Update:NO MORE! Group Wants to Stop the Sale of Dogs and Cats in Petland

[BigBrodieFan]

Originally Posted by JDub81

My family is an example of rescue dogs turning into great stories on several occasions - whether it be adoption by word of mouth, friends or family who needed help or shelters.

I can sympathize with your situation for sure, and commend you and your family for sticking with it and not giving up on Hank.

Just curious, do you have a big back yard? How much/often do you exercise your dogs?

Please don't take those questions the wrong way - you sound like a great, knowledgable dog owner. It's just that we got a young dog from a cousin once and had issues with her eating everything in sight, tearing the house apart, going crazy when we were gone. After a couple of weeks of this, I finally clued in that she needed more exercise than our older dog and started taking her out for challenging jogs with obstacles, etc. twice a day, 7 days a week. Within a week, she was a different dog.

Might be something you've already thought of, but I thought I'd mention it anyway! Love the Flames hoodie!

Well, since Hank is a Wire-Haired-Pointer he needs a LOT more exercise than Hannah. Those dogs are naturally very restless without exercise. We do have a big backyard, and we walk him three times a day and take him to an off-leash dog park at least three times a week, more in the summer. If he's cooped up longer, he'll destroy more, you're absolutely right! Hannah hates the heat (her breed normally does), and she's a terrible on a lead, but she's great in the backyard.

Glad you have good stories with rescue dogs. I can see how someone would fall in love with one and take it home and say 'Umm.. this wasn't such a great idea.' I think Hank is really a 'special' animal and our friends and family think 1) we're nuts and 2) the stories we tell about him are pretty hilarious.

[TylerSVT]

We adopted our latest dog from the SPCA, she is such a sweetie and an awesome dog.

Puppy mills make me so mad.

[4X4]

IMHO, the sale of common pets like cats and dogs should be borderline illegal for Joe Wannabe Breeder that lets his dog have a littler, then sell the pups on kijiji. In fact, if I had any kind of power, I'd make the sale of non spayed/neutered pets illegal. Leave the breeding up to people that apply for licenses and are inspected regularly, just like any other business in the world, and help eliminate the ridiculous overpopulation of unwanted pets.

Nobody is going to hell for buying a dog at Petland, but if the people who did buy their dogs on a whim actually spent a couple weeks looking at all the adoption sites and researching the reputable breeders that are just as easy to access as the old Petland down the street, they'd find puppies just as cute. And it would strongly discourage the (again, IMO) depolrable act of putting animals in little cages for little kids to knock on the window and harass for weeks on end until they're "adopted" by some parent that just can't say NO to the little Johnny, who swears he'll take care of the dog, which lasts a month until dad gets right pissed off and sends the "dumb mutt" to the SPCA. That's my biggest problem with Petland. It suckers people into buying a dog on a whim. That's how the vast majority of these animals end up in shelters. Mom says yes, dad's pissed when he comes home, and it's just a count down until junior f***s up and forgets to walk Rufus, and Rufus pays the ultimate price for shi**ing on the carpet.

[chid]

Yes older and adult rescue dogs will have issues, they require patience and training and a ton of commitment.

Many rescues have puppies who don't have those issues but need homes. I rescued my puppy at 8 weeks old from a rescue agency.

[Finner]

I have no rescue dogs to speak of but 4 rescue cats.

I had dogs growing up, two purebred collies (think lassie) that were bought from a breeder who was a friend of my moms. We actually went and camped there when we got both, and that place was awesome, dogs all over the house. I remember begging to vacation there in the summer so i could hang out with the dogs.

Now that i'm older i would never "buy" a dog, i'll absolutely adopt.

The cats were a slightly different story.

We adopted 2 from the humane society in Edmonton, unfortunately 1 was sick and after thousands in vet bills had to be put down due to suspected Leukemia.

We adopted another one (Indy) from a PetSmart adoption show on a saturday to keep the now lonely first cat (Zoe) company. Life was easy as a two cat family.

The third one was by accident. While at a friends house at a party a cat (now named george) came to visit on the patio. She was obviously severely injured,stomach hanging way down almost dragging on the pavement when she walked. She had lived in that condition in pain for several years according to our friend who lived there. The next day the gf (now wife) and i went searching for her, caught her, took her to 1 vet for starting surgery, then to a specialist to complete the surgery to put some mesh in her. The vets were shocked she had lived at all, much less for a couple years, and suspected she had been hit by a car.

We brought her home, stuck her in a cage to keep her immobile after the surgery for a week and lived with the hell of a cat screaming for 24 hours a day. She HATED our other cats, likely as she was beat to hell by other cats on the street. They had to separated for a full year prior to being able to be around each other when we were gone. Now they' re good,but she definitely prefers people to them.

