My Petition/More Survey Work

Hey, all! I've been promoting it on Facebook a lot, but if you haven't seen it, I started a petition fairly recently titled "Speak for America's Dogs (and stop puppy mills)". It's on a widget to the right. I'm very pleased with the progress it's made in such a short time, but the signatures are really slowing down. I am sure that, if you are not already, you will eventually get sick of my saying this, but if you have time, please sign it and pass it on to your friends!

I will admit that I am feeling a bit disheartened, but this is important to me and I won't let all those puppies down. If this one fails, if this one crashes and burns, I'll do more work and start up a new one. And I'll do this until it works, or until I die. Or until I give up. One of those three, but hopefully the first one. And I won't give up until I've done it a hundred times.

We're planning on doing another survey some time during May. It'll be slightly different questions this time. I may also put some business cards in a small envelope with the flyers of good pet stores ("good pet store" meaning it doesn't sell animals or only sells rescued/shelter animals). The flyer definitely needs some improvement, too.

We had some other ideas, too, such as putting a five dollar gift card to one of the stores in a few random envelopes. I originally wanted to do a five-dollar gift card to a good pet store in all of them, but unfortunately we're not rich enough! 

If you have any suggestions for anything, I'd really love to hear them! 

P.S., I will no longer be putting "by Mira P." for any articles - they will now all be written by me.

Survey Outside of Puppies 'N Love

by Mira P.

Today, a coworker and I went to ask people outside of Puppies 'N Love a few questions. The questions were: 

1. What did you think of the puppies? (a warm-up question - most common answer was "they're cute") 

2. What did you think of the cages? (Most people answered "too small", only one guy mentioned the floor, two people thought it was okay, one answered "comfy") 

3. Did the prices of the dogs surprise you? (most common answer was "I don't know" - they don't display the prices, you have to ask)

4. Did you know that Macerich, the company who manages this mall, will no longer allow pet stores that sell pets? (Should've been phrased better - most people answered "I didn't know that", a few people said "good", and about two people said "aw, that's too bad".

We did a lot better than I thought we were going to. We surveyed about sixteen people - we thought we were going to get about five! Most people took the flyer we made, which was this: (WARNING: CONTAINS SOME SAD INFORMATION. PG)

 

Puppies ‘N Love gets most of their dogs from Hunte Corporation (their corporate office told us this when we asked - 602-255-0166). Hunte Corp. sells 90,000 puppies per year from their 20,000 square foot block building, filled with 8-week-old puppies ready to be shipped around the country.

Under the United States Department of Agriculture Animal Welfare Act you could have 300 dogs stacked in cages for their entire lives. The regulation only requires that they have food, water, and space to turn around and lie down. There are 100 inspectors to monitor 10,000 facilities.

The Humane Society of the United States says that “almost all pet store puppies come from puppy mills”. They did a nine-month investigation, charging the Hunte Corporation and Petland for selling puppies with life-threatening genetic defects and highly contagious parasitic and viral infections.

How can I get a good dog if I shouldn’t buy one from a pet store?

There are a lot of shelters and pet stores that get dogs from shelters that have wonderful dogs that are waiting to be adopted. If you are looking for a purebred, there are plenty at local shelters - sometimes as many as 25% of dogs in shelters.

If you’re looking for a dog, check out your local animal shelter, or go online to Petfinder.com or theshelterpetproject.org to find a dog who is waiting for you.

And finally, don’t forget to visit stores like PetMatch over at [xyz] mall. They sell pet toys and treats and only adopt out shelter dogs.

If you’d like to check our sources, ask any questions, or tell us about your pet (or anything else!) e-mail at tinycages2@gmail.com. Thank you very much for reading this!

_____________________

That was it. I may have said "shelter" too many times . . . oops. 

We're planning on perhaps doing it again, but this time handing out flyers (we'll maybe make some nicer ones for children) inside. That's what my coworker wanted to do, at least. Well, I'll be honest, he did most of the work. It'll be a while before I recover enough to want to interact with human beings after learning more about Hunte Corp. and puppy mills! Haha. :)

We're not sure what our next plan of attack should be, besides conducting another survey. Perhaps I should put up some more friendly flyers around my neighborhood. The last time I did something like that, they got taken down - but it's worth a shot, I suppose. If you have any advice, please let me know, by e-mail (to the right of the page) or in a comment.

Thanks! :)

Puppies 'N Love

Today, my family and I went to a mall to visit a pet store my father told me he sees when he goes on his runs. The store was called Puppies 'N Love and the first thing you'd notice is that there was dogs in the window of the store.

Yup, dogs in a window. Like they are fancy items to lure you in. And then you go into the store. The cages are tiny for puppies, completely unacceptable. The floors of the cages were uncomfortable and the dogs tried their hardest to stay off of it. They gave the dogs blankets, but they didn't cover the entire floor.

The dogs, to me, looked like they were generally unhealthy and unhappy. There was one that didn't move the entire time we were there. When we were there, I saw at least two other people who looked like they were there to check out the treatment of the animals. 

