To the naïve dog lover, the Wizard of Claws pet store in Pembroke Pines, Florida appears to be the perfect place to find a new companion.
The store's pink, puppy-intensive web site—which boasts about its available "lifetime guarantee" and its list of celebrity customers in South Florida—assures every potential dog owner that the Wizard of Claws does "not in any way or form associate or support 'puppy mills'." The store even guarantees that its dogs originate only from its tight-knit responsible "breeders network." Every customer who reads the web site or walks into the store would have to think that the Wizard of Claws has only the best interests of the dogs—and their future guardians—in mind.
But, like many pet stores around the country, the Wizard of Claws' sales pitch is more fairytale than fact. When you look beyond the Wizard of Claws' smoke and blustery rhetoric and actually peek behind the curtain, the ugly truth is that many of the store's dogs may come from puppy mills—mass dog-breeding operations where pooches typically endure sub-standard care and are subjected to questionable breeding practices. What this means for unwitting consumers is that many of them buy dogs who may suffer from a wide array of health problems, including contagious diseases and genetic disorders. What began as a love story quickly turns into a tragedy.
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Watch the NBC 6 Investigation Online |
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Puppy Heartbreak, an WTVJ-TV NBC 6 investigation into complaints by former customers of the Wizard of Claws pet store, can be viewed online. Simply go to the NBC6 web site to watch. |
But The HSUS plans to write the final chapter in this sordid tale. A lawsuit, originally initiated in Broward County by several consumers who have now been joined by The HSUS, seeks to stop Wizard of Claws from using misleading sales tactics such as intentionally misrepresenting the origin of puppies—a clear violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
"The HSUS will not stand idly by while dog-loving consumers are deceived into supporting massive puppy mill operators in various states, some hundreds of miles away," said Jonathan R. Lovvorn, vice president of animal protection litigation for The HSUS. "Unscrupulous Internet sellers need to be held accountable for the inhumane consequences of their business practices."
The Wizard of Claws is facing questions outside the courtroom walls as well. On Tuesday, February 7, WTVJ-TV, NBC 6, launched a multi-part series, titled Puppy Heartbreak, which looks into customer complaints aimed at the Wizard of Claws, the so-called "celebrity kennel." The series describes how people who walked out of the Wizard of Claws with new dogs soon found themselves walking into veterinary offices with sickly animals—at least one sick enough to require euthanasia.
"Most pet stores in this country obtain their animals from puppy mills, not responsible breeders, and, in the process, they raise their profits," says Stephanie Shain, director of outreach for the Companion Animals section of The HSUS. "Telling customers that the puppies came from quality breeders is just part of the pet stores' sales technique."
Behind the Curtain: Inhumane Puppy Mills
In many ways, a puppy mill operates like a factory—its priority is to produce the largest number of puppies in the least amount of time and for the least amount of money. It's no surprise then that common puppy mill practices include over-breeding and breeding dogs with known health problems. These practices can often lead to genetic defects such as hip dysplasia and deafness. Low-quality food and dirty water, crowded cages, minimal veterinary care, and a lack of socialization can further damage these dogs, both emotionally and physically. In many cases, the long-term effects of an animal born at a puppy mill will not become obvious for months or years.
Although laws exist to curb the most egregious practices on these facilities, the only way to truly stop puppy mills is through simple economics. "It's a matter of supply and demand. If people stop purchasing the puppies, the puppy mills that sell them will go out of business," says The HSUS's Shain. "Even though it's very tempting to buy a puppy because you feel sorry for her, it's just putting money into the pockets of those who commit these horrible abuses toward animals and allows them to perpetuate those abuses again and again."
Perhaps the most tragic aspect is the unseen victims of the puppy mill industry—the males and females kept for breeding. "Understandably, everyone focuses on the puppies since they are the animals the public ultimately interacts with, but it's the puppies' parents who are the real casualties of the puppy mill trade," says Shain. "Every single time someone buys a puppy mill puppy, they are helping to condemn the parents to a life of absolute misery."
Pet stores are the obvious outlets for puppy millers. But in addition to retail shops, puppy mills also sell dogs through newspaper classified ads and the Internet. Dog lovers looking for the pooch of their dreams can avoid puppy mills altogether and adopt a homeless animal from their local shelter or from a breed rescue group. Or they can follow The HSUS's guidelines for finding a responsible, compassionate breeder.
Wherever future pet parents choose to find their new dog, it’s important to remember that when it comes to purchasing a pooch from a pet store, no matter how polite the staff, spotless the store or cute the puppies, what you see isn’t always what you get. Too often, what you get is a puppy mill puppy.
