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It's called Petsway. They have locations around Missouri.
I don't know for sure where they get their pets. So while I know that most pet stores get their dogs from puppy mills, I don't have any proof of anything. There are other pet stores in town. I don't know about them, either. The one puppy we got from a pet store was an oops/mystery puppy, so she likely wasn't from a puppy mill. She was not from the chain store but from a smaller one. I think the last purebred dog we got from a pet store was our dachshund 20 years ago (he died at 14).
If only puppies could talk.
I'm not against breeders, and there may be a small (very small) percentage of pet store puppies who don't come from puppy mills. In general, to me, a dog is a dog, for the most part. You can go to shelters or find oops puppies that are any size, either gender, any color. You don't know the genetic background, but even mutts don't necessarily have any more health problems than purebred puppies. I realize it's an investment, but I don't think a more expensive dog will be any less trouble than a cheaper dog. Occasionally in the paper I even see somebody giving away an adult spayed/neutered dog. That saves a lot of cost as well. Adult dogs are also usually potty trained already and you can see more of their eventual temperament if you spend time with them.
Labs are so common you could get one at any rescue/shelter/pound or from somebody who had an accidental litter. My understanding is that black labs are also usually the last to get adopted at the shelters (black dogs in general).
I'm not against people buying from breeders, but I just don't think an expensive dog will necessarily be better than a shelter dog, unless you're looking to put a dog in show or breed him/her. There may be some good reasons to buy expensive dogs from breeders. I couldn't really do it myself. Pet stores are worse, I'm sure. Whenever I see a purebred dog at a pet store I wonder where they came from.
Your right there's no guarantee that even with thorough health testing that parents won't through a pup with faulty genetic traits. However the chances are less likely with reputable breeders vs a BYB/pet store.
With adopting its sort of a gamble......but that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the animals. People are quick to re-home their pets for the strangest reasons.
That's fine that you don't understand we people chose to purchase from reputable breeders than adopt. I don't understand a lot of things people do, but its not my place to.
I will say this though some breeders can be pricey though. If I have to take out a loan to afford it than its not for me.
In Palm Beach, they had a fancy puppy store...that sold only small, "popular" dogs. WAY expensive. And of course, the owner of the store assured everyone that the puppies were raised by little old ladies, supplementing their social security checks, by having a puppy litter every year or so...right. Once the puppies got too big...past being "cute"...little dogs...they were reduced half price...and then, they dissappeared.
I have never bought a purebred dog...Just found dogs, and gave them a home...always worked out fine. If folks do want a specific breed, puppy, research appropriate breeders.
On a side note, I do wonder what happens to the puppies when they don't sell before they grow up. Hopefully they find a home or just get moved to another store.
1: GOOD breders care about where their puppies/kittens go...they want to meet the people buying the nimal, they want to ask so many questions you think their prying nosey and insane, they want to know you hav done your reserch and that your ready to dedicate the next 15+ years to the animal they are selling to you. they want you to sign contracts for spay/neuter (or showing) and they want contracts that state if you cant keep the dog it goes back to them. they CARE where their dogs go.
becaue of this NO GOOD breeder wil EVER EVER sell puppies to a petstore, plain and simple. no ifs ands or butts because its 100% counter to everything a GOOD breeder belives (when was the last time a puppy store employee interveiwed you...the last time a puppy store turned someone down because they were obvvisouly NOT a good match for the breed ect..
never, because that would be counter to everything retail selling is.
so...all we have left are "well meaning" back yard breeders, those little grannies just suplimenting their social security or mary and joe who wanted fluffy to have altiter because puppies are cute ect...and commercial breeders (mills of arious sizes) (im NOT Talking about larger "kennels" raising working dogs ect, but commercial as in raising puppies for the sole purpose of reselling for profit)
in order for a pet store to legally buy puppies for resale the puppy MUST be form a USDA lisenced facility...(now usda lisencing is quite frankly a JOKE, the minimum requirments for these facilities are discusting at best)
USDA lisencing requires yearly fees (not cheap) and facility inspection...somehow i HIGHLY doubt those sweet little old ss suplimenting grannies and mary and joe are USDA lisenced for their "once in a while" litters...do you?!
this means theres not a pet shop in the USA whos getting their puppies from mary and joe or those sweet little grannies...at least not unless there breaking the law.
this leaves the "comercial" (mill) breeders and THIS is where the puppies come from...however its NOT where pettores buy puppies from.
pet stores buy their pupies from "middle men" (companies like Hunt and Lambriar) these companies deal directly with the "farms" they buy the puppies at "5-6 weeks of age" (belive me, most puppies are NOT 6 weeks old, most come in much younger, many are not even weaned) direct from the farms for dirt cheap, (anything from $25-$100 a puppy for most breeds)
they bring these puppies in, keep them for a couple of weeks in "quarentein" their vet comes in, does shots, "checks" them out ect.
then they send out "the lists" to the petstores who have contracts, these lists have "specials" (puppies from previous weeks that didnt sell or got returned/refused at drop off) and regulars ect. pet stores generally pay these middle men $100-$300 for their puppies who are then placed on big trucks and delivered across country.
the pet store then marks up as they see fit for the market (for exampe most of those "t-cup" chihuahuas being sold for $1200+ actually cost $100-$150 a peice (at least that was the going rate about 4 yrs ago)
selling price is determind by area and popularity...
as the pups get older they are marked down untill the store can no longer make a profit on the dog then anything that doesnt sell for at least $50 profit is returned to the "middle man" who then sells it back to the "breeders" they deal with, these "rejected" puppies are then either kept as breeders or sold in large auctions to other "breeders" doing the same thing.