They had stickers up that said that they could guarantee that the dogs didn't come from puppy mills. They also had up signs about the breeders they got the dogs from (which I'm 80% sure is a lie, both of them). The employee sounded like she was saying that often the dogs get returned, then noticed that we looked shocked and started to say instead that customers came back for more dogs. Which leads me to my next point:

PUPPIES ARE NOT IMPULSE PURCHASES! You don't go to a pet store for a toy and say, "eh, might as well get another dog!"

Overall, even if the dogs looked like they were healthy and happy, I would try to put a stop to this store. They blatantly lie, and never before have I seen a store that genuinely made me feel sick. But this one did. It made me sick to my stomach to look at those innocent puppies that were in tiny cages with flooring that would hurt their paws. It made me sick to look at those dogs in the front window, treated as nothing more than future money.

If you ever see a Puppies 'N Love, please don't shop there. The animals are treated horribly, and no matter the justifications or lies it isn't okay.

The Low-Maintenance Pet

A few months back (around the time Mira P. got her rats) I also got a few rats as well. It was a pretty tough decision because we wanted them to be absolutely healthy, and happy. So we decided to get them from a rat breeder (little did we know about  rat shelters). We did hardcore research and even measured cages to see what would fit them best. I guess all the work was worth it, but in the end the rats are usually sitting on shoulders or laying on your lap. They are not playing with any fancy toys, they are playing with their brothers.

This is a reason why I appreciate rats so much! They would rather be social. Lots of people want social pets, but they overlook rats because of their tails and think of them as sewer rats (even though they have been raised and bred by humans since the 18th or 19th century) and instead they choose dogs. But the problem with that is dog are lots of hard work and aren't a very good first pet, that's why so many of them in shelters. People can not handle dogs. But rats are a lot like dogs, they are social and so friendly. When I open the rat cage the rats come running up to me and start licking my hand. They love being with you and being handled. Rats can be trained, and also potty trained as well. They are also low maintenance pets.

So please, the next time you want a pet... at least consider a rat. They are fantastic pets, and are a perfect first pet.

Thank you, Miranda J.

My Dog, Daxter

By Mira P. 

Time for another more personal blog post, mostly because I just am so braindead today that I couldn't think of anything to write. So, how about I tell you guys about my dog?

"Dogs are man's best friend" - that's a quote that everyone knows. Dogs are wonderful creatures, and popular pets. They're affectionate or independent, fun or lazy, they can be your best friend or your worst enemy (but mostly your best friend!) Who wouldn't want a dog?

We got my dog, Daxter (named after Jak and Daxter, my dad's favorite video game) a few years ago, at a no-kill rescue shelter. Daxter was going to be put down because he was so shy before the no-kill group rescued him. Which is weird, because he was quite nice and not too shy when we adopted him (maybe the people at the shelter he was in before were scary).

We took a walk with him before we decided whether or not we were going to bring him home. He was really nice and pretty cute! We adopted him (only about $100) and brought him home. The first few weeks, he was pretty much silent - didn't make a peep.

We considered calling him Galaxy for the longest of any name we'd thought of before - thank goodness we didn't name him that, though! Everyone always confused "Daxter" with "Dexter", I guess because of the show "Dexter" (which my mom still won't let me watch!)

Daxter, my crazy-looking dog.

Daxter's a really great dog, and I'm glad to have him as the fifth family member! Our family wouldn't be the same without him. He isn't perfect - like, when he's barking at the door, he won't shut up, and he'll never do anything if he doesn't get a treat, but his good qualities rule out the bad ones!

Does anyone want to share anything about their dog?

Preventing Abuse

We must try and prevent animal abuse, but first we must recognize the signs of an abused animal that needs your help. You can't just report a lost dog with a broken foot and say it is "abused" because there is not enough evidence in that case.


From the ASPCA:

Physical Signs

• Collar so tight that it has caused a neck wound or has become embedded in the pet’s neck 
• Open wounds, signs of multiple healed wounds or an ongoing injury or illness that isn’t being treated 
• Untreated skin conditions that have caused loss of hair, scaly skin, bumps or rashes 
• Extreme thinness or emaciation—bones may be visible 
• Fur infested with fleas, ticks or other parasites 
• Patches of bumpy, scaly skin rashes 
• Signs of inadequate grooming, such as extreme matting of fur, overgrown nails and dirty coat 
• Weakness, limping or the inability to stand or walk normally 
• Heavy discharge from eyes or nose 
• An owner striking or otherwise physically abusing an animal 
• Visible signs of confusion or extreme drowsiness

Environmental Signs

• Pets are tied up alone outside for long periods of time without adequate food or water, or with food or water that is unsanitary 
• Pets are kept outside in inclement weather without access to adequate shelter 
• Pets are kept in an area littered with feces, garbage, broken glass or other objects that could harm them 
• Animals are housed in kennels or cages (very often crowded in with other animals) that are too small to allow them to stand, turn around and make normal movements possibly with too many other animals

-Miranda J.