Beaware Pet Store Puppies

Actual Interview with an Ex-Pet Store Employee

I used to work for 'x corporation' and also for 'y corporation' (names available upon private request). The puppies are all from mills in the south and the western states. They came in shipped 6 to a crate that was the size for one, two at the most. Covered in feces and filth sometimes one or two would be dead. Some were pulled from their mothers at 4 weeks so that by the time they were shipped to the stores they would be 6 weeks old. Puppies came to the store that had hardly any teeth and couldn't eat the food given to them. These pups are also fed a minimal amount of food so that the sales personnel are selling dogs and not spending their time cleaning cages. 1/4 cup of food per day per dog only! We were trained to sell sick puppies by showing how calm (sick) they were. Many puppies died within days of reaching the store or were so sick and malnourished that they died within days of being bought. The store has no motivation to correct this because they get "CREDIT" for all puppies that die. ALL stores that sell puppies work this way. They buy a puppy for no more than $100 usually closer to $60 and sell it with worthless AKC papers for $600 or more. The customer will not get their money back if the dog dies or becomes ill but must take a credit for another puppy. The warrantee always states this in very clever ways. Stores will not spend $100 in vet bills for a $60 pup so they get minimal or no vet care. Once stores stop selling puppies the mills will die out too. AKC also benefits by this bogus trade in hundreds of thousands of dollars in worthless AKC registration applications. Most puppies are not even of pet quality and harbor birth defects and other deformities. The puppy mills exist to feed the pet store chains. They are connected and something must be done on both ends. This is a multi million dollar industry rooted in death and suffering.

I thought it was the greatest job in the world until I got a good look at the behind the scenes at the business end. The day I quit was the day that a pug puppy died from collapsed lungs in my arms as I took it to a vet, on my own without the stores permission. The dog came in apparently healthy but five days later started coughing and had a nasal discharge. The pup was pulled from out front and put out back, out of view. Out back it was also about 60 degrees or less. The pup then developed severe diarrhea (excuse the spelling). On the managers orders the pup was to be given no food or water. His belief was that without water and food it couldn't have the runs. Two days later the dog was so dehydrated that it could no longer stand and when you pulled the skin up on its neck it stayed that way. Now the manager took an IV needle and put about a cup of fluid under the pups skin on the neck. The pup lay there rasping and gasping and wheezing (it had received no medication up until this point) and when the manager left for the day I took the dog to the vet. It was dead before we got there and the vet said its lungs had collapsed. The manager was furious that I took the dog to a vet because he did not need a vet to see the condition of the dog. I quit after that because so many had died and would continue to die for a buck. The sales people (myself included) are sent to training seminars on" How to sell a puppy ". Basically, when you see someone looking at a puppy you go get it and, without asking, put the puppy in their arms. Then you either back off or force them to stay with the puppy for as long as possible or you lock them in a little room with the pup. Either way, afterwards, you make yourself scarce until they have sold themselves on bringing the dog home. It is not an accident, the sales people are trained to do this. We are also trained to make a list for the potential customer on why it is good to have a puppy from the store. We think of every little thing and write it down. Then we make a list of all the negatives and we do not help the customer think of any at all. Guaranteed the PLUS list is much longer. I used to work as a Vet assistant before I took this job. When I saw the conditions that the pups were in and how they were handled I thought that I could help the store to be better. What I found instead was an animal nightmare and that they had it set up just the way they wanted. I saw papers fabricated and medical histories falsified. The customers would ask about a puppy that they had seen a day or two before and now was missing (because it died or was going to). The standard answer was, and still is, "Oh, he has been sold and has gone to a new home". Medications are not done by a vet but by the sale people and store workers themselves. Mostly older teens and young people trying their first job. They can not be expected to know what they are doing or how to care for a sick animal properly. Anyway they are not allowed to because they have to be out on the floor selling the puppies. You get paid on a commission basis and the more pups you sell the more you make. For these reasons, and more, I don't mind at all if anyone else sees this. I only wish I still had the paperwork from the 'x corporation' on selling and dog care to give to someone.

Pet Store Pups

"I'm a little puppy, so cuddly, sweet and small

I live inside a cage, you see at Pet Store in the mall.

I'm not an only puppy, my sisters are all here.

My brothers, too, except for Ralph who died coz he was scared.

It's lonely here at nighttime when all the lights go dark,

we tremble in our cages and we whimper and we bark.

But no one comes to hold us or pet our fears away

we sit all night in terror till the store opens next day.

We don't remember mama left so far behind

She did the best she could for us till Man said "It is time."

He crammed us all in cages too small for us you see

We rode for hours; we could not help but lay in poop and pee

And now we sit in Pet Store where kids come taunt and squeeze

They do not hear our whimpers or understand our pleas

We're miserable and it's scary here we all would rather die

But since we don't we do our best to run away and hide

I know you think my story too sad to leave me be,

You want to take me home with you, a happy little puppy.

But please, though it is fearful to live here against our will

if you take me that leaves a spot another pup will fill.

You can stop our suffering but not by taking us home

You must be strong and leave us here, unsold and all alone

For if you do not take me, then another pup won't come

And maybe he will not be shipped so far away from home

Who some of us may not survive the cycle 'ere it falls

If we don't sell they will not need more puppies in these halls

And if they need no puppies then the Man will not bring more

Eventually it can all stop!

You CAN close the door.

So when you see a puppy face so sad and sweet and small

In a cage at Pet Store at your neighborhood shopping mall

The best thing you can do for him is leave him sitting there

That is the best way you can tell all dogs

how much you care."


Author Unknown


For more information on the dangers of Pet Stores, please visit:
No Puppy Mills
Critter Haven
Puppy Mill Rescue
P.A.W.S.