Pet stores

[Guest]

Is it a bad idea to by a Cairn Terrier in a Pet Store in a mall :?:?

[Mama Kim]

I know it's not a good idea to buy pet store animals (puppy mill horror stories, etc.) but we did buy our first cairn (who passed away four weeks ago today from renal failure at the age of 14) from a pet store at the mall. We were young and I honestly didn't know any better. But I am SO GLAD we did!! She was the best little dog and just a real joy. She was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease about three years ago, though, so I wonder about the "quality" of the pets sold at these stores. Since a lot of the puppies sold at these places probably come from pet mills, their overall health may be in question. So it's buyer beware, I guess. But I also know people who have bought their cairns from reputable breeders and have also had similar results health-wise. In my opinion, at least one puppy would be out of the pet store window, if you did buy one. We are currently awaiting the arrival of our new puppy from a breeder in SC. She is just two weeks old, so we've got a while to wait, but I am so excited!!

[Autumn]

I personally think so because many pet shops obtain their puppies directly from puppy mills or through dealers who buy from puppy mills.

Autumn

[bradl]

The puppy in the window is a shipment from someone, somewhere who doesn't care at all who buys that puppy, what sort of life it will have, or ever care to be bothered with it again.

Worse, if the breeder of that puppy in the window cares so little about the individual dog, how much do they care about the breed? It's the breeder's job to be guardians of the breed and keep it healthy and correct. How much time and energy were spent researching the ancestors of that puppy in the window, finding matches that strenghten what is correct in the parents and correcting what is weak?

Buying a puppy from the window often condemns the mother to continued life in a factory hell. Buying a puppy from a responsible breeder condemns the mother to a life of luxury, postcards at the holidays, and return visits from the puppy and its new family.

Buying a puppy from the window rewards everyone along the chain who believes a dog is piece of perishable retail inventory, like a fruit or vegetable.

Buying a puppy from the window almost ensures that you will have to work at least twice as hard to socialize that puppy. Even if you give the commercial breeder the benefit of the doubt and pretend the puppy was whelped in the house and raised with the kids until packed up and shipped to the store for sale, in order for it to be 'fresh' in the window it almost by definition had to be removed from the home environment at much too young an age.

Where do the puppies in the window go when they are no longer fresh, and no longer puppies?

If your check clears, you can have that puppy in the window. A responsible breeder will spend a lot of time ensuring that your puppy's personality is a good match for your family, and that your lifestyle is suitable to your puppy. A responsible breeder treats a puppy placement as an adoption, not a product sale.

If you move overseas ten years from now, the store won't be taking your puppy back and spending extra time to find its forever home. A responsible breeder will take a dog of their own back for the life of the dog.

When the puppy in the window is starting to look like a yak, the store isn't likely to invite you to dinner and spend an evening showing you how to groom him.

When your puppy is hacking and honking the store is unlikely to take your worried call on Christmas Eve and help you figure out if she's eaten an ornament or come down with kennel cough.

The puppy in the window isn't likely to come with pedigrees and pictures of relatives and stories of how she is just like her great-grandmother when she barks but exactly like her uncle in the way she drapes her paw over the arm of a chair.

Well, my bias is fairly clear. I don't deny anyone's positive experience with a pet store Cairn. I feel the same way about mixed breeds. That's not where my interest is, but who's to deny a lifetime of love? But if you look beyond the individual instance and consider the background, what are 'best practices'? Unless you look into these things, how would anyone even think of some of them? What matters most is that you love and care for your Cairn.

[Posey]

My youngest daughter is on her third Cairn Terrier from a pet store in 21 years. The first two she owned at the same time. One was a beautiful

black, the other, wheaten in color. They both lived well into their teens-no defects. She now has a red Cairn a pure delight. In fact he so delighted my husband and me that we came back from vacation and bought our Nicky last summer. I don't believe the puppy mill horror stories are true in every case.

Posey

[Susan]

I think if you educate yourself on puppymills, you can never again in good conscience buy a puppy from a petstore. I also will not buy merchandise from a petstore that sells puppies. If a puppy is in that petstore, it comes from a puppymill. There may be differing degrees of horror stories when it comes to puppymills, but it all boils down to one thing. Those adult dogs are kept in small wire cages in virtual slavery to continually breed new pups. They lose their toes and feet to the wire they stand on. They lose their ears to ear infections that are never treated. They are not given veterinarian care unless their ability to produce more pups is involved. They don't know what grass is or what a toy is or what it means to be held and petted and loved. I have seen the results in the puppymill survivors we rescue, and I feel very strongly about it.

Even if you "luck out" and get a puppy from a petstore without a health defect, you are only perpetuating the problem. Now they will breed another to take its place, and the cycle continues. Please don't purchase from a petstore.

Susan

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for the answers...We are in contact with Breeders too, We were letting our hearts talk us into buying at the Pet Store ..We had a Cairn (Brandie) for 14 years she passed away of cancer 3 months ago and we miss her sooo much - I found her in a single ad in the paper as a puppy one owner..thye had to find her a home because of another dog & her weren't getting along, we too were young and never asked if he bought her at a Pet Store so I never knew if she came from a Pet Store - she was so healty all of her life - until January this year - so I'm just going to take my time and keep looking - they are the"Best Little Dogs" we did get AKC papers but I never registered her (I still have the application) with the names of the breeder but I havn't been able to locate her. Any suggestions, it is from 1988 in Colorado. Thank you.

[Mama Kim]

I know the puppies in these pet stores do not generally come from responsible breeders but I do worry. What is their fate if no one buys them? We are not going the pet store route this time around but I do feel good that the first cairn we ever had (and she was an angel!) was rescued from her fate because we bought her. Not buying one is not going to stop the disreputable puppy mill owners from doing what they do and it's only going to leave those puppies in the pet store window to a fate worse than death. So no, I don't believe it's a good idea in general to buy these puppies but if even one of them goes to a loving home, then it's one less puppy to be scarred by the trauma of the puppy mill.

[Susan]

I guess I just don't think of puppies in a pet store going to a bad place. I think the odds are they will go to a good and loving home. I consider every puppy in a pet store "saved" by comparison to their parents who are still in the puppymill to be bred again and again. I just won't buy one to encourage them to keep breeding them to death.

Like most people, I got my first Cairn from a pet store. That was almost 20 years ago, long before I had ever heard of a puppymill. It was a dirty secret back then. But investigative news reports and puppymill busts opened my eyes, and involvement with rescue has definitely touched my heart and hardened my resolve to never go in a mall pet store again.

Susan

[Mama Kim]

That's exactly the way I feel, Susan. But those little puppies in the pet stores just break my heart. I want them to get out, have a loving home, and not be subjected to life in a kennel forever. There ought to be legislation against this sort of thing (the puppy mills). That's the only way it will ever stop. When I read all the stories of the cairn rescues, it's just so heartbreaking. I would love to become a foster parent to rescued cairns some day. I'm not at a time in my life when I feel this is possible (young kids) but someday I am going to help in this way. I could seriously take each and every one of those little darlings into my life when I read their stories.