Sad story
 

OKay well I have been waiting to post this for awhile because I thought it was really maybe too sad. But I have decided that it can just help raise awareness! On Monday I went to Chicago...(actually Gurnee, IL) to pick up by best friend who had been living there.
She worked at a local Applebees and had moved in with a woman she worked with there, and her husband who works at a Petland nearby. (I can't remember what the name of the city that the Petland was in, but it was like 10 minutes from Gurnee.) So she wanted her mom and I to go to Petland to see all of the cute puppies. I of course told them about puppymills on the way and told them of the horror story someone here on YT had shared about a sick yorkie in a Petland. My friend is a huge Bulldog lover so she played with their english bulldog and their french bulldog; both of which had colds. That right there put up another big red flag to me. Plus, several other of their dogs had a green snot coming from their noses. So this was sad. And, there was a yorkie, however, he was sold so they would not let me hold him. He looked a lot like a yokrie-chi mix, and didn't really do much walking around.
BUT ANWAYS! Sorry to get sidetracked on my story. So we left the store and later that night my friend went to say goodbye to her friend and her husband. I didn't go, but when she got home she told me a horrible story. The woman's husband (who works at Petland) told my friend about a Jack Russel who he figured would die by the time he got back to work in the morning. He told her that it had vomited up a parasite with blood and that they didn't expect it to live until morning.
THis seriously upsets me. They didn't even do anything to help that poor baby. I mean this is a puppy suffering. This is how places like this operate. They are all out to make a buck. I'm sure if they don't care about one puppy having a deadly parasite they don't care about the others. So moral of the story; WE CAN NOT SUPPORT PLACES LIKE THIS!!!!!!! I know most everyone on YT knows, but sometimes hearing real life experiences can serve as a nasty refresher.
Thanks for reading my horribly long post, but i just wanted to let you all know the details. I felt like i was an investigator while in this store. I was taking mental notes of all the things i was seeing bad. I hope one day we can, as a society put a stop to this practice of animal cruelty!

I hope one day we can, as a society put a stop to this practice of animal cruelty!~
Well said and me too. I am beginning to think that is my main mission in life.

Thank you for posting this, it definately does raise awareness on puppy mills. Can you imagine working in a pet store and seeing a puppy do this? UGh, it pulls at my heart strings. I would get fired because I would have stolen all their dogs. I have never heard of a puppy throwing up a parasite, must have been very sick, poooor baby.

I know so many horror stories about mills, CB's and BYBers. For every one I have ever told, there are far more in my memory.. makes me so sad to see how supposedly human people treat those animals..

I think a lot of people go into these stores and buy pet supplies and think that that is ok, since they are not buying an animal, they are not supporting puppy mills. We have to stay away from these stores altogether. We should not be giving them ANY business regardless if we buy animals there or not. This is the only way to maybe put stores like this out of business...

I totallt agree with this. I wish everyone knew about the world of Puppymills. I never buy from stores that have animals, but I always see so many cars in front of places that do. :(

I have heard of far too many stories of sickly and dying animals from petshops and also these hidden mill type operations that sell thru the internet websites (Hollybelle Maltese is an example) I have also been a member to several dog related forums for several years now and read time and time again how some consumers end up purchasing sickly pups. Some have horrible tragic outcomes. It's very heartbreaking. I too feel very passionate in making it my main mission in life to encourage those in the market for a puppy to please stay away from petshops and be very very cautious of internet shopping. I know that it seems to stir controversy in the forum and I sure don't want my mail box full of pm's telling me again how wrong I am. Just the possiblity alone of either shopping option being a "gamble" I encourage everyone to always research, always check them out first hand before buying a puppy, Always trust your gut feelings! Also remember that many times those puppies tend to cost more than your average good hobby type breeder.

This is so sad. Can you imagine being sick and scared and needing comfort and someone just closing up your cage, turning out the lights and leaving. :(
BTW, maybe i should know this already, but what exactly is a "backyard breeder"?

You can find tons of info on What a "backyard breeder" is. Here's just one of many links I found http://www.nopuppymillscanada.ca/back_yard_breeders.htm

If the news media would expose more of these people, it would be amazing how much of this would stop. Dallas/Fort Worth Televison News Station has a segment called "What's Bugging You". They will send a reporter out to see what the problem is. When exposed on live TV, the result is astonishing.

That is sad and very heart breaking. I hate petstores like does that :thumbdown

This is a very sad and heartbreaking story but another true one .

I can honestly say that this is not a controversy, :) I think we all feel the same way on the subject of pet stores. I to wish there was something we could do to put a stop to this as well. You can bet that if that poor dog died of parasites that cnaces are there are others there that have it to. :( . We should really try to do some thing maybe those of you who belong to different forums can rally everyone up. I posted once before about getting some kind of petition started but where do we go from there. Thats the question. Maybe we can get as many people as we can to email oprah to do a story on it she seems to influence many people all over the world. It also helps that she is a dog lover to.