dogs with behavioural issues ect are also often returned to be put back into the system.
if the store is a "chain" store sometimes they will move animals between stores to try and get them sold.
now unfortunatly because of how this all works, many times a shipment arrives and dogs are sick, dead on arrival ect. a pet store does have rights to refuse a puppy on a shipment for a refund, these puppies are then transported to all the other stops (where they are offered to other stores at a discount) and if noone wants the puppy its returned to the "hub" where its "checked by a vet" and either returned to the "breeder" it came from or kept back for the next weeks shipment and offered at a reduced price.
so the question becomes "well how do YOU know..."
because i used to work in puppy stores, and for a local animal control branch who inspected mills.
i worked in 3 puppy stores total, the first was while i was in highschool, desperate for money and i foolishly thought i could make a difference...i wasnt the one selling i simply did kennel care, my job was to clean kennels, bathe puppies before they whent home, feed, and care for "the back room" (the area where all the sick puppies are hidden away during treatment ect)
i was there for a year in that time i worked 3 mornings a week and at least 1 morning a week id find a dead puppy on arrival for my shift in the back room...it was just shrugged off, we had to take a picture with a date tag on the dead puppy so the store could get a refund ect...
i got to be there for delivery and can tell you we turned down at least 2 puppies per shipment due to health but they had to look REALY bad for "us" to refuse them. your not allowed to look in the truck, puppies are handed off according to collar number from a worker IN the truck to a worker outside the truck via a small door in the back (essentialy a doggy door) supposedly because the truck is fully environmentally controled, but on the odd occasion a worker would slip up and ive seen the inside, there fancy chiled and stainless steal and unfortunatly often theres the odd dead puppy in a cage back there that "didnt make the shipment" (they never told you if one of the pups youd ordered had died in transit, they simply told you "oh that one didnt make it on the shipment" and marked for refund on the invoice.)
in that year i learnt quickly that ANYONE could buy a dog, didnt matter if you could care for it as long as you could PAY for it...and if you didnt have cash you just had to have good enough credit to get their store credit card.
after a year we got in a little chihuahua, she was tiny, and she came in badly congested, the vet diagnosed her with "a cold" and did nothing, a couple days later she was worse so then it was "a bad cold" and she was given some antibiotics and put in back...2 weeks on antibiotics and she was getting no better so they decided that mabe it was stress of being in the ennel and asked if someone could take her home wiht them for a week and se if she got better. i ended up being the ******* and she died 2 days later...a necropsy showed such heavy fluid on her lungs shes drowned to death, the emergency vet i took her too when she crashed assured me there was nothign i could have personally done, but it crushed me.
after that i wanted to actually make a difference and got inolved with a group that worked with Dept of Ag i did some under covere work in a couple of other petstores in the area and the things i saw made me sick...
then i did a few trips to hunt and lambriar corp...oh there shiney and clean and "state of the art" but its like going into some odd lab...just rows and rows of puppies much to young to be aay from their mothers, the smell of bleach everywhere ect...
and soon after that i whent on some mill investigations.
i only lasted about a year with the group...it hurt every fiber of my being and nothing we did seemed to make a difference so i quit.
being raised and involved in ethical breeding my entire life i THOUGHT i could make a difference...
NO GOOD breeder sells puppies to a pet store. EVER.
in terms of prices, as i ssaid there set by the market the store thiks it has, if there charging $2000 for a puppy its because they think they can sell the puppy for almost that much. there always marked at least $200 higher than the profit the store REALY wants so they have room to drop them down a little and people think there getting a bargain!
now i persoanlly have NO problem paying big money for a pure bred dog from a GOOD breeder if im looking for something specific, but thats because i know im paying for a good breeders efforts...a good breeder isnt charging $800 to make a profit...there charging $800 to offset the cost of health testing, showing, proper care of the female during her pregnancy ect...
a GOOD puppy is worth it...
but from a petstore?! no thank you, i wouldnt have spent that kind of money before i saw it "from the other side" because if im buying a dog i want to know genetic testing has been done, i want to knwo the parents tempemrents and know how the puppy was raised ect...
but once i got an inside veiw...it was even less appealing..if thats possible.
now...is 3 stores and 2 years a "usa wide" experience...no...but after talking with people from all over the coutnry with similar experiences in puppy stores small and large...there all the same.
Are there a lot of pet stores that still "sell" puppies? Here in the Los Angeles area, I haven't seen a pet store that actually has dogs for sale in years. I remember them in malls and shopping centers a long time ago, but all have since closed down or have turned into "feed & supply" stores.
Are there a lot of pet stores that still "sell" puppies? Here in the Los Angeles area, I haven't seen a pet store that actually has dogs for sale in years. I remember them in malls and shopping centers a long time ago, but all have since closed down or have turned into "feed & supply" stores.
A lot of stores have buckled under pressure from rescue groups and have gone from obtaining puppies from mills to getting dogs from shelters and putting them up for adoption in the store. Funny you asked this because I found this online tonight:
The pet stores around here have been gone for years to. There are a few back yard breeders in the Berkley County area but you never hear of them in Md. anymore. Thats just as well with me. Alot of those puppies at the pet stores were carriers of Parvo. The vet clinic I worked for would take care of them. My problem was of people going into the stores, handling the puppies then take the virus home and God knows where else. Thats how the epidemic starts.
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People are quick to re-home their pets for the strangest reasons. 
