Cities ban sale of pets at pet stores? While many praise the move, are we just hiding from our own failings as rescues?

This morning, MSNBC has an interesting article about the movement around the country to outlaw the sale of companion pets at pet stores. The article was sparked by the decision of West Hollywood, CA's city council's unanimous decision to pass the ban on pet retails stores.

The response among many animal welfare folks on facebook and twitter today has been largely one of excitement about the idea/opportunity to ban pet stores in their community. Many (somewhat rightfully) pet stores as the funding mechanism/distribution center  for 'puppy mill' dogs that are often poorly bred and mistreated. And after failed attempts to close down 'puppy mills' through other legislation, they see this as another opportunity close off the supply of commercially bred dogs and send more people to adoption agencies.

And I can't help but think this line of thinking completely ignores where the rescue community has largely failed -- and without fixing these failings, we will continue to not make a dent in the demand for commercially bred dogs.

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First off, let me say that I understand where people are coming from with their disgust of 'puppy mills'. It seems that a week doesn't go by without some new word of another bust of a commercial breeder where animals were kept in horrible conditions. The images of the dirty, mangy dogs that are kept in tiny, feces-filled kennels fill our minds.

News of the recent USDA report admitting that they have failed in doing their jobs of investigating, fining and shutting down poorly run operartions only adds to the feeling that stopping the demand for the dogs from these large-scale breeders will be impossible without such a bold move.

Trust me.  I get that.

But aside from my political concern about government shutting down businesses that are selling legal 'products' (which falls under my political notion of be careful what you wish for) there is a reason people are turning to pet stores over adopting from shelters -- and in most cases it has very little to do with the cute puppy in the window. And unless the animal welfare/shelter community fixes this, many will continue to buy the same 'puppy mill' puppies, but do so via the internet. And you can't close down the internet.

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So why is it that people would choose to buy a $600 puppy vs adopting one from the shelter?  

For the most part, I think it comes very much down to the retail concept I talked about last week.

Many shelters are in distant, out-of-the way locations. They have short hours (open 11-5 Mon-Sat) when most people are at work. The conditions in the shelter aren't terribly inviting, and people adopt with the guilt of knowing that the puppy they didn't choose may end up getting killed at the end of the week.

Meanwhile, pet stores are fun!  The animals seem well-cared for. They're in high-traffic areas where someone who is just shopping for something else may say "let's go look at the kittens" and just go take a quick look, fall in love, and buy one even if they weren't really in the market for one. They get to pay their money, no questions asked, and get the animal. No contracts. No home checks. No feeling that they aren't good enough to take home that pet.

And at the end of the day, the act of getting a new pet was a great experience. They take the pet home, fall in love, and most have few problems with their pets and no regrets.

The pet stores have picked the better retail location, provided the better customer experience, and thus, have been able to 'outsell" the shelters even though they have more expensive 'products'.

And in places where this dynamic has changed, shelters are winning.

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Last month, the Fort Worth Animal Care and Control division began a partnership with the PetSmart store in their area where they began adopting out pets from the PetSmart store location. In the first 12 days of being open, the off-site, retailer-based adoption facility adopted out over 100 dogs and cats -- a volume that would have taken at least a month in their traditional shelter facility. The shelter went from being a high-kill facility to having its first two no-kill weeks overnight - and in fact, started pulling animals from other shelters because they weren't able to keep up with the demand.

Last December, Merriam, KS based Animal Haven opened up a storefront in Oak Park Mall (probably the premier mall in the Kansas City metro) and adopted out 159 pets from this storefront in just over a month during December of last year.

Across the country, even shelters that aren't opening up off-site retail locations are finding success by making their current locations more inviting to potential adopters by offering more convenient hours, play rooms where people can take pets to spend time playing with them outside of the kennel environment. They're keeping their facilities cleaner, making them brighter and more consumer-friendly, and even selling pet supplies there like they are a pet store. They are making the requirements for adopting less like an interrogation, and more as an opportunity to teach pet owners how to be good pet owners. 

And they are seeing success. They are seeing that if they make the "retail experience" pleasant, they can win over the traditional pet store locations, and increase their adoptions.

And if the shelter/rescue community can not make the adoption experience fun and pleasant, they will continue to lose adoption opportunities to those who do...whether they be pet stores, or online purchases.

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I think the MSNBC article had a really interesting case study. In 2006, Albuquerque, NM banned the sale of pets in pet stores. Since the ban has taken affect, animal adoptions in the city have increased 23% and shelter killing has decreased by 35%.

But the results may not have been entirely due to the closing of pet stores.

At the same time, Animal Humane New Mexico - a private shelter in Albuquerque -- stepped in to fill the demand for pets. The organization opend a boutique-style adoption center so people could "shop" for shelter dogs in a retail-like environment. While their goal was to adopt out 45 animals in the first month, they instead, places 118 animals in new homes.  The retail-style outlet has been so successful that they are considering opening up a second location later this year.

