November 30, 2012

December Protests

December Protests!

Saturdays, Dec. 1, 8, 15 & 22

at San Diego Puppy

5825 Mission Gorge Rd.

2 PM - 5 PM

We will provide signs. Everyone is welcome, including children and dogs!

If you care about your companion animals, your best friends,

please stand with us against the horrors of

PUPPY MILLS
The store is just a couple of blocks from I-8, on the right side.

San Diego Puppy is the last pet store in the city of San Diego that still sells puppies.

This is a multi-billion dollar industry built on greed and animal abuse

and it is happening right here in San Diego, right in front of us.

San Diego Puppy expects to make most of its annual income this month, selling puppies as Christmas presents. David Salinas, the dog dealer, has already extended his store hours

and is heavily advertising
Christmas Puppies!

Look into the eyes of this baby Border Collie. This photo was probably taken just after he was taken away from his mother in the commercial breeding kennel (AKA puppy mill) and trucked from the Hunte Corp. in Goodman, Missouri to San Diego Puppy.

Perhaps, like us, you can decide to take a stand and speak out for this little guy and the 58 other puppies that San Diego Puppy has brought in from puppy mills.
Their mothers, left to suffer as breeders, thank you.

November 16, 2012

AKC Supports Puppy Mills!

It is time the AKC becomes part of the solution instead of part of the problem! Numerous puppy mill operators who have been charged with animal cruelty have been selling AKC-registered puppies.

A potential customer went to San Diego Puppy last weekend, insisting that she only wanted an "AKC puppy" because her other dogs at home were AKC registered. Too bad. An AKC designation on pet store puppies is just another ploy to get your money. They are still puppy mill puppies, brought in from terrible breeding conditions. She really needs to do her homework!

November 13, 2012

The tale of a puppy mill dog

The tale of a puppy mill dog: What to know before you buy a puppy

Pups for sale in pet shops like San Diego Puppy: What about their parents? Puppy mill operators keep breeding dogs in crowded cages stacked on top of each other, forcing them to churn out litter after litter until they can no longer produce puppies. Breeding dogs often live their entire lives in these cages, never getting to experience sunlight on their face or feel grass under their paws. Puppies are taken away from their mothers at a very young age, and often shipped out as young as 6 weeks old.
Most puppy breeders use a middleman, called a broker or dealer, to get their puppies to the pet stores. San Diego Puppy uses the largest broker in the nation, the Hunte Corp. in Goodman, Missouri. There is an extensive network of breeders and brokers throughout the United States. The brokers buy cheap puppies from puppy mills and distribute them to pet stores throughout the country, usually by 18-wheeler truck.
Pet store owners place orders with brokers to buy the specific number and breed of cute puppies that they want for their stores. San Diego Puppy seems to place their order with the Hunte Corp. once a week. They then advertise their "Tuesday Puppies" urging customers to place a non-refundable deposit on a puppy based on a photo on their website. Once the puppies arrive, they are checked by a vet (because the law requires it) and put on display in the pet store window. Some pet stores administer antibiotics to the puppies to mask any symptoms of illness until after the unknowing consumer takes the puppy home.
Unsuspecting consumers are taken in by puppies for sale in pet stores like San Diego Puppy, and will pay top dollar for the most desirable breeds, like Yorkies, Pugs, English Bulldogs, and Shih Tzus. Typically, breeders sell puppies to brokers for $50-$200 each. Brokers in turn, sell the puppies to pet shops for an average of $400 a piece. Pet stores then charge exorbitant amounts to consumers, with some puppies selling for as much as $3,500! The currently popular “designer mixed breed” dogs like Cavapoos, Maltipoos, Morkies, and Schnoodles bring in top dollar. With the profits, the pet store then buys more puppies from the broker, creating an endless cycle of supply and demand for puppy mill puppies. Written by the ASPCA.

November 12, 2012

The Team VS San Diego Puppy November 10, 2012

Thanks to the great team of animal advocates who came to protest the dog dealer San Diego Puppy on Sat. November 10!
Fourteen of us covered the front of the store and all along Mission Gorge Rd.
We also had video coverage by a local news station.

We had an amazing visitor -- an animal angel -- who stopped and gave us a generous donation. Whoever you are, thank you again from all of us on the San Diego Animal Defense Team! Your contribution went directly to printing the packets of information for the San Diego City Council. Those packets are key to getting an ordinance passed in the city that will
BAN THE SALE OF PUPPIES IN PET STORES!

November 07, 2012

STOP PUPPY MILL SALES IN SAN DIEGO!

NEXT PROTEST:

San Diego Puppy

5825 Mission Gorge Rd.

Just 2 blocks off of I-8

SAT. NOVEMBER 10

2 PM - 4 PM

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON --

THEY ARE FEELING IT!

WHEN THEY LEARN THE TRUTH,

CUSTOMERS ARE LEAVING!

We absolutely have proof that this store gets puppies from commercial kennels that mass produce puppies for profit.

It is a shameful and inhumane industry that

must be stopped.

WAKE UP SAN DIEGO!

