America's pet store owners need to be both ethical and businesslike

Entirely understandably, American's pet store owners, take a commercial stance when running their business. They have to in order to make a profit. The world is highly competitive. But my argument is that they need to temper that objective with the objective to ensure that they run their businesses along ethical lines.

Inherently unhealthy bulldog for sale at Perfect Pets. Image in public domain.

And I'm referring to the acquisition of cats and dogs from puppy mills to supply their pet stores. No doubt these animals are quite cheap because they are bred in a cheap fashion. They are bred in facilities where there is poor regard to healthcare and socialisation normally. I don't want to brand all puppy mills with the same criticism but they are called "puppy mills" for a reason. They churn out puppies which means the pet stores can buy them cheaply.

It also means that the puppies are going to be popular breeds such as dachshunds and French bulldogs. But both of these dog breeds have health problems particularly the French bulldog which I think is the unhealthiest dog breed of them all with a reduced lifespan as a consequence.

RELATED: 21 genetic diseases inherited by the French bulldog. Are they always in pain?

The moral aspect of acquiring cats and dogs from puppy mills is this. They should be selling rescue dogs and cats from local animal shelters because in that way they will save the lives of some animals scheduled for euthanasia because the shelters are oversubscribed. Sometimes there is not enough space for incoming unwanted animals.

And when an animal shelter does not run a no-kill policy with commitment, you get a situation where you have to euthanise healthy animals. Nathan Winograd would argue that if you run a proper no-kill policy there is hardly ever if ever a need to euthanise healthy animals. But it does require a huge amount of commitment and a smart approach to running a shelter.

RELATED: Pet stores in America are unfeasible unless they buy from puppy mills.

Back to the moral point. In Aurora city the council has passed an ordinance to ban the sale of cats and dogs that have been commercially-bred at puppy mills. Pet stores are going to have to sell rescue animals acquired from animal shelters.

And, as expected, the pet store owners are up in arms. They think the decision by the city's administrators is entirely wrong. They state that many pet store owners are good people running good stores and are not evil and overly commercial in disregarding animal welfare.

I get that. But the moral dimension is still there for all to see. It doesn't matter if the pet store is run really well if they are stocking the outlet with puppy mill cats and dogs. That's because in doing so, as mentioned, they are indirectly encouraging the killing of healthy animals are animal shelters, which is unsupportable.

And it is interesting to note that one pet store owner, Jens Larsen of Denver Perfect Pets in Centennial says that the decision to ban the sale of puppy mill dogs and cats as "wrongheaded". He's outspoken but he should keep his head below the parapet - see below.

He said that not all people are evil or wrong that run pet stores. Correct. And he adds that he has never had any violations or citations against him. He says that puppy mills are often licensed and regulated and therefore to ban supply from these facilities to pet stores as "just wrong".

In some ways he is correct but I have to stress once again the moral dimension. The ethics of the current situation in which puppy mills supply pet stores is unsustainable.

Jen Larsen's Perfect Pets

And interestingly, if you go onto the yelp.com website you see that his outlet has two stars out of five from 69 reviews. That definitely points to a problem and if you dig around further you will find a news media story on the Denver 7 ABC website with the headline, "Centennial pet shop accused of selling sick dogs to customers". That is a reference to Jen Larsen's pet store.

Some customers are accusing him of selling sick animals. One of them was a dachshund who was bought by a couple and they said that they "went to bed thinking I might wake up to a dead dog. So how could that get any worse?" Just days after bringing her dog home she said that he flopped and rolled and couldn't stand up on his own.

The dog had giardia, a protozoan parasite that most dogs contract from drinking faeces-contaminated water. The condition was not covered by Perfect Pets' insurance. They took the dog to a veterinarian, one that was not suggested by Larsen. As it happens, Larsen partly paid for the veterinary treatment. The dog needed oxygen but survived.

Denver 7 went to check out Perfect Pets with an undercover camera and noticed lethargic dogs and one that had mucus running out of their nose. An employee said that the place was too dusty. But the point here is that Larsen has been accused of selling sick pets and he is the one who is vociferously against the Aurora city ordinance banning the purchase of puppy mill cats and dogs.

And that's the point of this article. Business people owning pet store outlets need to balance the objectives of being ethical and of making a profit. The former puts a check on the latter and the former should underpin all their activities. In doing so, they will run a better business and it will be more profitable in the long run.

The ultimate pet shop deception: passing off an Andean fox as a husky dog!

NEWS AND COMMENT - LIMA, PERU: A naïve Peruvian family thought they were buying a husky dog from a pet shop in the capital Lima. They paid 52 Peruvian soles which is £9.50 in British money and $12.92 in American money. By Western standards that is dirt cheap, ridiculously cheap, as purebred dogs in Britain during the pandemic cost £3,000 albeit the prices were inflated because of market pressures.

'Run Run' an Andean fox bought as a purebred husky escaped to the wild after killing other pets. Screenshot.

