Avoiding puppy-mill pups at Christmas
By PHIL MULKINS World Action Line Editor
Published: 12/25/2009 2:19 AM
Last Modified: 12/25/2009 5:17 AM
Dear Action Line: I told the little one if she was good for the relatives at Christmas time, I would buy her a puppy after Christmas. What's the best way to go about this? I don't want anything to do with a "puppy-mill puppy." — W.S., Tulsa
Puppy mills: The Humane Society of the United States warns families in your boat to make doubly certain they are not unwittingly supporting the cruel puppy-mill industry. Best advice? Don't buy puppies from pet stores, off the Web or from any source where you can't see the living conditions of the puppy's mother and other dogs at the facility. Quality breeders don't sell puppies through pet stores or over the Internet.
The society urges families to first consider adoption from local shelters or rescue groups, where healthy, loving animals need nothing so much as a happy family this holiday.
"Puppy mills" are exactly that: "machines that manufacture by the continuous repetition of some simple action" — like keeping the mother dogs pregnant their entire lives. The operators put breeding-age females in wire cages making puppies that are also kept in wire cages until sold. The animals receive no medical care and live in squalid conditions with no exercise, socialization or human contact. Puppy-mill moms who can't keep making pups are destroyed or discarded.
Society investigators and rescue teams have revealed over and over puppy-mill operators' disregard for the physical, social and emotional health of the dogs. Sloppy mass-breeding programs
and poor living conditions cause puppies to have more physical and behavioral problems than dogs from reliable sources.
Adopt a pet: The Society braces itself every year for the inevitable, upsetting post-holiday calls. People call about sick or dying puppies purchased for the holidays. Too often consumers don't research where their puppies have come from and wind up spending the holiday trying to save a sick animal instead of enjoying the season. Read the society's advisory "Adopting from an animal shelter or rescue group" at tulsaworld.com/AdoptaPet.
Tulsa Humane Society: Visit the Tulsa Humane Society at tulsaworld.com/TulsaHumaneSociety — or from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday visit them at 6232 E. 60th St., or call 495-DOGS or 493-CATS about adoptions. See its cats at tulsaworld.com/THScats and its dogs at tulsaworld.com/THSdogs. Also see a list of rescue groups in the Tulsa Yellow Pages under "humane societies."
Tulsa Animal Shelter: The Tulsa Animal Welfare Shelter is at 3031 N. Erie Ave., between Sheridan Road and Yale Avenue just north of Apache Street. It is open from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Service hours (for reporting animal problems) are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 669-6280 and after hours at 596-9222. Also visit the shelter at tulsaworld.com/TulsaAnimalShelter.
Submit Action Line questions by calling 699-8888 or by e-mailing phil.mulkins@TulsaWorld.com or by mailing it to Tulsa World Action Line, PO Box 1770, Tulsa OK 74102-1770.
Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=15&articleid=20091225_15_E3_DacinL883688
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Friday, December 25, 2009
NY: Filling Your Pet's Stocking this Christmas
| Filling Your Pet's Stocking this Christmas | |
| Sarah Sheridan | |
 | |
December 24, 2009 HORSEHEADS---Many people trekked to the stores to finish up last minute shopping for friends and family this Christmas Eve. But others have been flocking to buy gifts for the other member of the family, their pet. Despite the tough economy, people are still getting their furry friends something to put under the Christmas tree. Just like other retailers, pet stores are luring in customers with great deals. Shoppers in the Southern Tier have been filling their carts with squeaky toys, bones, toy mice and sweaters. A local pet store manager says merchandise has been flying off the shelves. The PetSmart in the Southern Tier Crossing in Horseheads has already done double the business this year compared to last. Petsmart Store Manager, Jessica Haight, says, "Alot of people this year came in. We have been busy non-stop for the last two weeks now. We get alot of 'I can't believe I spent this much on my on my dog or my cat.' A recent national survey by PetSmart claimed that out of 1,000 dog and cat owners, 95 percent said they would buy their pet a gift or special treat this holiday season. Source: http://www.weny.com/News-Local.asp?ARTICLE3864=9150180 | |
Thursday, December 24, 2009
NATL: Please think carefully before buying that holiday pet
NATL: Please think carefully before buying that holiday pet
By Patty Khuly, Special for USA TODAY
Holiday pets, anyone?
Yes, it's that time of year — and yet again it's time for vets across America to wring their hands over the holiday pet thing. It's a love-hate issue for us, for sure. While we condemn the trivialization of petdom that comes with a rash "Puppy Palace" purchase, how else would we manage to ring in the new year with a shower of new patients?
Let me be fair: A large-enough percentage of holiday pets are planned. After all, this is one of the few times parents can get kudos for a whole-family present they picked out with care at the exact time of year everyone is best equipped to handle the new responsibilities (vacation time!). These thoughtful people tend not to be the genesis of any vet's New Year's complaint.
