Say No to Petland in Austin!
Why is Petland Bad for Austin?
Over 12,000 animals are already dying at Town Lake Animal Center every year. If Petland moves into Austin, thousands of unaltered animals will be brought into the community contributing to the pet overpopulation crisis. This influx of unaltered animals will reverse all of the spay/neuter progress and efforts made over the last few years, and will create an even greater crisis and thousands of more unnecessary pet deaths in the years to come.The arguement that Petland sells purebred animals and that people that are willing to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to buy them, will take better care of them and keep them for their lifetime, simply isn’t true. The truth lies at shelters all over the country, including Town Lake Animal Center where thousands of purebreds are dumped every year. And right behind them are thousands of purebred rescue groups trying to save their lives, but there are just too many and many die at the shelter waiting to be saved. Just in the greater Austin area, we have many purebred rescue groups including;
All Texas Dachshund Rescue
Austin Aussie Rescue
Austin Boxer Rescue
Austin German Shepherd Dog Rescue
Border Collie Rescue Texas, Inc
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club Rescue
Chako Rescue Association (Pit Bulls)
Chesapeake Bay Retriever Relief and Rescue
Cocker Spaniel Rescue of Austin
Central Texas Dachshund Rescue
DFW Pug Rescue
Fila Rescue
German Shepherd Rescue of Central Texas
German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue
Gold Ribbon Rescue (Golden Retrievers)
Great Dane Rescue of North Dallas
Greyhound Pets of America
Heart of Texas Lab Rescue
Helping Hands Basset Rescue
Hound Rescue (Beagles)
Katys Promise Rottweiler Rescue
Lil’ Paws Maltese Rescue
Lone Star Catahoula Rescue
Lone Star Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso Rescue
Luck & Legends Saint Bernard Rescue
Nationwide Boston Terrier Rescue
Ponderosa Pomeranian Rescue Inc
Reunion Rescue (Pit Bulls)
Rottilove Rescue (Rottweilers)
Shiba Inu Rescue of Texas
Spindletop Rescue (Pit Bulls)
Texas Airedale Rescue Team
Texas Alaskan Malamute Rescue Association
Texas Great Pyrenees Rescue
Weimaraner Rescue of Texas
Westie Rescue
Grimalkin Rescue (cats)
Maine Coon Rescue (cats)
Maine Coon Rescue Alliance (cats)
Texas Siamese Rescue (cats)Why Single out Petland?
Petland purchases their animals from Hunte Corp out of Goodman, Mo, who in turn purchase their animals from from puppy mills. The Hunte Corporation is the largest puppy dealer in the U.S., selling 90,000 puppies every year to retail pet stores. Say No to Petland and the exploitation of innocent pets!What is a Puppy Mill?
Puppy mills are commercial breeding facilities where dogs live in horrible conditions. The entire goal of a puppy mill is to raise a cash crop, puppies. With profit as the only motivator, puppy millers keep the parents of these puppies known as the breeding stock, in horrible conditions. Most are kept in small, wire cages their entire lives, sweltering in the summer, freezing in the winter. They live in their own filth, with poor food and minimal vet care. They receive no exercise and no socialization with people or other dogs. The puppies the mills produce often have a host of health and behavior problems. Once the breeding dogs are no longer useful, they are killed.The Hunte Corporation is a wholesaler of puppies. While the Hunte Corporation ads and website show a sparkling clean and modern facility for the puppies, what is not shown is where the puppies come from before they arrive at Hunte, the same filthy puppy mills described above. The parents of these puppies are prisoners of greed, spending their entire existences in these deplorable conditions.
We urge all Austin residents to Say No To Petland by signing this Petition and calling, faxing and emailing your City Council Members. Check out http://www.austinspetdirectory.com [sic] for more information about getting involved with stopping Petland set-up shop in Austin.
If petland want to make peoples lives “better” with pets they need to work something out with the shelters to help adopt out shelter pets not find breeders aka puppy mills to breed more pets. I am a dog trainer and can not beleive people still buy dogs for $700-$1200 when there are millions in shelter with shots and are fixed for $75-$100. This is 2008 peple should know better! PLEASE do not buy dogs or cats!!! There are many pure breed rescue groups throughout the country if you must have a pure breed dog.
The Spay Austin Coalition has been hosting peaceful (on our part anyway – can’t say the same for the Petland employees who drive by screaming obscenities) protests every Saturday at the Southpark Meadows Petland store. It’s pretty funny actually, until you realize they are either ignorant or ambivalent to the suffering of the animals in the store and the parents back at the puppy mill. Rather than clog up your comment space with a bunch of statistics, I’ll leave you with these:
~More than 14,000 animals were killed at Town Lake Animal Center in 2007
~99% of pet store puppies are from puppy mills
~100% of Petland puppies are sent home with medication to keep them from going into “shock”
There are several articles on spayaustin.com about Petland, puppy mills, and former employees and customers of Petland. A better way to have an impact on this type of business model is to educate yourself and everyone you know, then make a sign and join our protest or simply use the power of your pocketbook and choose to shop elsewhere.
I realize this is an old thread, but Petland can actually be part of the solution. They have spay/neuter programs and encourage anyone who buys a pet to have them spayed or neutered. They also have an animal adoption program, and they work with local shelters and rescues to get animals adopted.
They also DO NOT buy from puppy mills. They have standards for breeders that they developed in conjunction with the USDA. They also have a “Do not buy list” that names substandard breeders that the Petland franchises cannot buy from.
Go into a Petland. Talk to the employees and find out exactly how the animals are cared for before jumping to conclusios. Petland was started because of a love for animals and it continues to love and care for its animals