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News and Features of November 10, 2021 »News

Hidden in the back room, a puppy's body trembles on the cool metal cover of the washing machine. Shih Tzu is only a few weeks old. It almost looks like a plush toy, with soft fur and a cute, squashed nose. That was the golden age of puppy sales. But too thin. Too weak. Too sick. Shih Tzu has been prone to breathing problems-a side effect of inbreeding for centuries-but it is difficult for Shih Tzu to squeeze air into a baby's fist-sized lungs.

The kennel technician speculated that it had an upper respiratory tract infection, but the signed health certificate did not list anything. No matter which breeder it came from outside of the state, he obviously didn't care about it. And now, just a few days after arriving in Petran on Waterford Lake, Orlando, the Shih Tzu puppy was dying. It has no name yet.

Five kennel technicians tried to keep the puppy alive. A more experienced technician put her lips on the puppy's nose: blow. Pump. blow. Pump. blow. Pump.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is too late; little Shih needs a veterinarian. But former employees said that unless absolutely necessary, shopkeepers don't like to send their puppies outside. An older kennel technician pushed a new employee out of the room. The young woman in her 20s drove home from the store, and her puppies' wrinkled body burned her eyelids.

The next day, Shih Tzu was gone. The new employee found the kennel manager. "What's wrong with the puppy?" she asked, afraid she would hear it dead.

It went to the vet, the kennel technician replied. She doesn't need to worry: "It's not common here."

The puppy never returned to the store.

For the next five years, where she worked, the young woman realized that her first day was a symbol of her entire Petran experience. She naively thought that the store she worked in would be a healthy place, and the animals, employees, and customers would be happy. Today, after arrest threats, harassment, racism, and trauma-based insomnia, she thinks she is really wrong.

Midsummer 2021: The Orange County Commission sits on the podium, standing in front of a group of color-coded people wearing red T-shirts with the words "Save Our Pet Shop" or the words "Vote for the puppy!" "Yellow T-shirt. The public meeting has been in for the fifth hour, and Mayor Jerry Demings looks tired. The real debate — with dozens of attendees pouring into the hall — is about to begin.

The decree was first submitted to the committee in 2018 and will ban the retail of dogs, cats, and rabbits in pet stores in Orange County. According to a study by the Humane Society of the United States "Stop Puppy Mills" activity, less than a quarter of the 10,000 dog breeding facilities in the United States are licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and are therefore subject to (arguably too limited) regulations. More than 200,000 dogs are kept in these facilities for breeding only, and more than 2.5 million puppies are sold each year from licensed and unlicensed facilities. Similar operations exist for kittens and rabbits.

In 2020, an undercover investigation by the Humane Society revealed that out of 8 commercial pet stores in Orange County, 5 imported more than 2,000 puppies and kittens from 16 different factories. In the same year, the Better Business Bureau, Orange County Animal Service, Humane Society, and Yelp Review filed 149 complaints against Orange County commercial pet sellers. Nearly 60% of complaints involve sick pets. In 19 years, the pet died.

If the law is passed that summer, stores will have a one-year grace period to stop selling prohibited animals. To ensure that they meet health and safety standards, the store will be required to provide the source documents of each puppy. If the decree fails, the status quo will continue.

"I will openly solicit public comments at this time," Demings said. "Mr. Raasch, do we have speakers?"

"Mayor, we have 53 speech cards today," the planning administrator replied, "some of them are taking time from other audiences." Demings stared at him through his glasses, his mouth in a straight line. So two minutes for each speaker.

Participants dressed in yellow shirts and red shirts begged the committee members one by one.

Pet shop owners and some of their employees believe that the ban will effectively shut down their regulated businesses, lead to a proliferation of unregulated backyard keepers, and ensure that animals that everyone wants to protect suffer more. They said that none of the red shirts saw any evidence that their respective pet shops source dogs from puppies, and they all insist that their goal is to make their families happy.