The last cat we adopted was again a "street" cat (Everett). He was obviously homeless. He would come to our window in our apartment every night, and we watched him slowly starving. He would not less us get near him at all, bolting away if we got within 50 feet. What started as me putting out food whenever he came (think getting up at 3AM every night when the cat comes and ours freak out).

Eventually after weeks we coaxed him into a large kennel to eat and shut the door. Got him neutered, shots, and now he's the sweetest guy ever, loves other cats.

Never wanted 4, but thats what i ended up with. Hopefully in a year or two we can throw a dog or two into the mix.

Obligatory pics:

Zoe:


Indy:


George:



Everett:



Sorry for all the pics.

Can't believe people abandoned these guys to the streets.

[BigBrodieFan]

Originally Posted by 4X4

IMHO, the sale of common pets like cats and dogs should be borderline illegal for Joe Wannabe Breeder that lets his dog have a littler, then sell the pups on kijiji. In fact, if I had any kind of power, I'd make the sale of non spayed/neutered pets illegal. Leave the breeding up to people that apply for licenses and are inspected regularly, just like any other business in the world, and help eliminate the ridiculous overpopulation of unwanted pets.

Nobody is going to hell for buying a dog at Petland, but if the people who did buy their dogs on a whim actually spent a couple weeks looking at all the adoption sites and researching the reputable breeders that are just as easy to access as the old Petland down the street, they'd find puppies just as cute. And it would strongly discourage the (again, IMO) depolrable act of putting animals in little cages for little kids to knock on the window and harass for weeks on end until they're "adopted" by some parent that just can't say NO to the little Johnny, who swears he'll take care of the dog, which lasts a month until dad gets right pissed off and sends the "dumb mutt" to the SPCA. That's my biggest problem with Petland. It suckers people into buying a dog on a whim. That's how the vast majority of these animals end up in shelters. Mom says yes, dad's pissed when he comes home, and it's just a count down until junior f***s up and forgets to walk Rufus, and Rufus pays the ultimate price for shi**ing on the carpet.

People should never buy OR adopt animals on a whim. Sometimes it's hard to resist, but taking care of animals properly requires a LOT of dedicated time, money and hard work.

[flambers]

Personally I adopted a dog from one of the Rescue Societies in Calgary. These agency have Adult dogs and puppies... They were excellent to deal with.

If a person is interested, I would recommend they check out "Pet Expo". All of the Pet Rescue Societies will be there.

They have websites which are updated regularly, many of them have blogs on individual dogs.

As for Petland, Petland also sells "Rescue Dogs". They are clearly marked.

[flambers]

Originally Posted by JDub81

My family is an example of rescue dogs turning into great stories on several occasions - whether it be adoption by word of mouth, friends or family who needed help or shelters.

I can sympathize with your situation for sure, and commend you and your family for sticking with it and not giving up on Hank.

Just curious, do you have a big back yard? How much/often do you exercise your dogs?

Please don't take those questions the wrong way - you sound like a great, knowledgable dog owner. It's just that we got a young dog from a cousin once and had issues with her eating everything in sight, tearing the house apart, going crazy when we were gone. After a couple of weeks of this, I finally clued in that she needed more exercise than our older dog and started taking her out for challenging jogs with obstacles, etc. twice a day, 7 days a week. Within a week, she was a different dog.

Might be something you've already thought of, but I thought I'd mention it anyway! Love the Flames hoodie!

From my expereince when we adopted a "problem Rescue Dog" .... we enrolled her into dog classes...

Took quite a few courses. Now she is enrolled in "Agility"... One of the top students in the class....

This helped a tonne to address the issues.

[zuluking]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

I bought--correction, I rescued--one of my dogs at Petland in April of last year. Funny thing is, during Easter a week or two before I got him, I was lecturing my cousin over dinner about the evils of pet store dogs, and spend pretty much the entire evening talking about all the great dogs that need homes.

Here's how it went down:

My girlfriend and I were at Market Mall, and we did the obligatory Petland stop. I hate going in there, it depresses the living #### out of me. Usually I wait outside. Anyway, I went in and there were three little dogs, boston-terrier chihuahua crosses, and one looked so lethargic and scared, and was barely moving. I felt sick.

I couldn't get it out of my mind.

Perhaps fate, but I had to stop at Market mall by myself two days later, and something pulled me into Petland. Two of the dogs were gone, just the remaining sad, depressed little guy. I asked to hold him, he was all skin and bones, and when I held him, he squirmed into my jacket. Again, I felt sick.

So of course I bought him. $1500. What the #### was I thinking? I was asking myself this when I was purchasing him, while I was filling out the paerwork, while the ditzy girls working there were trying to upsell me on all the crap didn't need but they told me I did. What was I doing?!