Says executive director Peggy Weigle:

"Many people will say, 'Oh, I just can't go to the shelter, it's just too sad,'" Weigle said. "But if you make a guilt-free shopping experience available, and they don't have to be confronted with 100 homeless pets staring them in the face, the shopping experience is very parallel to a pet store. If you give the public a choice to shop in that kind of an environment, they will"

And that's exactly the point. If you make the adoption experience a good one, people will be happy to adopt.  In fact, more than half of the people in the US already say they will get their next pet from a shelter. If we make sure they have a good experience, if we make sure that they aren't unnecessarily denied the opportunity to adopt, and we make sure it is a guilt-free 'shopping' experience, the sheltering community will win.

If we don't, we'll lose regardless of whether we shut down pet stores or not.

Comments

[EmilyS]

what defines a "pet store"?
Why would a rescue/shelter adopting out animals.. for which they charge "fees" NOT be a "store"?

[Brent]

Emily, my assumption would be that this could be fairly easily done based on whether the organization is set up as a 501c3 vs as a business.

But like I said, be careful what you wish for.

[H Houlahan]

I'd like to see stats over the same period from cities other than Albuquerque.

A 35% drop in shelter killing isn't that much to crow about, based on what I saw in their wretched city shelter in 2004. (Yes, their ANIMAL CONTROL SHELTER refused to take a stray puppy found within city limits, and suggested he be released where we found him.)

And given that this is in the context of their completely insane "HEART" law, which, among other provisions in its phone book of new law, criminalizes as animal cruelty the offense of walking a dog on a leash over 8' long -- the law that was supposed to make Albuquerque the Beacon on the Hill for Animal Rights -- FAIL.

Why didn't HEART make Albuquerque 100% No Kill overnight?

[Glenn Massie]

If you are set on buying a puppy please download and read, “How To Buy A Puppy” before you consider parting with your money. It is free at www.howtobuyapuppy.net

Buying a puppy without problems is harder than most people think. Finding a responsible and knowledgeable breeder is very difficult.
www.howtobuyapuppy.net

[YesBiscuit!]

As someone who tried to adopt an elderly, crippled dog through a rescue and ended up in a virtual competition with another potential home, I tend to fall on the side that *some* rescues drive people away rather than attract them. In that case, I was driven away. I *wanted to rescue* that dog but after jumping through the first dozen hoops, I was too burned out to continue on. Plus I figured hey, if there is another home waiting for the dog, at least she'll be in a home. The reason I highlight the words WANTED TO RESCUE is because many people don't in fact, want to rescue. They want to buy something "new". And if I, as someone who did want to rescue a dog, was driven away, how much success can these rescues who are overly ridiculous w/their adoption process possibly have?

[MichelleD]

Rescue/AW people need to quit worrying about the "irresponsible public" and "puppy mills" and just address their own part of ending the homeless pet problem. We'd be way further ahead if they'd stick to getting as many pets adopted as possible and quit trying to pass useless laws because they *think* it will solve a perceived problem.

How many laws do we have that have back-fired and are causing death!? Most of them...msn, bsl, pet limits, strict fostering reqs (if its allowed at all), abandonement laws (prohibits TNR), overly strict dangerous dog ords.

IMO the only thing holding us back from No Kill as a nation are all the people that say its impossible and therefore refuse to do anything different that the status quo. We don't need more laws we need fewer. Enforce cruelty and at-large laws and that's all we need.

[CP]

Large and small pet stores in my area have been hosting rescue groups for years. You can't go to a pet store on a weekend and not see creatures rescued from shelters available for adoption. I'm a bit stunned to see that this isn't the norm in other areas. If a "pleasant" experience is what you're after in adopting a pet, you can find it.

[KNJ]

Every area of the country is vastly different in how things are dealt with in regards to animals in need of new homes. What works in one city may NOT work at all in another, quite possibly. So that's a problem with saying it has to be done THIS WAY only. Saying we ALL need to do something that has worked in one city won't solve the problem, it will likely cause more. Volunteering is at an all-time low, costs are at all-time highs. Asking shelters that are barely hanging on by a thread to go out & rent space, set up a petstore image, is like asking for the moon. Most shelters in today's world barely keep the roof over their heads. Donations are WAY down due to the economy, funding is being cut drastically to state & township run shelters. We need to start at the root of the issue -- BAD OWNERS. Education in grade, middle, & high schools -- make kids accountable, teach them to go home & teach their parents if needs be. Other countries have addressed these issues -- we need to get on the ball too! If the only place to buy a puppy was from an ethical breeder who would put the buyers thru a course of education on the breed & work with them, it would stop impulse buying -- which is what fills my rescue -- impulse-bought dogs!

[Kate]

To KNJ: the problem lies in your last sentence and was addressed in the article at length. Banning the sale of puppy-mill dogs from pet stores will not stop people from buying puppy-mill dogs. It'll just send them to the internet where the puppy mills have even less accountability (if that's possible). Or to the newspaper to buy poorly-bred dogs that way from someone who won't ask too many questions.
We don't need to legislate the source of our dogs. We need to work on better educating the general dog-owning public so that they understand the benefits of carefully researching your purchase and developing a relationship with an ethical, responsible breeder. Most dogs in rescue are not puppies, but (as you noted) impulse-bought dogs that are abandoned once the owners are face-to-face with the reality of owning a dog.

