Responsible Puppy Love
by Trudy Bowen ([email protected])
November 12, 1997

She was spunky and perfect -- all 4 1/2 pounds of her, flailing away at her intimidated male littermates as they wrestled in the window of my neighborhood pet store. It was puppy love at first sight.

As regular readers of the Family Fool know, I am the proud new mom of Belle (a.k.a. "the very best, number one puppy in the entire world"). I recently detailed the travails of new pet parenthood in our collection, Should You Get a Pet? As a result I received many, many letters. About 90% of them started out with "I really loved your article, but you really shouldn't have gotten your dog at a pet store." The other 10% didn't even bother to say they loved my article. I knew I was really in trouble when my favorite writer from the AOL Pet Care Forum, Gina Spadafori, wrote to educate me on puppy mills. (She was kind enough to be part of the 90%.)

We spend a lot of time in the Fool talking about getting the biggest bang for your buck. We also like the idea of doing our homework. Well, when it came to adopting Belle, I failed miserably on both fronts. Part of the reason that I wrote the articles was that I wanted to save all of you from the mistakes I made. Well, one mistake, which according to my "fan" mail I didn't do a very good job of addressing, was the "puppy mill problem."

I am very lucky to live in an area of the country (suburban Washington, DC) where our county Humane Society is well run and well funded. They are a no-kill facility and a model for other like-minded organizations. Despite being on their request list for three months (I wanted a small, female puppy that would do well living in an apartment), there was never an adoption-ready dog that met my criteria. One Tuesday afternoon, while watching Scooby Doo, I weakened. I went to the mall and headed for the pet store.

I had vague recollections of a 60 Minutes program years ago that showed the conditions that puppies lived in before they were shipped to pet stores. I remembered it being bad. But that show was on a long time ago and surely things had changed. Besides, there was Little Miss Perfect throwing her brother into a headlock. I was a goner.

I thought, surely the pets at the pet store came from responsible and reputable breeders who took care of them and their parents and loved them just like I did. But I admit that I didn't check it out. And now I'm very sorry that I didn't.

While Belle really is pretty perfect, I cringe at the thought of other dogs that aren't so lucky. After much contact and many, many Q&A sessions with the pet store owner, I'm pretty convinced that Belle came from a reputable place. But I also know that I did the investigation after she was already snug in my bed at home. After a lot more investigation into the industry I also realize that she is in the minority. Since the barrage of e-mail, I've talked to people in the industry and learned a lot about the way the business works. That's exactly what it is, too -- a business. The dogs are a commodity to be bought and sold, with little thought of anything other than how much money they will fetch.

Overcrowded conditions, inadequate health care and down right abuse are just the starters for the way that many of the breeder dogs live their lives. Read about Missy, a Springer Spaniel who was adopted by a family after she had been dumped at a Humane Society by her puppy mill owners. She had had three or four litters and made thousands of dollars for the puppy mill, yet was found to be malnourished and had heartworm and an infected uterus.

The Internet is full of these heartbreaking stories. Before you start asking, "How much is that doggy in the window?" you should ask some more fundamental questions first. Check out "The Dog Owner's Guide" for more information on pet stores and how to find a reputable one if you're hell bent on giving them your money.

Better yet, Gina (the author of Dogs for Dummies) suggests not going that route at all. "My recommendations are always breed rescue or shelter, or if you want a purebred puppy, find a reputable breeder. These are the choices that will generally do best in the long run. And you're not supporting a cruel industry."

She also adds, "From a financial point of view, pet-store pups are generally not the best specimens for their breed, either in conformation to breed standard, health or temperament, and yet the prices in many cases are what you would pay a reputable breeder for a top show-quality pup. Not a good bargain! And the papers on purebred dogs are also often fraudulent, and the dogs are no more purebred than I am!"

Besides doing your homework and getting a good deal, there's one more dictum that we Fools like to live by. "Put your money where your morals are." Don't support businesses that have questionable ethics. Thanks to all of you Foolish readers who reminded me of that. When it's time for Belle to have a little sister you can bet that she won't be coming from a pet store.

[Hey, Fools, let's talk about bringing up little Fools. Head over to the Family Fool message board.]

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