Sunday, March 1, 2009

Watch this

How much do you know about that puppy in the window? As Wendy Mesley reports, some store-bought puppies may have a sick and secret history.

How Not to Buy a Puppy on CBC's Marketplace this Friday night at 8:30 or if you miss it, the CBC site should have it available for viewing afterward.

I've seen a few of these types of shows busting American pet stores but Marketplace should present an interesting Canadian perspective.

addendum:

I'm not sure how much Marketplace will deal with the problem of almost all pet stores getting their puppies from puppy mills so here's a short video on that subject (and there are lots more videos on-line - just Google):

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have one dog that was store-bought as a puppy, but I guess I either got lucky or this store has more integrity than most. She's 3 years old now, a "Sh*tpoo" (part mini-poodle, part Shitzu). She's been excellent both in health and temperment, although I think my socializing efforts helped with the temperment part.

Fred said...

I think Stella was also store bought by her previous owner from P.J.'s. The health of pet shop bought dogs may or may not be the main issue but their origins definitely are as they almost always tend to be from puppy mills. Not that a store bought dog can't be loved as much or just as great as any other dog but contributing to the existence of puppy mills should be a consideration for people who are presently looking.

I'm not sure how much the Marketplace episode will go into the puppy mill aspects of pet store pets but I've added a short video in the main body above about the subject.

Anonymous said...

I was in my local Pet Crazy last month and was appalled to see several different breeds of pups for sale . It wasn`t the outrageous price that angered me. When I asked one of the staff where they were getting the pups, she told me that they get them all from a nice lady in Quebec. I had to hold my tongue and my hand was so close to slapping someone, I hurried out of there. Then I wrote a letter to head office. I don`t know if it did any good but at least the salesperson is still alive and employed and I`m not in jail. What is wrong with these people? Are they that money hungry they cant find honest, respectable breeders in the area ? Breeders who don`t mind answering questions or allowing buyers to contact their vet would be a far more intelligent option to these `mill pups` I bet the puppy buyers would like to know where those babies came from .

Anonymous said...

I did get my second dog from a private rescue organization. He had some behavioural problems with adult strangers (but, oddly enough, never with me), but he's well over that now and he's an amazing dog too. At the time of my first dog I did know about puppy mills, but I never thought about "backyard breeders", which I think is where she came from.