How prevalent are puppy mills?

June 23, 2009 3:01 PM

Have any major pets stores (petland, petco, ....) been linked directly to puppy mills?

I worked at pet and as a vet tech and the animals came to us so sick and for lack of a better word awkward. Most had yeast infections (presumably from overuse of antibiotics) and/or upper respiratory infections. The pets came in a semi-truck and were unloaded through a tiny door in the back. I confronted the owner and he acted highly offended and told me to worry about the pets current health and not where they came from. If the animals health didn't get any better after a few days they were sent back just as if they were broken commodities. I'm working on a speech to give to a large group at my university so any statistical information or links would be great also.

posted by isopropyl to pets & animals (8 comments total)

Petland has been linked to puppy mills.

PETsMART and Petco don't sell dogs at their stores; rahter, they have adoption days where shelters can come by to feature their dogs.
posted by emilyd22222 at 3:10 PM on June 23

Searching "Pass Pets puppy mills" on Google gives you a lot of pages, including this page where a reader cites Pass Pets and Uncle Bill's. IANAE, but when I was growing up I also remember hearing from somewhere reputable (I forget where) that Pass Pets got their pets from puppy mills.

Ditto what emilyd22222 said about PetSmart and PETCO.
posted by inatizzy at 3:29 PM on June 23

The Petsmart near me definitely only has dogs through the humane society. They also have someone there with the dogs that works for the humane society. A few times a month, a local greyhound rescue sets up an area either in the store or in front. Petsmart's adoption page specifically says they don't sell cats or dogs. But, they still sell plenty of birds, rodents, and fish! I am not sure how they get those animals...

I've also gone into a Petland store just to see what it's really like, and it is a huge difference from the humane society. Not only do the animals very likely come from puppy mills, but those puppies look so sad and the cages were very dirty when I saw them. The dogs also looked younger than 8 weeks, which is really young. I have no idea why anyone would get a dog there. If they want to spend hundreds of dollars on a purebred puppy, they can easily find responsible breeders through the AKC website. I think it's good to note that, because I knew a dog breeder who was absolutely wonderful and deserves credit for what she does.

A little beyond the puppy mill question, but I was just poking around the Petland website and it's just a little creepy how they keep mentioning how well they treat the animals they have for sale. Then there are weird things that they suggest for puppy care such as "Cologne - keeps puppy smelling clean and fresh between baths". And they also suggest an "appetite stimulant" for some reason?
posted by belau at 9:02 PM on June 23

I work at a large corporate pet store that doesn't sell dogs and cats. I can tell you that we get our birds, fish, reptiles, and small animals from different large suppliers. According to PETA, the supplier for our small animals (Rainbow) treats their animals horribly. When I started a year ago we got some sick hamsters and gerbils. Since then every small animal and bird we've got in has been healthy and pretty happy. The reptiles always come in too small, and the fish are pretty terrible. We routinely lose full tanks of guppies to fin rot :(

There are equivalent facilities to puppy mills in the small animal/reptile/fish trade, unfortunately. I wish as a company we would boycott these places and turn to local small scale breeders. I doubt that will ever happen though.
posted by d13t_p3ps1 at 9:32 PM on June 23

This video highlights some issues in Canadian stores, mostly PJs.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 9:38 PM on June 23

I worked at PETCO corporate for a few years back in the 1990s. They did not sell dogs or cats in their stores, and they worked with adoption programs.

I currently patronize a PetsMart close to where I live. They do not sell dogs or cats. Every Saturday, they have adoptions from the local Humane Society.
posted by Robert Angelo at 6:25 AM on June 24

One more thing: It appears that PetLand is a franchise operation; this being the case, it's possible that practices may vary to some degree from store to store. PETCO and PetsMart, as corporate-owned stores, are in a different league when it comes to quality-control, standards, and accountability to regional and central management.
posted by Robert Angelo at 6:28 AM on June 24

Monster Pets is a small chain in PA and NJ, where I've seen people protesting about puppy mills.
posted by orme at 11:05 AM on June 24