I was HORRIFIED

I've been passing a pet store in NE Calgary for some time now and have always wanted to go inside to check it out. It said it was a dogs only pet store so I was thrilled with the idea of new toys, new blankets, beds etc that they might carry that other big box pet stores didn't have. I finally took the time to stop yesterday and I was HORRIFIED when I stepped in the door and saw rows and rows of puppies for sale! It made me physically sick! I was disgusted! There were at least 50 cute little doodle puppies. Cockapoos, yorkiepoos, labradoodles, golden doodles, and even what appeared to be two purebred Corgis. The glass in front of each set of puppies said "ask me how you can save $1000!" I was just heartbroken. All these puppy mill puppies who will never get a real chance at life because they will either die in the first year of life or have a short life of sickness and disease. The signs said, Please disinfect your hands before and after handling each puppy! Why would that be? Do you think they might be sick?? GRRRRRRRRR!!!!

There was a young couple there trying to decide which puppy to buy. I SO wanted to tell them not to buy one. Instead of talking directly to them, I was very loud with my disgust of the place and how they would have received all these puppies from puppy mills because reputable breeders would NEVER sell their offspring to a place who sells dogs to anyone with a credit card! I don't know if they proceeded with their purchase or not because Mark was gently pushing me towards the door before I made a downright scene!

There are so many reasons not to buy a puppy from a pet store. I have it all written out in my FAQ page on my website but just in case you haven't had a chance to read it, I will tell you the biggest two. Puppy mills count on the fact that you will see this cute little puppy and want to "save" it. All you are doing is creating another opening at the store that they will fill by breeding another litter of dogs. The best way to save that puppy, it's parents and all it's siblings, is to NOT BUY IT! The other thing you must think about when you are buying doodles, is that 50% of all doodles are disposed of at birth. That's a nice way of saying, drowned, necks broken, suffocated etc. What? For every puppy I see in this store, there is a dead puppy?? Yes, that's right! It's genetics. If you breed a Golden Retriever and a Poodle, half of the puppies will shed and the other half will not shed. Why do people buy doodles? Because they are non-shedding. So where are all the shedding puppies? Now I'm not saying every single doodle breeder is killing half their puppies. But the puppy mills sure are. I can almost guarantee you that. There is no market for a shedding doodle. If people don't mind shedding, they'd buy a Golden Retriever.

I have spent decades teaching obedience classes. I have seen the heartache of families who start an 8 week course with their puppy and their puppy is dead before the end of the course. It was a pet store puppy. Or a puppy mill rescue. They wanted to help by giving the poor thing a home. But they didn't look ahead to see how it would affect little Bobby and Suzie when their cute little fur ball didn't come home from the vet. After spending $1000s of dollars on the poor little thing. Believe me. I want to help those poor little cute fur balls too. And I hope I did by letting that couple know all the puppies would have come from a puppy mill. It just made me sick. A "pet specialist" came up and asked me if I needed anything and I just about lost it on her. But I didn't. I'm sure she had nothing to do with purchasing the dogs. She looked like a university student trying to make enough for next years tuition. But in hindsight I wish I had told her what I'm telling you now. Maybe she would have found herself a different place of employment. But Mark was slowly pushing me towards the door, knowing my blood pressure was rising to the point of no return.

If you MUST have a doodle, find a reputable breeder. Find one who health checks the parents and ask them what they do with the shedding puppies. There are good ones out there but they are few and far between. And don't let them tell you they have "hybrid vigour". There is such a thing as hybrid vigour. That is when you breed two species together and the offspring are healthier that the average individual. But that individual is also sterile. And breeding two breeds of dogs together is not breeding two species together. You'd have to breed a dog and a wolf, or a dog and a coyote to get hybrid vigour. And that, by the way, is illegal. So don't be fooled by fast talking salesman who will say anything to sell a dog. Ask to see the health clearances on the parents. And go to the associations and see what their certifications look like. Puppy mills will make up "papers" to say the dog has been cleared and is registered with XYZ. The only associations that matter are The Canadian Kennel Club and The American Kennel Club in the US.

Can you tell this is something that burns a hole in my heart? I cried for those 50 puppies as we drove away.

Mary Ann