I felt sick at what I had done. I expected my girlfriend to be mad when I brought him home, even though she doesn't live with me, but she wasn't. My other dog, who is a rescue dog pretty much hated him. It was just an awful situation, very stressful. I am ashamed to admit that I even contemplated returning him, losing half of the price of him.

Anyway, the first night having the new dog, who is named Wendel, I woke up to see that he had pooped blood all over his kennel. I freaked out, and took him immediately to the vet Petland said I had to take him to for warranty reasons ('warranty,' that sounds so f'ing cruel!).

The vet actually told me he was fine! They signed off on this dog, even though he was skin and bones, had diarrhea, was pooping blood, had little energy. Then they told me he had a chipped tooth and I should have it pulled and I should have his feet operate don because they were splayed or something. They did some blood tests and they came back clean.

Calling bull#### in my mind, I went home and made an appointment for my regular vet. Had blood work done, and turns out my dog had campylobactor (sp?), giardia and one other thing I forget what it was called. By this time, my other dog was pooping blood and had insane diarrhea. And, low and behold, I had the worst diarrhea and stomach pains in my life.

So I got both my dogs on medication, and they slowly got better. Wendel was 12 weeks old and four pounds when I got him, a week later he was seven pounds.

I had bloodwork and stool work (?) done and was diagnosed with campylobacter, my girlfriend also had it. I went on antibiotics because it wasn't going away, though my girlfriend did not need to. Had my carpets cleaned.

About a month later, I notice little bald spots on Wendel. Took him to the vet and it turns out he had Mange. More medication. About three months later that went away.

I have no idea how much money I spent on this dog. But he came from deplorable conditions, and surely would have died at Petland. And now I have a great, loving little dog with not a mean bone in his whole body. Both my dogs get along, we're one big happy family.

But F--K Petland. One of my biggest regrets was not exposing this somehow.

So what was the store's response to the situation?

[Buff]

Originally Posted by zuluking

So what was the store's response to the situation?

They probably told him that since the dog saw another vet that the warranty was voided and there was nothing they could do.

He should argue that they didn't break any seals.

[JDub81]

Finner - how is it possible that a cat as cute as George was left roaming and hurt for so long? Breaks my heart - good on you for taking her in and giving her a life. All four a very cute.

[zuluking]

Originally Posted by Buff

They probably told him that since the dog saw another vet that the warranty was voided and there was nothing they could do.

He should argue that they didn't break any seals.

So what was the store's actual response to the situation?

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by zuluking

So what was the store's actual response to the situation?

I never went back.

[MacGruber]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

Perhaps fate, but I had to stop at Market mall by myself two days later, and something pulled me into Petland. Two of the dogs were gone, just the remaining sad, depressed little guy. I asked to hold him, he was all skin and bones, and when I held him, he squirmed into my jacket. Again, I felt sick.

So of course I bought him.

This warmed the cockles of my heart, as a dog lover. Thanks for sharing. Group hug

[zuluking]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

I never went back.

So to recap: you hate pet stores and think pet store dogs are evil. Yet you visit a hated pet store twice and not only look at, but hold, the evil pet store dog. The pet store dog is obviously unwell, but, because you have a big heart, you shell out $1.5K to take the sick dog home. One vet is obviously evil and fakes the blood tests. The other vet is honest and reports back on the myriad of diseases some of which you actually get.

And none of this gets back to the store. Nothing about the dog, the vet, the diseases. Nada. Just a story on a Calgary Flames board. No embellishments... color me skeptical.

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by zuluking

So to recap: you hate pet stores and think pet store dogs are evil. Yet you visit a hated pet store twice and not only look at, but hold, the evil pet store dog. The pet store dog is obviously unwell, but, because you have a big heart, you shell out $1.5K to take the sick dog home. One vet is obviously evil and fakes the blood tests. The other vet is honest and reports back on the myriad of diseases some of which you actually get.

And none of this gets back to the store. Nothing about the dog, the vet, the diseases. Nada. Just a story on a Calgary Flames board. No embellishments... color me skeptical.

Ok.

[simmonjam1]

Originally Posted by Ace

So if you want to get a new dog where are you supposed to go...do you have to hunt down a breeder?

Wouldn't a store like petland know exactly how many animals they need and source them appropriately?

Why not try a non-kill shelter like this one:

http://www.pawsitivematch.org/

These guys are based in Calgary and are a top notch organization run by volunteers. Check 'em out some of the dogs are pretty nice too.

[Dion]

My brother adopted a rescue dog a few weeks back. It came from an Indian reserve where it had been abused. So far the Lab named "Buddy" has been a hit with the family and gets along great with small children

[Suzles]

Wonderful sight to see a formerly abused dog all comfy and safe on a huge squishy bed! Thank you for the photos!

[TylerSVT]

Beautiful dog too.

I cant believe people hurt defenseless animals... makes me sad.