November 01, 2012

International 269 Day

On November 1, some members of the Animal Defense Team created a solidarity action with International 269 Tattoo Day to Oppose the Animal Holocaust by chalking the number 269 on the sidewalks surrounding San Diego Puppy. Thousands of animal activists around the world marked the day by getting 269 tattoos, the international symbol for the suffering of animals. We add the puppy mill puppies and their mothers to the long lists of animal cruelty.

Wall of Shame: These San Diego Stores Sell Puppies

The Animal Defense Team has targeted the stores listed in red with protests.

San Diego Puppy

5825 Mission Gorge Rd.

David Salinas is selling puppy mill puppies in this storefront and online.
His Horton Plaza kiosk was cancelled the day before our big protest there. Surprise! We are continuing to monitor Horton Plaza to be sure no other puppy stores open there. We have been protesting and doing educational outreach at this store since May, 2012. Please join us at our events.

Puppy Star's CLOSED MARCH 2012!!!

6167 Balboa Ave.

Clairemont

+ Naedeen's Puppies -- owned by Puppy Star's CLOSED MARCH 2012!!!

1021 S. Coast Highway

Oceanside

+ Pet Place -- owned by Puppy Star's CLOSED 2012!!!

6512 El Cajon Blvd.

San Diego

Lemon Grove Pets

7034 Broadway

Lemon Grove, CA 91945

619-460-1965

My Puppy Closed! This store has shut down. If you hear of it reopening in a different location, please let us know. 7770 Vickers St. Ste. 101, San Diego 92111

California Pets at North County Fair, Escondido

California Pets 2525 El Camino Real, Carlsbad (Plaza Camino Real)

Pet Works CLOSED DECEMBER 2010! Grossmont Center Shopping Mall, La Mesa

Fiesta Pet Shop 1145 Highland Ave., National City

Noy's Pet Shop 2550 Imperial Ave.

Pet Market 1536 Sweetwater Rd., National City

Puparazzi -- CLOSED SEPTEMBER, 2011!!! Woo Hoo! Mission Valley Shopping Center

Pups & Pets 50 Town Center Parkway Santee, CA

Please help us keep up-to-date on current stores selling puppies on San Diego County! Thanks

From Sourcewatch.com: USDA

USDA certified puppy mills There are only about a hundred USDA inspectors to monitor 10,000 facilities across the country, ranging from research labs to zoos. Furthermore, "standards" are abysmal. Federal guidelines allow a medium sized terrier to be kept in a cage the size of a clothes drier for its entire life. The federal Animal Welfare Act is hardly the gold standard for compassion. For example, the act does not say you cannot have 300 dogs confined to cages for their entire lives; never to be taken for a walk or receive any personal attention, let alone be a part of a family. A breeder passes USDA muster as long as the dog has food, water and enough space to turn around. USDA standards are very minimal. Adhering to them does not prove that a breeder is not a puppy mill. Even more so, since even these standards are often not enforced. Many licensed breeders for large chains like Petland, have significant violations. [12]

Prisoners of Greed Compassionate Vet Pledge

We are researching which San Diego County veterinarians partner with local puppy stores and will be posting them to this website soon. We will also present provide those vets with puppy mill information, ask them to reconsider their alignment with pet stores selling puppies, and give them the opportunity to sign the Compassionate Vet Pledge.

Compassionate Vet Pledge
Most dogs in puppy mills live their entire lives in wire bottom cages, they are bred when they are six months old, bred every time they come into season, never allowed out of the cage to exercise, not provided quality food or medical care, left outside in the winter and summer without heat or air-conditioning and killed when they do not produce. Certainly veterinarians who are dedicated to the care of animals would object to these practices.

The Federal Animal Welfare Act requires that a veterinarian prepare a vet plan. Without a plan, the kennel can not obtain a license from the United States Department of Agriculture. If every vet in this country, stood for compassion and refused to be the vet of record for a commercial kennel or a pet store that sells dogs/puppies, no commercial kennels could operate.

Download the USDA Policy on Vet Requirements

We are asking all vets to sign the Pledge of Compassion. Every vet who signs the Pledge will receive a framed Certificate of Compassion to hang in their office. The vets will also be featured on this website and recommended as Compassionate Vets. Clients can then determine whether their vet is a Compassionate Vet who will stand up against the misery created in commercial kennels.

Print the pledge and take it to your vet. Have them sign it. Send us a copy and also send it to the Coalition Against Misery Box 343 Pocopson, PA 19366. They will send them the framed certificate and some Prisoners of Greed brochures to display in their office.

Will your vet stand up for the dogs?

Download the Pledge

What is a Puppy Mill?

The term is used by Humane Societies, the ASPCA and the community to indicate USDA kennels that commercially raise wholesale dogs with profit instead of the welfare of the animals as their primary objective. The dogs are farmed as a cash crop.