The puppies are sick, "just like babies," said Elizabeth Quinzelman, a representative of the Petran Company, but they will be examined by a veterinarian. Florida has the Puppy Lemon Law. Thousands of shelter dogs are euthanized every year. Other speakers questioned, are shelters really better than commercial pet shops?

But animal activists and shelters and rescuers implored the commissioners to consider ethics rather than economics. They told stories about sick puppies, unsocialized pets, and bitches who get pregnant every time they come into heat. In addition, the Yellow Shirts asked, why can't pet stores switch to a food and service-based model like most other major chains?

No matter where the vote goes, the speakers made it clear that this is a personal issue. Someone must be unhappy.

Commissioner Emily Bonilla (Emily Bonilla) is an animal advocate. She was attacked before the hearing for supporting the ban. She stated that pet shops donated money to certain commissioners’ campaigns and tried to " Control and manipulate the entire process. (She later told Orlando Weekly that Mayor Demings was supported by Southern Group, which is a political consulting company and also lobbyed for Petran.)

Across the podium, Commissioner Nicole Wilson told the conference room that the US Department of Agriculture, which oversees Puppy Mills, was severely understaffed and was unable to enforce the regulations as suggested by the pet store. Although the Orange County Commission is unable to make laws against puppy mills in Missouri, “any criminal activity will only be driven by supply and demand,” she said, “if we... are distributed, then we are part of it."

The roll call comes down to a tiebreaker.

Commissioner Bonilla: Yes. Commissioner Wilson: Yes. Commissioner Christine Moore: No. Commissioner Mayra Uribe: Yes. Commissioner Victoria Siplin: No. Mayor Demings: No. Commissioner Maribel Gomez Cordero is not sure.

"It's hard for me, I know you know why," she said. "Since I am here, this is a bad decision."

"We did provide workforce training for your cousins ​​to try to find alternative jobs," Bonilla said quietly from the side.

"Stop, stop," Cipplin interjected, "Don't insult people." Gomez Cordero nodded, his jaw tightened.

"Yes or no," Demings said.

After several hours of deliberation, the bill was passed. The sale of dogs, cats and rabbits is no longer allowed in Orange County. After a one-year grace period, county pet shops will have to change their business model or close.

For those who oppose pet shops, including the young woman at the beginning of our story and some of her Petland colleagues, the ban is a victory, but it is not a panacea. Hours of emotional testimony barely persuaded seven county officials to pass the law. If they expose things behind closed doors, who would believe them?

PETLAND's business looks amazing: healthy dogs from safe breeders, primitive animal welfare, and more and more families embrace new furry friends. But behind the curtains, water leaked from the broken pipe, and there was black mold in the employee-only bathroom. The lack of tiles in the coffered ceiling reveals a ventilation failure that has not been noticed for months. Puppies are squeezed in unhygienic kennels, and maggots squirm on the bottom of expired dog food.

Every week, the puppies will be transported in a hot metal truck and ordered in bulk at discounted prices like Costco canned food.

Humane Society investigator John Goodman said that they found that almost all the puppies in commercial puppy shops like Petland come from commercial dog breeders, commonly known as "puppy factories."

According to the standards of the United States Department of Agriculture, commercial breeders own five or more female dogs and sell them to invisible customers, which means they are either sold online, or sold to brokers who deal with pet stores, or directly Sold to pet stores. But it will never be only five. Goodman said that, under normal circumstances, the average factory has about 70 dogs, but a few have hundreds of dogs, and a few in Kansas have thousands. These larger businesses have flourished in Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, Iowa, and Arkansas and other states with limited local regulation.

The Animal Welfare Act enforced by the United States Department of Agriculture requires commercial breeders to meet minimum care standards. Although some states do have more regulations, "minimum" is the executive word there.