Anyway, they went home with their purebred 'husky' otherwise known as an Andean fox! And the fox started to chase after other animals including chickens and guinea pigs. In other words he was behaving like a fox. They named the "husky" Run Run. He became increasingly aggressive towards people including his owners. He was, after all, a wild animal. It looks almost certain that they adopted him as a puppy which is the reason why he was pliable and reasonably accepting when they bought him from the pet shop.

ASSOCIATED: New York City exotic animal trader sold wildcat kittens as house pets

A woman told Reuters, the news agency, that the "husky" ate three of her guinea pigs. And a local grandmother said that it had killed guinea pigs.

It appears that Run Run returned to the wild as in the video he seen outside. He was caught by wildlife officials. What happened to him? I can see bad things happening.

Clearly, the Andean fox looks a bit like a purebred dog with a bushy tail, prominent ears, appointed head and thin legs. Apparently, it is not that uncommon for wildlife traffickers from Amazonian areas to bring wild animals into Lima where they are sold illegally according to the National Forest and Wildlife Service.

Cruelly, the criminals kill the parents and they trade the juveniles. In 2021 the wildlife service had been involved with 128 cases in which they confiscated wild animals in Lima.

It's a crime to trade in wild animals like this and on conviction the punishment is between three and five years in prison.

ASSOCIATED: Owner of two pet bobcats claims that they instinctively prefer to use the human toilet

Further comment

it seems a bit of a stretch for a customer to mistake Andean fox for a purebred husky dog. And they must have realised quite quickly that something was badly wrong. They were living with unsocialised wild animal when they thought they had bought a fully domesticated companion dog.

The pet store owner must have known that this was not a purebred husky. The big question then is whether the law is enforced and the shopkeeper prosecuted. As usual, I'm going to say with complete confidence that nothing has or will happen. 

The next question is what happened to the Andean fox? I hope the animal was returned to the wild if that was feasible and I also hope that the family who bought the "husky" get their money back plus damages because there was some damage namely eating guinea pigs. Although they appear not to have belonged to the owners. But they may well have suffered some consequential damage which they can claim for.

Wildlife trade

Wildlife trade worldwide is a scandal. It is worth billions of dollars and it is making species extinct. "According to the best available sources the illegal Wildlife Trade is valued at approx US$7 – 23 billion a year, and is regularly described as the 4th most lucrative crime after any of drugs, counterfeit goods, humans and arms" (the financial crime news).

It is a stain on humankind and indicative of a terrible relationship with nature as is the failure at COP26. For animal lovers humankind's behaviour is depressing. There are though millions of great people who fight for animal welfare but they are in a minority.

Carole Baskin criticises pet store 256 Exotics

Carole Baskin has weighed in on the story of two African servals on the loose in Alabama. As you probably know, Carole Baskin is the founder and owner of Big Cat Rescue (BCR), in Florida. In a Facebook post, she has asked people to file a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) complaint against a Huntsville-based pet store called 256 Exotics (2421 Winchester Rd NE, Huntsville, AL 35811, United States). The store owner had reported that two servals were missing from a barn on her property. As at 16 September 2021, the servals had not been recaptured.

Serval. Image: Pixabay.

Baskin wants the USDA to seize the exotic cats at the pet store and send them to legitimate sanctuaries where they are not bred and where they cannot be bought by the public.

Associated page: Serval leaps vertically about 9 feet from a static start (and info about living with servals)

She also stated that Alabama regulations state that although dogs and cats need to be vaccinated against rabies there is no approved rabies vaccine for any of the exotic cat species. Vaccines have only been tested on domestic dogs and cats.

Also, she stated that it is clearly illegal to release servals into America because they are non-native to that country. They come from Africa so they're going to be stuck in an enclosure or a cage for the rest of their lives. Under these circumstances, it is only fair right that they live out their lives in a legitimate and well-run sanctuary.

The owner of the pet store mention said that the servals are being tracked and they believe that they are near the store.

Servals not infrequently escape their captivity which could be a person's home or an enclosure. You will find that there are a good number of stores on the Internet about servals escaping. Often, they end up being killed by the authorities because they are dangerous or believed to be dangerous to the public. In fact, domesticated servals are not really dangerous. There will tend to be fearful of people and won't attack anybody unless they are provoked.

How much are cats at petco?

How much are cats at Petco? People ask this question on the Internet. It is a bad question¹. People should be asking, "what's the best place to adopt a cat from?" And the answer will always be a rescue centre. That is the only place one needs to go to to adopt a cat and you will feel better about it because not only will you have adopted a cat for yourself but you will have probably saved the life of a cat. It's a win-win situation and when you adopt a cat from a rescue centre you do more than adopt a companion animal for your benefit, you will have benefited in a small way the entire population of unwanted domestic cats on the planet. It will have been a gift to the world. You'll feel better, so it will be a gift to you as well.

Note 1 - if Petco only have rescue cats then I am wrong ;)