Walked into a pet shop today.

[Tuscany]

About once every three weeks, I take a ride to Erie to pick up the best chocolate on planet Earth for our store, Romolos of Erie. Anyway, I talked my wife into going with me today. I dropped her off at the Mill Creek Mall and headed across town to get the goods. On return to the mall to meet her, I walked in and found this pet shop. It wasn’t more than a few seconds and I felt this sadness and desperation in the air from all of the pets, mostly dogs just wanting to be adopted and leave the jail.

Someone was considering a Dalmatian, and when they brought the dog out to meet the possible buyer, the dog was literally starting crying/howling/clinging. Someone had to pull the dog away from the potential buyer. The poor baby just wanted to go home.. So damn sad.
My wife met me there and saw a Yorkie looking so sad and broken. 30 seconds and she was in tears..literally. Another set of puppies looked like about 4 weeks old. I could have bought them all and gave them away for free, but they would have been restocked by the weekend.
I can still head that Dalmatian cry out...

I can’t believe the way we still treat animals, and how pet shops are still legal and allowed to “retail” a life.

[Ytmsn]

I avoid "pet" shops like the plague. No way Jose.
I hear ya Tusc. I would buy everything in the building if I could.

[Tuscany]

Being in the meat business, we are in a very weird position that makes my post somewhat hypocritical.
I am an animal lover who could cry a tear yesterday.

My daughter/son (meat cutter)/niece won’t eat beef or pork because of the way the industry currently treats animals. We are very sensitive to animal cruelty which is hair raising in our industry. Want to get shocked? youtube halal processing.
For the rest of the processing industry, things are changing.

Our business does put us in a position to buy products from, and put pressure on farms to fully realize that things are changing fast in relationship to the way they handle chicken, cattle, and hogs. There’s is a tipping point where a higher price of meats will finally be accepted for the extra cost of treating animals with the care and humility they deserve. As an industry, we are just not there yet, but it’s coming fast and we are dead serious about making it happen sooner rather than later.

[akorcovelos]

This is why we buy a grass fed, free range cow every year from a specific small family run farm in Iowa. We checked out the operation and felt comfortable about how the animals are raised and processed. I'm also an avid hunter, so I too live on that edge where I care greatly about animals, but I'm a carnivore so...We have 3 hunting/home dogs and have rescued several animals in the past, so knowing how my meat is handled is important to us.

[tgrace98]

ugh reading this just makes me sick. But thanks for the post T. We adopted our kid ( now 7 year old border collie) from a rescue shelter. He was well taken care of but to think how anyone could mistreat an animal just doesn't sit well with me. I actually did IT in the pet care industry for a few years (Purina is based in St. Louis) and would take my dog to work with me every day. Some days I miss that. But we use to donate food and feed to all the local shelters in town when I worked there. But would never to the pet mills.

So where I am going with this is I wish people would just go to the rescue shelters to find pets instead of the pet mills. Just because one family didn't love an animal it doesn't mean they aren't going to be loved by another.

[liquid]

I bought this little lady in a Mall pet store when I was 18. Never had a small dog prior to her. Goldens and Samoyeds.

She was terrified, in a cage with a dog three times her size. Shaking. She had a bone that stuck out of her chest. I took her home anyway and i swear that dog never forgot it. She was unabashedly loyal to me for 18 full years. Honestly the best dog I've ever had and the reason why I hesitate to get another almost 5 years later. Miss you Scoje.

[Hoghead]

I just had to go to a PQA class( pork quality assurance) and was amazed at the lengths they go to to assure a healthy hog goes to the prossesing plant. If your caught abusing a hog at anytime your out the door and don't let the door knob hit you in the.....and are not eligible for rehire later. There is no antibiotics used because that's what the consumers want so if a disease of some kind gets in a barn( they are very strict about who gets in a barn,no outside clothes or shoes are allowed in a barn) if something gets in a barn it is quarantined until it's controlled and yes sometimes a whole barn will be destroyed and someone will lose their job. They had to depopulate several barns last year to get disease under control. I'm not saying all hog producers do that but Smithfield does. I'm still trying to figure out why I had to go to the class because I never am around hogs or in any of the barns but....

[Hoghead]

I bought this little lady in a Mall pet store when I was 18. Never had a small dog prior to her. Goldens and Samoyeds.

She was terrified, in a cage with a dog three times her size. Shaking. She had a bone that stuck out of her chest. I took her home anyway and i swear that dog never forgot it. She was unabashedly loyal to me for 18 full years. Honestly the best dog I've ever had and the reason why I hesitate to get another almost 5 years later. Miss you Scoje.

[Norris_Boating]

So I know this isn't popular, but there are good commercial breeders out there and there are responsible pet stores, in fact most pet stores treat the dogs well.
There is actually a shortage of dogs in the shelters in many parts of the country. Dogs are getting imported from other parts of the country but also over seas. My vet is seeing different diseases in the local population that he hasn't seen in his 37 year career. These are diseases that he struggles to treat and don't have vaccines for. So many dogs have died and suffered from this shipping around dogs, but nobody tracks it.
Locally the head of humane society was just let go because PETA protested that they had a "temperament" teat to see if a dog was adoptable. Lots of pits that are mean we're being put down. Now they are going to get adopted out. I have seen people that have been attacked by a pit, the poor girl was scared for life. Now more likely to happen....thanks PETA.
Commercial breeding and selling should be legal and regulated or we will soon have a major Dog shortage in the US. There are 88mil dogs in the US right now. The average dog lives 11 years, the population of people is increasing. It is estimated that about 10million dogs need to be breed each year to meet needs of current and new dog owner's. How are we going fill this need as a nation? Very few private mom and pop breeders left. The price of golden puppies in the paper have doubled in the last 8 years in my area, how long before dogs are only the well off in this country....

[Tuscany]

I bought this little lady in a Mall pet store when I was 18. Never had a small dog prior to her. Goldens and Samoyeds.

She was terrified, in a cage with a dog three times her size. Shaking. She had a bone that stuck out of her chest. I took her home anyway and i swear that dog never forgot it. She was unabashedly loyal to me for 18 full years. Honestly the best dog I've ever had and the reason why I hesitate to get another almost 5 years later. Miss you Scoje.

Nice story Liquid.
Wow, she was a cutie!. You were very fortunate to enjoy her for 18 years. Something special about older dogs and the respect they earn..
Yes, I fully understand why you hesitate. It’s devastating and ridiculously hard to deal with the loss. I get it, it’s still hard for us to look at pictures.
Think of the flip side though...imagine the house with your boys and a pup for them to grow up with.

Our pup will be born shortly, and it’s going to be crazy around here this summer, but we can’t wait..

[liquid]

I know. We're kicking around the idea of another baby so a pooch isn't really in the cards right now.

[Big Block Power]

I know. We're kicking around the idea of another baby so a pooch isn't really in the cards right now.

I would shoot for twins while your at it

[Ytmsn]

Liquid, you know what causes that, right?

[liquid]

Liquid, you know what causes that, right?

I'll bite...

[thunder550]

I know. We're kicking around the idea of another baby so a pooch isn't really in the cards right now.

200.gif