shedd aquarium: Not all Pet stores work with puppy mills. I know one in my area that is independent, It only has puppies every now and then. Sometimes it goes for months with out them and is always advertising in the local rag for unwanted puppies. They get some pretty cool mixes in there. The lady who runs it breeds British blues and her hubby is a Vet. She never sells puppies until they are 8 weeks old and her hubby takes care of all the health care. Pretty cool set up. Also they have some really good stuff in the store. I'm always in there getting my animals stuff. They have the best homemade bird seed and she gave me a great raw recipe for my dogs. If you want something and she doesn't have it she will order it in. She knows all of the groomers and trainers in the area and always very helpful. But places like ACA Pups and Pet Paradise the big chains I would never buy anything from. I went mental at a friend when she bought her shitapoo from ACA pups. But hey what can you do.|||You're right about one thing. Realistically, there will always be BYB's and idiot breeders. There will probably always be some sort of a pet overpopulation problem. Stupid people will reproduce & raise more stupid people, and the cycle will never end. Just because that's the case, doesn't make the kind of place you describe RIGHT. Just because there "will always be BYBs" does not make this lady's pet store ETHICAL. She buys up puppies from oops litters and BYBs who thought they could make a buck selling puppies but didn't get the buyers they thought they would. All this does is provides a "market" for these BYB's and encourages them to KEEP BREEDING, instead of spaying their pets & simply enjoying them. Maybe if this lady didn't exist and these people had to make the hard choice to bring a whole litter of puppies to the shelter, they'd think twice about letting Mama breed again. To me there isn't much difference between the dogs being sold at this pet shop or being adopted out by a shelter. Pet shop puppies are usually impulse buys by people who have no idea what they're getting into. Half of them end up in a shelter at some point in their life, anyway. Unless she is doing thorough buyer screening (home visits, reference checks), selling puppies on spay-neuter contracts & right of first refusal contracts (that obligate the owner to return the dog if they cannot keep it, instead of selling it or putting it in a shelter). For MANY of these puppies, they or their offspring will end up in a shelter one day, she's just an extra pit-stop on the pathway there. Responsible breeders do all of the things I mentioned above. They take ultimate responsibility for every puppy they sell, for the lifetime of that puppy. I highly doubt this lady is taking the time to keep track of every puppy she sells for its entire life. I doubt she does home visits or spay/neuter contracts. She sells puppies to anyone who comes in the store & hands over the Visa card. If that puppy habitually craps the rug & chews the sofa and gets dumped in a shelter when it's 14 months old- will she go retrieve it to make sure it's not killed?? Highly doubtful. If this lady decided to stop making a profit off of the heads of poorly bred puppies, and decided to open up her store space for ADOPTABLE puppies from the LOCAL SHELTER instead....she'd be doing a good deed and helping to save lives. Instead, she prefers to make a profit (however "small") and she prefers to support the local idiot population who's too irresponsible to spay their animals. She sounds like a real winner. (not)|||So what you are saying is that these people are supporting the bybs of the country by advertising to buy their litters of poor quality pups from untested poor pet quality parents? How is that better? This shop is supporting breeding for money by people who do not have the means or the knowledge or the integrity to breed responsibly. You would think if the husband is a vet he would be promoting spay and neuter, not making good money supporting the dark side! That makes him just as bad as a mill.|||Hi Sounds like at least part of the business includes taking in unwanted puppies. Her husband sees that they get excellent medical care, since he's a Vet. They inturn sell/place them thru their petstore. Sounds exactly like what shelters do!!!! You will have trouble convincing many on her that anyone associated with a pet store isn't a horrible person. I agree with you that most are simply outlets for Puppy Millers, but glad to see you have an open mind. Best of Luck.|||ALL pet stores and ALL commercial dog foods are bad if you ask it on Yahoo Questions. It gets a little nauseating on here. I personally think you can find wonderful dogs from a variety of places. I know we have. Sometimes I wonder if some of the "bashers" on here aren't people who have dumped their own dogs in shelters and are trying to guilt "you into cleaning up after them!"|||There are two big chain stores in our area (not the ones mentioned above, I'm in Canada) and they both carry dogs and cats however they are all from shelters (the shelters are listed in the dogs info I have called the shelters they really are from there) I think it is a fantastic idea, the dogs are seen by alot more people and puppy mills are never supported.|||That store sounds like a one-off. If he finds homes for unwanted puppies, then that is good I suppose as they could be drowned or dumped at a shelter otherwise. but all of the big stores are supplied by puppy mills. (except the ones that take shelter dogs to find homes for)|||So they get castoffs from backyard breeders and you think that is good? Let dog sales be handled by shelters and responsible breeders. A vet should definitely know better than to be selling puppies to just anyone off the street.|||Sorry, no. NO reputable breeders sells their dogs through pet shops. They are ALL from puppy mills, regardless of what you think or hear. ALL dogs sold at a pet shop are from BYB's and more commonly PUppy Mills.|||No, all pet stores aren't bad. The store I shop at doesn't even have dogs, puppies, kittens or cats. All they have are fish, ferrets & birds .|||For my own experience not all petstores are bad. I once bought my shih-tzu and lab from an online shop and i knew they really cared for the puppies because they were asking me if i had a dog before and if i am good at taking care of dogs. i totally agree with you.|||It depends.. is she buying unwanted puppies to resell for profit to anyone with cash? Or is she doing a "rescue" by taking in puppies, getting them spayed/neuter or s/n agreement, and having people go thru an application process to screen adopters? For the dogs she breeds.. does she show or work them to earn titles on the dogs? Is she doing genetic health tests to proove her dogs are free of disease? Does she sell pups to anyone with money, or does she have a waiting list before she breeds? Even tho she may not be buying from a puppy mill.. there are still ways to do things unethically.|||Sorry, but yes- ALL PET STORES THAT SELL PUPPIES BUY THEM FROM IRREPUTABLE BREEDERS! Period. No reputable breeder would EVER sell their puppies to a pet store- or through any third party- The fact you mention they have some "pretty cool mixes" in there is enough to SCREAM puppymill! No reputable breeder would ever intentionally breed mutts, either, just for the money.