Are you ready for a furry friend at your home? A puppy is a great addition to your family. There are quite a few ways to acquire a puppy, from asking around till you find someone who has a dog who’s about to become a mom to rescuing a dog from the pound. Buying a new puppy gives you the best chance of success, since it allows you to control variables — you can be sure, if you do it right, that you have a healthy puppy who has not been abused or learned bad habits. But where should you buy a puppy? Should you buy a puppy in a pet shop?
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says no. Here are their reasons:
- They believe that pet shops sometimes buy puppies from puppy mills, where mama dogs are treated badly.
- They claim that pet shops sometimes go for the cheapest possible puppy source, which often means inbreeding and other health issues endanger those puppies.
- The retail situation relies on quick turnover. Since that can be hard to predict, many of those puppies will end up in animal shelters when they get past their “sell-by date.”
Are pet shops all bad?
We don’t think so. We are sure that some pet shops are better than others, but we can also see that the pressures of the retail sales situation can increase the chances of problems like the ones PETA lists.
“Those puppies in the pet shop window commonly begin life in massive breeding mills, where they’re taken from their mothers prematurely, exposed to diseases, and shipped off to make a quick buck,” says PETA spokesperson Daphna Nachminovitch.
The ASPCA agrees. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals gives the same reasons PETA does.
Live dogs are not the same as consumer packaged goods. They probably shouldn’t be treated as though they are — or subject to the same kind of market forces that Doritos and deodorant are.
Perfect Paw is not a pet shop
Perfect Paw is a matchmaker. We’re a network of farm families in the United States, breading dogs in healthy, traditional ways. We offer AKC certified puppies with health guarantees. They have all been raised on our properties with our families, socialized with kids and animals and pre-spoiled to make sure they’re suitable for your family.