I agree with your basic premise, education, being the root of the problem... but I disagree strongly with your proposed solution.

And hey, maybe if the HSUS spread some of their giant, vast loads of dough to local rescues to help them in these projects (instead of using it to lobby for laws that harm reputable dog breeding and ownership) maybe they'd actually be doing some good here in the real world. That ain't gonna happen, though. Wayne's retirement plan needs padding more than your local rescue needs help, apparently.

[Brent]

KNJ,

I am a big believer in looking at what worked in other parts of the country and re-applying those principles where I am and on the flip side, not trying to make ideas work that have failed elsewhere. Interestingly, the same ideas do seem to work from coast to coast - -and the same ones seem to fail in the same way.

I realize that things are tough for non-profits right now. I know that volunteers are hard to come by. But one thing that seems constant around the country is that if shelters perform shelter operations in the 'right' way, the community will support them.

Around the nation, there are huge amounts of retail space that is vacant that might be available for lower-than market rates for a charity (good for offsetting taxes). PetSmart Charities seems to be open to the idea. If nothing else, there are countless opportunities to do offsite adoptions for virtually nothing.

We can adopt our way out of this RIGHT NOW -- not later. Now. And that's a cool thought. But we have to be innovative in our thinking and approach to how we get it done instead of saying "we just can't do that here".

[Karen]

I wonder if PETA & HSUS are largely behind the banning of pet sale in pet stores?

The culture in most shelters remains the same: it's easier to kill than re-home.

We just saw that here in NZ where the SPCA shelter manager killed a dog which had been offered a foster home and all the time in the world to find her forever home. That is just bloody-minded.

NZ is still in the dark ages too, and it's not about funding or resources, it's about ATTITUDE.

[Kim]

As stated in the article...people do an impulse buy at the petstore...picking up an animal that they didn't intend to get...80% of those animals wind up in the shelter because it wasn't thought through. Leave PETA and HSUS out of it, there are so many rescue groups that are merging together to voice, they are not even part of the picketing that you see at some pet stores, or the petitions that are started, or letter writing campaigns. Rescue groups on their own are getting this awareness out, as they are the clean up crew...getting dogs/cats out of hell hole county shelters and hoarders to fosters and new families that are completely checked out, with a home visit and references before they can adopt. Once in the rescue, if it doesn't work out, they go BACK to the RESCUE, as it should be, and IS with good, responsible breeders, who are NOT mass producing puppies that are ill and have genetic defects that will devastate the heart and wallet of the new owner. Those dogs are treated as family members and live in the home as do the puppies. If you have to do your homework when getting a dog, you will give that dog a better life, and your life will be easier. These puppy mills are not doing it for the love of the breed....keeping genetic disorders and bad tempraments out of their lines and breeding the best and healthiest for their breed...they are doing it for money, and the Amish communites in my state and the state I used to live in are major players in puppymills.

[Tracey]

I think there is one thing everyone here is missing. There is only one reliable place that a person can go to to get a great dog or puppy and that is a RESPOSIBLE BREEDER!
Here is a place where you can go and see the dogs in a home. You can see the parents and grandparents and the environment they live in and how they act.
No one will no more about the breed you are interested in than the responsoble breeder you take the time to find. IT is a little work in the beginning but in the end it will be worth it.

[Brent]

Tracey -- I would tend to agree if you have a need for a real working-type dog.

But for most people, who just want a casual pet, there are many great pets with great health available in shelters throughout the country that make great fits for most homes.

[Ruth Cooper]

I'm not really a pet lover, but we have a cat at home we adopted her from a neighbor, instead of buying expensive cats why not adopt instead! nice blog.

Paws Pet Supermarket blog

[Pat F.]

Brent, in response to your post to Tracey that implies one should only go to a responsible breeder if one has "a need for a real working-type dog"...

Not really or necessarily true. Yes, one can get real working-type dogs from responsible breeders. One can also find 'casual pets'. I have; starting from the Labrador Retriever my parents bought (from a breeder referred by my mother's friend) when I was a teenager (a wonderful, loving, healthy dog) to the English Cocker who shares my life now, and a few dogs in between. There are many breeds of dog who are not necessarily hard-wired working dogs; and going to a responsible breeder to get one is an intelligent choice. At dog parks, I see many lovely mixed-breed dogs, the ubiquitous "doodle" mixes (don't get me started on what I think about their breeders), purebreds; there doesn't seem to be a preponderance of one type over the other. I support a person's right to get a mix or purebred from qualified rescue organizations, shelters, and, in the case of purebreds, responsible breeders (or rescue groups, most national and regional AKC clubs have them for their breeds). I can't really prevent people from buying dogs off the internet or pet shops, sadly, but I do try to gently discourage them.

[Brent]

Pat, there are a lot of reasons may choose to get a dog from a breeder -- and if they need a working dog for a real working purpose, then that makes sense. If people are looking for a pet, then there are a great number of those at their local shelter. That doesn't mean that bought dogs can't and don't make good pets, it's just that in my opinion, there is really not a lot of need to go buy a dog just to have a pet dog.