Puppy mill suit against Petland not dead

“The suit was dismissed Friday by a federal judge in Phoenix who said the allegations were too general and that the complaint did not show that the plaintiffs were direct victims of the fraud that was alleged in the suit.
Judge David Campbell of U.S. District court in Phoenix gave the pet owners until Aug. 29 to file a revised complaint with more detailed allegations.”

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Petland store owner responds to charges

“The Humane Society, a national animal protection organization separate from the Benton-Franklin Humane Society that operates a shelter in Kennewick, used public documents to trace shipments of more than 15,000 puppies from commercial brokers to Petland stores.

The Humane Society said the Pasco Petland — the only Petland store in Washington — gets its puppies from Mid-America Pet Broker LLC of Neosho, Mo.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this year cited the broker for buying from breeders without verifying that they were licensed, for using expired and incorrect medications and for using cages that were too small, the Humane Society reported.

Miner acknowledged the Pasco Petland gets the majority of its puppies from Mid-America, but he said the broker hasn’t mistreated animals as the Humane Society portrays.”

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Humane society proposing ban on puppy mills

“We are soon to introduce federal legislation, the Puppy Uniform Protection Statute (PUPS), or “Baby’s Bill,” named after an elderly dog rescued by animal advocate Jana Kohl.”

Missouri Petland protest attracts seventy people

Protesters claiming that the store buys its dogs from puppy mills, stood in front of the Springfield Missouri Petland store with placards on Saturday.

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Petland protest update

The Humane Society of the United States did an investigation of puppy mills and pointed a finger at Petland.  There have been letters going back and forth between HSUS and Petland but I don’t find the HSUS website helpful in keeping up on this issue.  I found out about the letters through a local newspaper and posted about it here.

Now I read on another blog a reasonable defense of HSUS’s claims against Petland but not on its own site.  In a blog entry about a Petland manager who left his dog outside to freeze, they also provide several good responses to the Petland counterclaims. 

The posting argues that there are records of Petland purchasing dogs from breeders identified as puppy  mills.  Further, while Petland claims it has puppy mill breeders on a “do not buy” list, the facts are they have purchased dogs from them.

The next protest is on Saturday, Jan. 24th from noon until 2pm at the Plano Texas store where the largest number of protestors appeared during the Jan. 10th protest. Click here for more details.

NPR story today on overseas puppy mills

A shipment of purebred dogs from South Korea ended up with half of them dead at LAX.  Fortunately, the remainder were sent to the animal shelter where they were auctioned off with 52 other dogs that raised more than $20,000 for the animal shelter

NPR story