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Buying a puppy from a store?

By Daniel Beatty, DVM

Ok we all have done it, gone into a pet store and just loved the puppies. But would you ever buy one from a puppy store?

I have to admit I have purchased a puppy from a pet store; but I considered it a rescue. It was a 4 month old Aussie that just needed to get out of that cage and run. It had been there for 2 months. I was in vet school at the time and my vet school friends can attest to the fact that that dog was certifiably crazy. Very ill tempered to men, she bit a few and not out of fear. I was able to train her fairly well but I just could not get her broke out of the aggressive behavior towards men. Oh well that is what you get when you buy from a puppy store which buys from puppy mills.

Too bad many people still do not understand that buying from a pet store perpetuates a horrible cycle of puppy mill breeding. What astonishes me is the lack of understanding of the general population of puppy mills. Here is a story from my alma mater’s paper, the Daily Illini. I was really excited when I caught the headline about this story –>Puppy store at mall faces criticisms

I was thinking all right a pet store that is going to be called out on buying from puppy mills; unfortunately this was not the case. It is obvious to me and several others that the student reporter did absolutely no research and did not even know what a puppy mill was. She got caught up like the rest of us in how cute the puppies were. It is a shame. The biggest red flag in the whole story is that the place where the pet store owner purchases here puppies from, Puppy Haven Kennels, had its certification pulled from the AKC. Unfortunately no good explanation in the story at all as to why it was pulled.

However here is the explanation –> I-Team: Puppy Mills

Thats right it is a puppy mill. A television news station in Milwaukee did a report back in April of this year and then updated it in September telling viewers/readers that Puppy Haven is a puppy mill of the worst kind. If you read this story you will know why you should not buy puppies from pet stores; any pet store. No reputable breeder will ever sell a puppy to a pet store…period. They are all puppy mills or disreputable breeders trying to dump their puppies.

SO I publicly apologize for my purchase many years ago, even though it was a rescu. Just now that you are informed - don’t do it! No matter how cute they are, don’t buy from a pet store.

buying a dog, puppy mills

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Brennan Kingsland says:

December 1st, 2007 at 5:56 am

You said it so well! I was guilty of buying puppies from pet stores until I learned the sad truth about puppy mills.

Although I loved each of those doll babies passionately, I now realize that they were:

1) VASTLY over-priced (so you think you’re getting a special breed, when in fact it is to make a huge profit for the store & the puppy brokers), and

2) Animals with unhealthy breeding conditions for their parents & no attempts to produce healthy offspring. Every puppy purchased (except one) had health problems, major vet bills and died too young.

It’s all about GREED, exploitation of helpless animals, and lack of knowledge on the part of the American consumer of the barbaric methods by which those puppies are produced & marketed.
And, meantime, millions of dogs & cats are killed every year because they can’t find a safe home.

And the same thing holds true for all the other “pets” produced commercially.

Brennan Kingsland
http://rescue4furbabies

Cynthia Blue says:

December 4th, 2007 at 5:39 pm

I won’t even go into a store that sells puppies. If puppies from a store come out of someone’s mouth, then puppy mill needs to come out of that mouth, or any mouths nearby.

Feed Shark

Buying a puppy from a store?

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