Animal Planet says it's now a one billion dollar industry with brokers, breeders and pet stores getting rich off of the unbelievable suffering of the dogs in the breeding mills. Under the USDA standard of care, the breeding dogs -- the mothers of the puppies -- NEVER get out of their cages, are housed in wire crates, often stacked so that the dogs on the bottom tier live in terrible stench and filth with no human contact, and receive only enough food and water to be kept alive. YES THIS IS LEGAL, BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT HUMANE.

The HSUS: "The kennel conditions in which puppies are bred and raised are deliberately kept from consumers."

Missouri Puppy Mill Bust/Support Prop B!

71 Dogs Removed from Missouri Puppy Mill; Help Support Prop. B!

On September 21, the ASPCA Field Investigations and Response Team in conjunction with the Humane Society of Missouri (HSMO) removed 71 dogs from an overrun puppy mill in Camden County, MO. The dogs—who include Dachshunds, Maltese, Shih Tzus, Lhasa Apsos, Huskies and Boxers—were transferred to the Humane Society of Southwest Missouri in Springfield and HSMO in St. Louis, where they received medical treatment and will be cared for until they’re ready for adoption.
“This case was unique in that the dogs were voluntarily relinquished by the kennel owner who could no longer afford to feed them,” explains Tim Rickey, ASPCA Senior Director of Field Investigations and Response. Last week the mill owner contacted a local rescue group, Half-way Home Pet Rescue in Cedar County, for help, and Half-way Home then reached out to the ASPCA.
“When breeders are no longer able to care for their animals, the problem lands squarely on the shoulders of local shelters,” says Half-way Home’s Latisha Duffy, who works closely with breeders in Missouri to find homes for retired breeding dogs.
Known as the “Puppy Mill Capital of America,” Missouri is home to more than 3,000 commercial dog breeding facilities and supplies more than 40 percent of all dogs sold in pet stores nationwide. “We see some of the worst conditions in Missouri puppy mills,” explains Rickey. “The dogs, often very ill, are forced to live in overcrowded, filthy conditions.”
In an effort to end the many cruelties associated with puppy mills, the ASPCA, a founding member of Missourians for the Protection of Dogs/YES! on Prop. B, is supporting Proposition B, also known as the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act. This landmark measure, which will appear on the state’s November ballot, promotes the humane treatment of dogs in Missouri’s large-scale commercial breeding kennels. If passed, Prop B would limit the number of breeding dogs to 50 per facility, and would require large-scale breeders to sufficient food, water and space for the animals under their care.
To learn how to extend your support for Proposition B, please visit our Puppy Mill section on ASPCA.org.

The Truth About Horse Racing

Last year's shameful death list of horses who died racing at Del Mar:

Mr. Napper Tandy
Pocosin's Game Boy
I Want My Money
Mi Rey
Sovine
Peanut Ridge
Maggie and Hopie
Insider
Mad for Plaid
Pauper's Prize
Zetta's Corridor
Endless Moon
Madame Kiawah

Last year (2009) 230 horses died at California race tracks, including the 13 at Del Mar. The evidence is clear: the industry is breeding speed over soundness. Horse's bones, tendons and ligaments cannot hold up to the extreme punishment of racing and horses are paying for it with their lives.

The Animal Defense Team doesn't think this qualifies as either "sport" or entertainment. Do you?

Horses are being trained and raced as two-year-olds, before they are fully mature. Drugs mask problems like pain and bleeding into the lungs, pushing them beyond their physical limits. Lasix, phenylbutazme and corticosteroids are legally used across the country. Drugs keep horses on the racetrack even when they shouldn't be racing.

Losers or injured horses are quickly discarded and sent to the slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada. Since 1980, the Equine Protection Network states more than 4 million horses have been barbarically slaughtered. The Humane Society of the US estimates at least 11,000 a year.

Racehorses are the victims of an industry based on greed, drugging, deception and death.
Del Mar. CRUEL AS EVER.

PET STORE DOUBLESPEAK

They say: "Our puppies come from breeders, not puppy mills." The word "breeder" isn't an exclusive term. Anyone who produces puppies is technically a breeder. A responsible breeder would never sell her puppies to a pet store.
They say: "All our puppies come from USDA facilities, so we know they are not from puppy mills." Being USDA licensed doesn't mean that the business is not a puppy mill. There are hundreds of USDA-licensed puppy mills in operation that have long lists of violations and problems. A USDA license is required for anyone who is a commercial breeder producing dogs for wholesale.
They say: "We only deal with breeders we know." The store's definition of "knowing" a breeder often just means that they have been receiving shipments of puppies from the same place repeatedly, not that anyone from the store has ever visited the breeder's facility or inspected their records.
They say: "Our puppies come with a health certificate from a licensed veterinarian." A health certificate only means that the puppy has had a brief "wellness" exam by a vet. This exam doesn't include testing for genetic disorders, or testing for diseases such as Giardia and Brucellosis, both of which are contagious to humans and are frequently seen in puppy mill pups.

Congratulations! These Stores Have Signed A Puppy Friendly Pet Store Pledge

Pet Stop, 7490 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla
Noah's Natural Pet Market,4431CassSt.,PB
San Diego Pet Supply, 1490 Island Ave., SD

SD Animal Defense Team