Here’s Ricky Schroder and his daughter leaving a pet store in Malibu after playing with the puppies.
Seriously, Ricky, I had to learn this the hard way. Don’t make your daughter go through it, too!!!!!!
Adopt from rescues and shelters, people!!!!!
Oh, and if you didn’t read the Ricky Schroder story I posted a couple weeks ago, you must.
I feel badly for leaving the animals in those stores..but I don’t want to support the poor treatment and lack of ethics behind that business.
Amen! And welcome to Seattle!
I’m with you Beet. I adopted my dog from a shelter, where I was told no one wanted her because she wasn’t “cute” enough! But she’s turned out adorable and so very loving and loyal, and I am a very strong advocate for shelter adoption, I think pet stores are cruel and promote impulse buying (which in turn leads to higher rates of pet abandonment).
seriously. I live in Malibu, and have frequented Pet Headquarters (the store pictured) my entire life…that store is disgusting. I can’t tell you how many people i know who’ve bought kittens and puppies for ridiculous prices from there, only to be broken hearted when their little friend gets sick and has to be euthanized (excluding the infamous Tinkerbell).
It’s not just Pet Headquarters though..it’s pretty much most pet stores that sell puppies and kittens. the puppies come from puppy mills in the mid west (if you don’t know what a puppy mill is, please Google it), but most pet stores will try and tell you that it’s from a legitimate breeder. In reality, most good breeders won’t sell puppies to pet stores in the interest of the animal.
Pet stores rely on impulse buyers, and people who don’t research their pet purchasing options. If you buy an animal from a pet store on impulse, there is a good possibility that even if your pet lives through the first years of its life, you’ll be paying vet bills for all of it’s genetic health and behavioral problems that come up later on. inbreeding is rampant in pure bred dogs from puppy mills, because all of the sellers involved are only concerned with making their money, INCLUDING pet stores. they won’t care that itty bitty Fido has parvo, or will eventually have bad joints or cancer as long as you’ve payed them their $600. don’t be that uninformed sucker paying 600 bucks for a sick best friend and it’s vet bills!
Honestly, there are thousands of homeless pets at rescue organizations and shelters waiting to go home. There is a lot of stigma around shelters..it’s common for people to think that only mixed breed, older, or misbehaved animals end up in shelters. this is completely untrue. all kinds of animals end up in shelters for no legitimate reason, including HEALTHY puppies. If you have your heart set on a particular breed and can’t seem to find anything in your local shelter, there are pure bred adoption organizations that are willing to help. you can look them up online, look at different animals profiles and pictures, and see if anyone plays your heart strings!
http://www.petfinder.com is the best place to do just that. It has a search engine that searches through shelters and rescue organizations across the country to find your perfect match. i found my dog that way, and, of course, he’s perfect.
ADOPT! everyone wins in the end!
I have 9 cats and a dog. All are strays that either made their way to my house or were picked up in parking lots, off road, etc. My cat Figaro, however, was a pet store purchase. I made the purchase because he was a kitten and he kept beating his head up against the window of the store which broke my heart. When I got him home, I noticed his fur had patches missing, turned out he had ringworm, a common skin condition pets at pet stores have. I had two other cats at home at the time and the treatment was a daily bath for Figaro, while my other two cats, Willow and Thor, had to be bathed every other day for two weeks so I could rid Figgy of the ailment and prevent it’s spread to the others. You can well imagine the fun I had BATHING 3 cats for two weeks. Anyway, the point of my story is that I rescue strays, and I have bought a cat at a pet store, which in a way is a rescue of sorts. My cat had a problem, that was remedied fairly easily, which usually isn’t the case with pet store pets. Figaro, incidentally, is now 18 yrs. old and a beautiful big boy. I am glad that he made me feel guilty when I walked by the pet shop window, because I feel I saved his life, or at least gave him a very good and long one, with many years still ahead.
i think i’ll go buy me a little dog from the pet store a few blocks away. the doggies are super cute!
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