Petland
 

Has anyone heard of this store? This is where my bf is going to get my puppy. He was told that they get all of their dogs from breeders.

So we go there yesterday and they had a ton of pups, including 3 yorkies, a couple jack russels, 3 s**tzu's, minipinchers, a boxer, a lot of poodle mixes, etc. The girl who worked there informed me that they do get there pups from breeders, they are a third party. Heres the reason I don't believe it: they get the smaller dogs in on a weekley basis, and the larger dogs like every 1.5 weeks. Doesnt that seem a little quick to be getting dogs in? I honestly dont think that there are that many breeders in the area to be supplying dogs every week, and if they are from breeders, they could be breeding the bitches nonstop. Next time I go there I'm going to ask for the breeders information and get in contact with them.

An another note, I played with this s**tzu and fell in love with it!!! I was so close to buying it, but I would have to finance it and since Im closing on a house soon, I cant do anything to my credit :( I also played with a yorkie there, but if it was out of those 2 specific dogs I wouldve gotten the s**tzu. Now I'm torn between what kind of dog I wanna get. :confused:

yes, I've heard of Petland. They do not get their dogs from respectable breeders. Don't get your puppy there. Not only are you going to overpay, but you are going to likely get a very sick dog and you will most definitely be supporting puppymills. If you live in Chicago, I can help you find a decent breeder to get your puppy from.

Thanks! We want our puppy around beginning of August, a couple weeks sooner or after is fine too. Do you know of any yorkie or s**tzu breeders in this area? Im in the northern burbs, willing to drive but not drive too far.

Yep we got our Cocker from one of their stores 8 years ago. So far she has been healthy but def got left out in the brains dept.:mad: Of course knowing what I know now I wouldn't do it again. The first 2 dogs we had came from the pound. They were older dogs so we didn't have them too long. Later we went to the petstore and my hubby just had to have the cocker. She came with papers but I can't remember which registry. She also came from Arizona. So that was a LONG trip from Arizona to Virginia.So I can bet they don't come from local breeders. You should ask to see the info about the breeder. Let me guess they want at LEAST 1400-1500 for a Yorkie and about 900 -1000 for a Shih tzu. You could find a local breeder and get a Shih tzu much cheaper and prob a lot healthier as well. Good Luck. Just be careful.

Michelle

PLEASE BOYCOTT ALL PETLANDS !

Please tell your friends and have THEM tell their friends - PETLAND ONLY BUYS PUPPIES from Puppy Mills and are one of the BIGGEST Buyers if not THE largest. They buy cheap and jack up the price up to 7 x or more of the original price they paid.....they probably make 1000% profit on some dogs they sell. :mad: :mad: :mad:

IF no one bought ANY animals from that AWFUL STORE then that would severely put a hurt in the EVIL Millers pockets.

That was nice of you Kristy - Man - Petland needs to be banned from selling puppies...I wish the laws would change

OH no don't get one from there. Petland is the big pet store chain here. Most of the people I know who have gotten pets from them the pets died or had serious healthy issues. A lot of there puppies don't even make it to 1 year old. Here they dont' have much competion so they aren't shy about telling you they ship the puppies in form who knows where. They asked me once what kind of bird I wanted and said they had sooo many places to get them they could have me whatever I wanted on the truck the next week. it's a sad sad place.

Here's a place to start...

Yorkies: http://breeders.net/find.php?breed_i...0031&country=2

Shih Tzus: http://breeders.net/find.php?breed_i...0031&country=2

This woman is from the Shih Tzu Club of America. She gives referrals to breeders if you call her:

Bonnie La Barbera (IL)
Ph: 847-895-9398
Looks like she is in your area. Here is the site where I got her number:
http://www.shihtzu.org/ASTC/referral.asp?menu=ASTC

The s**tzuh was $1100, the yorkie was on sale for $1300, marked down from $1900. The yorki has been there for 34 days she said, and I dont think they gave it a bath at all. It smelled, hair was greesy, just not clean. It was also nipping at my ankles. But the s**tzuh...I wanted it sooo bad!

Everywhere I look in this area, yorkies are around 1500, so yeah petland was a little more but nothing too much more.

Thanks! I gotta go do some stuff right now, but I'll make sure to bookmark that info and call sometime this week.

I've been into tons of petstores, and they all say the same thing: We don't get our dogs from puppymills. Okay...then which petstores do? And do you really think they would have a sign that says: We sell puppymill babies? They get their puppies from brokers, who probably get their puppies from a mill. So "technically," no, they don't buy them from mills, they buy them from brokers. That's how they get around the technicalities. ;)

Petland has a very bad reputation. Please go t a breeder. I would be happy to go with you to look at puppies since we both live in Gurnee.

I got my first dog from petland and it cost me lots of money. I loved that dog, but it was sick, it cost $1000 (If I had just looked in the newspaper first I would have discovered that I could have gotten a min pin for half the cost of what I paid for it a petland). The min pin was also 25 lbs when fulll grown and that breed should not get bigger than 6-10 lbs. I love that dog and if it wasnt for its personality I would still have it(he was a very dominating dog and fought hard with my other dogs so I had to find him a better home).

But anyways you should really check out breeders before ever going to a petstore. I didnt know that when I got my first dog but now I would NEVER get a dog from a petstore. Pet stores will lie to you, over charge and they often do not take very good care of thier dogs or they do not get them from reputable breeders.

I'm not sure about the east coast, but here, the millers drive the puppies straight up from Missouri to the Chicago area in semi trucks and drop them off all over at pet stores. So there is not a broker/middle man.

wow this really sucks since i got lola from Petland! but she seems healthy and i woulndt assume that ALL the pups from Petland are bad, but we did pay alot!

