Investigation Reveals Pet Stores Are Lying About Where They Get Their Puppies From

A Companion Animal Protection Society (CAPS) undercover investigator walked into a variety of New York pet stores that sold kittens and puppies and asked staff some simple questions.

“Where are these pets coming from?”

The man also asked how often each mother animal was bred, and whether they had any resting time. He asked the conditions that each baby animal was born into and how they grew up.

All employees replied noncommittally, and with little to no actual information. They stated that small hobby breeders were the sources of all their animals. Many went as far as to tell the man that puppy mills no longer exist, or never have – which, as we all know, is very far from the truth.

That’s something this investigator, pretending to be an interested patron, knew all too well. He’d been to commercial breeding locations and puppy mills. He’d filmed the conditions there and knew that they sold to multiple New York shops, both online and offline.

Many employees and owners of pet stores informed the investigator that all their puppies were able to run around in big yards, were loved and raised as home pets before being sold, and that all breeding mothers were given breaks and retirement – all very incorrect information.

Only recently, CAPS has released the full investigative videos from the May 2018 undercover investigation. It came at the perfect time – New York is currently on the cusp of deciding whether or not to ban the sale of cats, dogs, and rabbits in pet shops, making them the third state to potentially do so.

The goal is for pet stores to begin taking rescue pets into their facilities to help them find forever homes, escaping euthanasia. This definitely sounds like a fantastic solution, and we hope it goes through!

Images & Feature Image Source: Companion Animal Protection Society (CAPS)