Dear Editor:
Did you purchase a puppy recently or within the last year? Did
you buy from a known breeder or did you buy your puppy from a pet
store?
Dear Editor:
Did you purchase a puppy recently or within the last year? Did you buy from a known breeder or did you buy your puppy from a pet store? If you bought it from a pet store, did you know there is a very good probability that your puppy originated in a puppy mill. Don’t know what a puppy mill is? Go to this Web site: www.canadianvoiceforanimals.org.
If you don’t have a computer, go to your library or ask a friend. Prepare yourself. It is pretty gruesome.
Did you get papers with your puppy? Did it originate in Missouri, Oklahoma or Kansas, for instance? These states and many others are well known for their puppy mills.
The mills breed their animals time after time and many of them sell those puppies to an organization called Hunte Corporation. Basically, the Hunte Corporation is a huge puppy brokerage that purchases 35,000 to 40,000 puppies each year – most likely from the puppy mills – and then sells them to pet stores.
The sad thing here is that the Hunte Corp. “dazzles” everyone with their modern, clean “puppy warehouse,” but in reality are the very people that keep those awful puppy mills in business. The “papers” you get with your little one really don’t mean much. They don’t tell you the health and condition of the sire and dam, do they? Do you have any idea what long term genetic problems can crop up in your new puppy that can cost you many dollars? You should know those possibilities when you buy your puppy.
Was your puppy really healthy when you brought it home – a sniffle maybe, a little cough? Maybe it got sick enough that you had to take it to your veterinarian. Do you know what local veterinarian was responsible for the health and care of your puppy while it was in the pet store?
Do you know whether or not it got the prescribed health care as set out in the California Health and Safety Code? The rules are very specific. You can check out the codes regarding the sale of puppies and cats at the following Web site: www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html.
Did you know that legitimate breeders do NOT sell their animals to any pet store? There are pet stores in our areas that sell hundreds of these puppies a year.
With all the wonderful animals in our Humane Societies and Animal Shelters, wouldn’t it be kinder for the pet stores to offer these little ones up for adoption and not contribute to the proliferation and success of the puppy mills? Oh, wait, I forgot, that wouldn’t be profitable. I don’t think you could “sell” one of those homeless little ones for hundreds of dollars or whatever the going rate is these days. Think about it.
Thank you for your attention. Please join in helping to put the puppy mills out of business. If you want a puppy, see a breeder. There you will have real guarantees – OR go to your local Humane Society and rescue one.
DON’T buy your dog from a pet store.
Sharon Fuqua, Gilroy
Submitted Monday, Sept. 15 to ed****@****ic.com
