the purchase of my beloved Codycoe an impulse buy.  You have no idea what my situation was when I was looking for another dog at that time.

BTW, I'm not saying anything was bad or wrong about your wonderful girl. I'm sure that, in the right hands, ALL of those puppies in the pet stores would make fantastic pets. My puppy mill dog is certainly incredible. She's a beautiful dog, a shockingly good representative of her breed, and she has a fantastic temperament. More importantly, I adore her.

I still wouldn't have paid the $800 her breeder got for her. It breaks my heart, every day, to see her running and playing, well fed, well groomed, constantly occupied and loved.... and think of her parents and sisters sitting in dirt pens. They do not get socialized. They have never slept under the covers, or been through the drive through for french fries and a chicken nugget. They didn't get to go to the vet and have their teeth fixed to keep them comfortable and toothed for as long as possible. They will not be spayed at an appropriate time. They will be kept in that pen, and bred. And bred. And bred. When they're done, they'll be sold to the highest bidder, or they'll be dead. Whichever comes first. I would never, ever be able to support that,  knowing what I know. If I didn't know, I'd probably buy a dog like her. She's wonderful! But I know, and YOU know. It's not something I'd ever encourage. There are too many precious lives lost, every day, in shelters across the country. Save somebody THERE. In my county alone, over 2000 are euthanized yearly.

 I don't believe Gina was speaking directly to you.

I am with you CoBuHe, my first Great Dane came from a pet shop and it was not an impulse buy.  In my heart it was rescue because the puppy was so oversized in his cage.  I communicated my feelings with the store and after that I made regular trips to that store.  There were no more Great Danes brought in the store.  The two that I visit now do not have Great Danes.  I now need to work on the Mastiffs.

Buying that puppy only makes it profitable for the store and the mill to continue their operation and helps to perpetuate the suffering of that puppy's parents and future siblings.  It's simple supply and demand.  You empty that space, buy that pup, and next week there'll be another one just like it in the same store, with the same circumstances, needing the same "nice home".  No, of course it's not THE PUPS fault, but it will be yours because it's your funds that fuel this industry.  If it's a breed you really want, contact the breed rescue, adopt one of that breed's rescues that will likely have been dumped at a shelter at the end of its useful breeding life, sold at auction and rescued by the breed rescue, or will be an owner turn in who bought on impulse and lost interest just as quickly.

Man, the stores really have it made!  If you're completely clueless, see the pup and buy on impulse, they make $$$.  If you know about puppy mills, but still fall in love and then want to "rescue" it, they still make $$$.  There's a sucker born every minute.  What a great, recession proof industry!  Playing on the sympathies and desires of the suspecting and unsuspecting public using fluffy little furballs.  Where do I sign up? 

Here are a few important questions to ask the pet store about the puppy.

http://www.canismajor.com/dog/petstor.html

Also, insist on being given the breeder's USDA license number, then go to APHIS and see if they've been inspected, cited, or outright shut down. Get the transport date from the puppy's paperwork, see if it met the minimum age for transport requirements, (8 weeks BTW) what age it was when it was separated from its dam and littermates, that will factor largely in temperament issues.  I challenge you to try to verify vaccination status.  I did all of this on one randomly chosen papillion at a local pet store.  They LIED about the pups being treated by a local vet and after I'd tricked the teen clerk into showing me all the paperwork and got the USDA number and name of the breeder, he was one who had his license revoked several years prior and was operating in a new state with a fraudulent number.  The pup was also just barely 7 weeks old and they'd had it for 2 weeks.  What does that tell you about the age it was put in an 18 wheeler trailer and transported to Virginia from Alabama?  Contact with Animal Control was fruitless as these are all "federal regulations", contact with APHIS about the breeder still being in operation was "we'll pass it along to an inspector, ma'am..."

You said please oh please, I hope you're listening. 

spiritdogs

What other way??? 

How about increased Competition in the 'market' from other so called "right way" breeders.  Compeition surely has put a lot of businesses out of business.

DPU what exactly is it you want to say?

On one hand you castigate all who post seemingly about not doing enough for rescue, comparing them in the main, to yourself...and yet when we propose something that HELPS rescue like directing people NOT to purchase mill dogs, but to consider shelters....you go off on some tangent about breeders and heat cycles?

You and I have gone around this mulberry bush plenty and as always I remain mystified. I will be sticking to the topic raised in the thread from here out.

I actually was not referring to you or your dog specifically, but to the actual business model all pet stores are based on, which is ease of purchase and customer impulse.

DPU

spiritdogs

What other way??? 

How about increased Competition in the 'market' from other so called "right way" breeders.  Compeition surely has put a lot of businesses out of business.

The "right way" breeders don't take VISA/MC.  The "right way" breeders know at least SOMETHING about the buyer, their circumstances and suitability for the pup.  This is an area where competition will not work as well as education.   

Because the pet shop, the puppymill dog, and my fosters are one in the same.  They are all part of a continuum that begins with the breeder.  The reasons stated not to buy a pet shop dog are the same 'valid' reason not to buy a shelter dog... health, behavior, lineage, etc.  As illogical as it seems to many, and although it happens down the road, adopting a shelter dog does contribute to puppymills.  I see this as your ill-conceived advocacy.  Its all too close for me.  So I see all these comments working against me rehoming my fosters.