Last year my sister bought a chihauhau from there. I told her not to do it but she did it anyway because it was cute and she was able to finance it through the store. The selling price was triple what they went for in the paper but she didn't have a lump sum to make the purchase from the paper.Needless to say it did not turn out well. She brought the pup over to my home and it was so small, probably less than 2lbs., and it just slept. We thought it was because it was a pup.She took it to a vet and it was placed on iv's and then died. The vet said it was advanced parvo. She only had the pup about two or three weeks. She went back to the store and told the manager what had happened and he pretty much said tuff and your still responsible for the bill and offered no compensation. She said I'll see you in court and she did, and she didn't have to say a word. The judge saw her paperwork and reamed the guy out and she didn't have to pay. That store is no longer in business. It's to bad that pup had to suffer like that.

Well, we're not saying that all pups from Petland are "bad," we're just saying that they've probably grown up in bad conditions. :(

I agree, Im not saying that you cant get a wonderful dog from a petstore. I absolutely loved my Min Pin and I had him for 2 years before I had to find him a new home. BUt like I said, he was so large (and not a bit overweight) that I am wondering if he was even pure breed, and he had a bad temperment which I am not sure if thats because he came from bad breeding or what but I paid $1000 for him and I COULD have gone to a breeder and paid $500-$600 and I could have known more about my dog, its parents, its history and all that good stuff. But I didnt know that at the time. SO that is why I would prefer to get a dog directly from a breeder instead of a petstore :)

WOW....thanks for the stories everyone. My bf is calling tomarrow to get his deposit back. All of these stories on here are enough for me to say NO to this store, no need to waste my time doing further research.

The girl that was helping us there yesterday was telling me about her dogs, and they all had numerous problems, I dont understand how she can even afford the vetbill, I mean she works at a pet store, and from a retail store income alone I know the vetbills wouldnt be able to be afforded. But anyways, I bet that she got all of her dogs from her store she works at. These dogs weren't even older, they were still young.

So anyways, now I'm going to go and find a breeder, and help my bf out. I feel bad cuz he was doing this on his own for me, and then we find all this stuff out. I mean it's not his fault cuz he never baught dogs before, except one from a newspaper ad. But I"m going to help him, and hopefully we'll have our new furbaby soon :)

I'm glad you are doing your research! Try Stardust Yorkies.

Where did you get your Yorkie from? Im not sure when I'll be going around to check our breeders, but yeah if you could go w/ me that'd be great, make sure i'm not getting ripped off or anything.

I got her from a breeder in Rockland Il a 3 hour drive from here. In a couple of weeks there is a dog show at the Lake county fairgrounds and I can find out what time the Yorkies are showing and you can talk to good breeders there.

Can you give me the info on that?

I'd love to know more about this too.

Please don't support pet stores of any kind. They all get their puppies from mills and they just don't care. Those dogs could be coming from anywhere with all sorts of problems and those prices sound ridiculous. Every time someone buys from a pet store they're perpetuating this misery. Rather invest your time in doing a lot of research and finding a good breeder who loves the breed and will give you a happy, healthy, wonderful companion. I've seen too many stories on this forum about people buying from pet stores and then dealing with the absolute heartbreak of a sick and dying puppy just a few weeks later. Just don't do it - for their sake and yours

That poor little Yorkie you mentioned - I wonder what's going to happen to her :(

I think thats a little harsh ... not ALL pet stores buy there puppies from Puppy Mills and don't care.

However, I appreciate the sentiments and I would agree that the major big stores will in all likely hood be buying from mills.

I have a family friend who runs a pet store, just a one store operation, and he did a tour with his "puppy broker" of some of the mills and the conditions the dogs were in before he decided which breeders he would buy off and which he wouldn't. (he obviously choose not to buy from the mills).

However, regardless ... I'd still recommend buying from a breeder direct, someone who's set up you can visit and who is interested in if you will make a good parent for the puppy and not just that you can afford the price.

I don't think it's that harsh to be honest. The words 'broker', 'mill', 'pet store' all equate to something deeply suspicious in my mind. I sincerely doubt that any business that deals in selling puppies will rely on a handful of breeders - that doesn't make economic sense. And apart from all things being equal - how would a person know for sure? A quick read around this forum will show that plenty of people bought sick and dying puppies for a fortune from stores that claimed they came from a 'local breeder'. I'm afraid I just can't agree that there is any such thing as a 'good' pet store. Sorry

I appreciate as a animal lover you have concerns and this does you credit. I agree that everyone should seriously look into any store / person who is trying to sell you animal and I agree that many of the chain stores will not have animal welfare as a priority.

But I know someone who owns a store, I know him, I know his thoughts on the subject and I know he makes every effort to ensure his puppies come from a good source, he only buys puppies from in state, and has passed on breeder information to the purchaser and I have to say if *I* know one person who makes an effort than I can imagine there are other pet store owners out there that do the same.

I feel bad for the guy because he's been vandalized and abused for selling animals (which has put the animals in extreme danger) because of sweeping statements like "all pet stores buy puppies from mills".

I just think we have to be careful when using generalisations is all.

:thumbup: :thumbup: Good Job! (That poor puppy...sooo sad)


Francie

You're right - Hunte Corp is the BIGGEST BROKER in the country and a supplier of Puppy Mill puppies to Pet Stores....Petland is theiry Biggest Customer - I agree that ALL pet stores may not use a Mill - but the vast MAJORITY do - I totally agree - do NOT Buy From a Pet Store - there is no way to single out the 'good' from the 'bad'

Good I'm glad you are not buying from them, I hope your bf told them exactly why he is not buying and wants his money back.. the girl that works there is probably clueless as most people are when it comes to where the dogs come from maybe print her out some articles on the illness and defects,and drop the off to her, next time. I'm sure it would be enlightening to her..