Grr to pet stores
We went to the mall today and of course we had to stop at the pet store. There's a 6 month old black and tan shiba in there that's on clearance for $800. Original price is $1500. He's probably been living in that small cubicle for the past 3-4 months and he just looked so sad. I wonder how cheap they'll bring the price down and what happens if he doesn't get sold. I'm just so freakin pissed. For $1500 I could get a shiba from a quality breeder, afford to take time off work (if I worked) and take a cross country road trip to pick him up and still probably have money left over for puppy goods. I wish I could bring him home without promoting puppy mills 
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however... i read a letter to the editor of our local paper recently from a woman who was tired of seeing our local petstore get puppy after puppy, sales, clearance, and never confessing where they were bred or any other pertinent info when asked. She wrote a beautiful letter to the petstore asking the manager to think ethically and declare his philosophy for the store and type of business he ran. She asked him to consider the consequences of the conditions of dogs sold and the amount that inevitably turn up in shelters. She asked him to address the public, his customer base really, on why he continued to do practice with mills when more and more people are becoming aware of the plague they have on society.
He never responded, but asked that the petstore's name be removed from the publication for copyright purposes.
I think the letter, while passive, is a great way to get the public to READ about the real issue, to get them to do more research, and maybe *just* maybe the next time they just can't pass up the cute little puppy in the petstore window, they'll really think about exactly what they are doing. Because really, its a vicious cycle... its hard to walk past that window and not feel SOME sort of emotion and sympathy for the puppies and kittens.
But education is key, and having a voice and using it will help educate others.
I went home and held my Tosca close. Her original people got her from a pet shop and that was her about five years ago.
I don't think there should even be petstores, but things being what they are, what are the laws concerning the pups that don't sell? Are they to be returned to the miller or BYB to perpetuate the cycle their mothers were forced into? They may be sold in classified adds if lucky or surrendered to breed specific rescues. If unfortunate, they are dumped outside and left to fend, or sent to a shelter. A sinister fact is that the US still uses dogs in scientific research and buys them/breeds them for this purpose. Some veterinary schools still use shelter dogs/surrenders for terminal experiments. I am shocked that all of this is still legal.
I called the pet store up last night to ask about him and he's going to need a lot of work. He's very fearful of the outside world. He's extremely smart and very loving but if I bring him home it will take months for him to come out of his shell if not more.
Depending on the pet shop they either get sent back to the puppy mill, get sold to an animal testing facility, put to sleep or given to the owner/employees. If sent back to the puppy mill most of the time the mill will either surrender to a shelter or put them to sleep.
My understanding was that pet stores did not give out information of the puppy mill and did not offer health guarantee's. Another friend of mine told me she found a pet shop that offers a 3 year health guarantee so she thought buying from them would be ok - I still spoke against it and I think she stopped looking for a dog...but I'm interested to know if this is true and the full details of this health guarantee and what type of sale or contract is involved.
Besides that my parentals have bought me 2 hamsters from pet shops, the rest of my animals came from shelters, friends, strays we found and such.
Also health guarantees are another ploy. Try actually making a claim on one of them.
Here is an interesting site that answers a lot of questions
http://www.stoppuppymills.org/
How in the world will someone believe a 3 year warranty for health issues? There's so much stuff that can go wrong, even with perfectly healthy ancestry...
I don't mind rehoming fees when it's reasonable. But when you found the dog on the street, haven't spent a dime on it besides the cheapest dog food at the grocery store, it's still intact, etc I think it's freaking ridiculous to charge $300-500 for it. The new owners will have to take it to the vet for a full check up, get them speutered, who knows what else and then some. Especially when they say "Need to find new home by Monday or it's going to the pound." Well then I'll wait till it's at the pound. At least there I'll be paying the same amount for a dog that's UTD on shots, speutered, and has been evaluated for at least some issues. It's wrong to try to profit off a stray dog.
Doesn't make up for all the shit heads trying to dump their family members, but most re-homing fees are people trying to do the right thing.
All this while I am helping place a nine month old pit puppy. The owners decided he was too hyper. So they got a boxer puppy. Someone shoot me please...
Ugh. People should have to pass a test to become a dog owner
Had they said the pit pup was too big, would they have gone for a Great Dane?