3/26/11 CALIFORNIA PETS ESCONDIDO PROTEST!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the March 26 BAN PUPPY STORES protest at California Pets in Escondido and to all of the community members who so strongly supported us!

It is not possible to love dogs and simultaneously support puppy stores. Many of the four million dogs produced by mass breeders in the United States and sold through pet stores each year end up in rescues or worse. Five million dogs are euthanized in the US every year -- not because the dogs did anything wrong but because their owners couldn't or wouldn't keep them. Puppy stores like California Pets in Escondido and Carlsbad add massive numbers of dogs to those sad statistics.

San Diego's 10 News.com ran a news segment which reported 763 puppy mill puppies from Missouri (the "puppy mill capitol of the US") were sold to San Diego County customers in 2009. The analysis was performed by the Humane Society of the United States.

Of those, 309 were purchased by California Pets Escondido and 130 by California Pets Carlsbad -- more than half of all the Missouri puppy mill pups sold in San Diego County that year. This does not take into account all of the puppies coming in from other notorious puppy mill states such as Nebraska, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, etc. The HSUS State Director said, "It's easy to fall in love with an adorable puppy...at the mall, but behind the cuteness is cruelty no pet lover could support.

See the post on this website from November 10, 2010 for the complete news article.

The owner of California Pets agreed to send the Animal Defense Team the names and USDA numbers of the breeders and brokers he is using. That would be a small step in the right direction. In turn, we said we would share our investigative findings so he could at least weed out the worst of the breeders. We did remind him that he has the ultimate responsibility to investigate all the breeders of his puppies. As of this date, we have not received any information from him.

He also stated on camera that he does not use the Hunte Corp. as a broker because it is a notorious broker for puppy mill breeders. When questioned, he revised his statement to say he formerly used the Hunte Corp. but stopped doing business with them 5-6 years ago.

We are investigating the records of both breeders and brokers for this store through the US Department of Agriculture and the Freedom of Information Act and will post the findings.

Buying A Puppy in a Pet Store is an Act of Animal Cruelty

BAN PUPPY STORES!