There was plenty going on in the puppy mills and pet shops battle over the holidays, with ASPCA’s No Pet Store Puppies out there educating people about where pets in shops come from (nearly 80% did not know pet shop=puppy mill pets), and the individual groups who have sprouted up all over the country to help people on the street understand what all the protesting is about. ASPCA even provided a map of stores in your area to avoid buying supplies from, giving alternatives that adopt animals. Even Time.com had an article dedicated to educating people on this point that got over 2000 “shares” on FB.
Macerich, the upscale retail mall developer who resolved to disallow the selling of live pets on any of his properties has kept that resolve as pet shops whose leases are up are given the new rules. Rapid City, South Dakota just got their notice, while in a Macerich Lakewood CA mall, the 500th dog was adopted at Adopt & Shop, an effort supported by Found Animals Foundation.
The petition I started asking Petland to quit selling pets, and you wonderful readers, bloggers and friends of animals signed and passed on, took off and stands at more than 135,000 since October 10. If you haven’t signed it, please do. That petition was more about beginnings than endings. Petland is a franchise, so each store that is not a corporate store must be approached as a small local business. I’ve always tried to provide solutions to bad news and this seems to fit – there’s a story over at Change.org on a Michigan whose group has done a fantastic job at ridding neighborhood by neighborhood of pet shops. They have only 1 Petland store left. I call that effective! You can go see what Stephanie Feldstein wrote up in the appropriately titled: 3 Steps to Getting Puppy Mill Pet Stores Out of Your Neighborhood.
I read your post when it first came out, but couldn't comment because I was at work. I think change is a'coming Mary and if puppy mills and pet stores don't recognize it then they are fooling themselves. The pendulum is moving and it is not moving in a direction that is in their favor. I'm completely blown away by the number of signatures you got. It says something when you get numbers like that. BTW - I received a wonderful email from one of the women who helped find Lady. She told me that she had never known about puppy mills before reading my post. Now she's going to foster for MN Sheltie Rescue and adopt too. How amazing is that?
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