Goodman said: "You can keep a dog in a cage that is only six inches longer than her body." "She may be standing on the wire floor and her paws have never touched a blade of grass." One cage is stacked on top of another to form a crumbling tower of crates to maximize the use of barn space. Ammonia in puppy urine circulates in the air. The female dog breeds every time it comes into heat, lasts for six or seven years, and then is discarded. Although breeders should provide veterinary care for their animals, Goodman said that his investigations often found deficiencies in this area.

Few people disagree that puppy factories are inhumane, but no store will admit to buying from them. Petland displayed binders in every playroom to show customers that they were using reputable breeders, but former employees said the photos were fairy tales. The former employee said that the franchise owner only visited the breeder for short periods of time during company trips.

According to research by former employees and the Humane Society, Lake Patran Waterford was purchased from a breeder who did not appear in the picture book. Some are JAKS Puppies, a puppy broker in Iowa who created a shell rescue program to illegally transfer hundreds of puppies; Blue Ribbon Puppies, a factory in Indiana, and a major A multi-drug-resistant disease outbreak is linked to; KNE Kennels, a factory in Iowa, where investigators found piles of dog bones.

Although some of the more expensive breeds, such as the French Bulldog, sell for about US$700, the former employee said that the store bought most of the puppies for around US$200. The lower the cost, the greater the profit-Economics 101, which applies to man’s best friend.

These puppies huddled in the back of the truck and crossed state boundaries through middlemen like Puppy Travelers, a group of regional pet transportation companies licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2015, 9 puppies died of overheating in a Puppy Traveller truck because the company had no employees to supervise these animals when the vehicle's air conditioning malfunctioned. Three years later, after investigators discovered that 127 puppies were "crowded in cages full of feces and urine without any water," the Lee County Animal Service Center found them in Fort Myers Petland. 24 puppies.

Employees said that Petland Waterford Lakes still uses Pet Travelers and JPC Transport, the transportation subsidiary of JAKS Puppies.

When the puppies arrive, many puppies lose their toes or their eyes with green pus are cloudy and turn red due to infection. Others have crusted, loose, random stitches, sharp ribs pierced through the fur of fleas, and even burned by cigarettes. The pedigrees of some puppies list inbreeding parents-aunts are also grandmothers, and fathers are brothers. Some have no files at all.

There can’t be too many animals in the store’s retail enclosure. Customers can see 24 windows, each with three to five puppies. But there are more cages in the back, with puppies that are too small or too heavy for customers to afford. Employees say that the store usually has more than 150 dogs at a time.

Most puppies can't see the sun after the day they enter the store. Only older dogs will occasionally walk with the kennel technician. In their glass cage, their hips and legs often become weakened by lack of exercise. When customers play with them, their explosive excitement for momentary freedom is mistaken for ADHD. Families don’t want to buy needy, unsocialized dogs.

When the vet comes in every week, they have one to two minutes with each puppy in the store. There are too many places to cover. Employees say that the owners sometimes question the medical advice of the veterinarian.

When customers go to the registry, they will receive the puppy's pedigree (if it exists), a health certificate signed by the veterinarian, and information on how to take care of their specific breed. Missing: any documentation for off-site veterinary care. In Orange County, health certificates and rabies documents are the only documents required.

Diseases in kennels are common and fatal—from kennel coughs to Campylobacter, Giardia, and Parvovirus. All of this requires isolation and veterinary care, and employees said the owner of the Waterford Lake store refused or hesitated to do so.

In 2019, an outbreak of Campylobacter spread in the southeast and swept commercial pet sellers. Hundreds of puppies and dozens of people infected it, including six Petland Waterford Lakes employees.

In the same year, parvovirus, a very contagious and destructive disease, so much that veterinarians advised that dogs infected with it should never be sold-sneaked into the kennel. When the disease spreads through their bodies, the puppies sleep all day, making them drowsy. Their stool turned into black tar, then red blood. Then the puppy stopped eating. After losing their appetite, some puppies went to the vet, who confirmed their condition. But there is not enough space in the store to isolate them.

Employees said the outbreak happened repeatedly.

Content warning: The next page contains some pictures that may make some people feel uncomfortable.

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