Rather, what I decry is the last-minute strip-mall puppy purchase that comes about after a sleepless night on the 23rd: "Will the PlayStation, American Girl doll, Elmo incarnation or hamstery thingie be enough to gratify my insatiable offspring? Perhaps I should blow my budget on this puggle or porkie-poo puppy with the cute runny nose and adorable snore." These are the humans that make my blood boil.
Next thing you know, the whole family's crying across the exam room table, begging you to make right a situation that's not going to get any better without a sizable cash outlay they swear they haven't got now that it's all sitting in the puppy shop's coffers.
"Just look at those kids, doc. How can you disappoint them? How can you be so cruel?" Hmmm … you did that all by yourself, methinks. And Happy Holidays to you, too. Remind me to throw you under a bus when I bring my kids to your workplace next time.
In case you think I exaggerate, I'll swear on a stack of my internal medicine textbooks that this is the way it is — every year without fail.
The reality, however, is that the holidays can be a slow season for veterinarians. This is especially true for vets in colder climes, where inclement weather keeps pets safe, warm and injury-free indoors and in neighborhoods where well-to-do clients travel this time of year. Christmastime pets make up for it to a pretty large extent. That's why we welcome them with open arms, offering "Holiday pet" specials and such to get you coming through our doors when we need you most.
I'd so much prefer to spend my New Year's skiing in the Alps or basking in St. Bart's than treating the kennel coughs, distempers and parvoviruses that attend the annual overcrowded puppy mill season. Too bad my income won't allow even a meager approximation of such luxuries.
Instead, here I stand, stethoscope in hand, examining the coughing and congenitally ill alike. Here's where I hand out dire diagnoses like sugarplums to the "we're-attached-now" new owners of pups still bearing their "I'm-a-gift" bows. And, you know, it wouldn't be so bad … not if it weren't for the guilt that comes with raking in some much-needed cash off the backs of sad-eyed pups and their ignorant owners.
But then, as a wise philosopher once said, "You can't always get what you want." Granted, he was probably pretty stoned at the time, but it works surprisingly well as I navigate what's left of this "jolly" season.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/pets/2009-12-24-dolittler25_N.htm
By Patty Khuly, Special for USA TODAY
Holiday pets, anyone?
Yes, it's that time of year — and yet again it's time for vets across America to wring their hands over the holiday pet thing. It's a love-hate issue for us, for sure. While we condemn the trivialization of petdom that comes with a rash "Puppy Palace" purchase, how else would we manage to ring in the new year with a shower of new patients?
Let me be fair: A large-enough percentage of holiday pets are planned. After all, this is one of the few times parents can get kudos for a whole-family present they picked out with care at the exact time of year everyone is best equipped to handle the new responsibilities (vacation time!). These thoughtful people tend not to be the genesis of any vet's New Year's complaint.
Rather, what I decry is the last-minute strip-mall puppy purchase that comes about after a sleepless night on the 23rd: "Will the PlayStation, American Girl doll, Elmo incarnation or hamstery thingie be enough to gratify my insatiable offspring? Perhaps I should blow my budget on this puggle or porkie-poo puppy with the cute runny nose and adorable snore." These are the humans that make my blood boil.
Next thing you know, the whole family's crying across the exam room table, begging you to make right a situation that's not going to get any better without a sizable cash outlay they swear they haven't got now that it's all sitting in the puppy shop's coffers.
"Just look at those kids, doc. How can you disappoint them? How can you be so cruel?" Hmmm … you did that all by yourself, methinks. And Happy Holidays to you, too. Remind me to throw you under a bus when I bring my kids to your workplace next time.
In case you think I exaggerate, I'll swear on a stack of my internal medicine textbooks that this is the way it is — every year without fail.
The reality, however, is that the holidays can be a slow season for veterinarians. This is especially true for vets in colder climes, where inclement weather keeps pets safe, warm and injury-free indoors and in neighborhoods where well-to-do clients travel this time of year. Christmastime pets make up for it to a pretty large extent. That's why we welcome them with open arms, offering "Holiday pet" specials and such to get you coming through our doors when we need you most.
I'd so much prefer to spend my New Year's skiing in the Alps or basking in St. Bart's than treating the kennel coughs, distempers and parvoviruses that attend the annual overcrowded puppy mill season. Too bad my income won't allow even a meager approximation of such luxuries.
Instead, here I stand, stethoscope in hand, examining the coughing and congenitally ill alike. Here's where I hand out dire diagnoses like sugarplums to the "we're-attached-now" new owners of pups still bearing their "I'm-a-gift" bows. And, you know, it wouldn't be so bad … not if it weren't for the guilt that comes with raking in some much-needed cash off the backs of sad-eyed pups and their ignorant owners.
But then, as a wise philosopher once said, "You can't always get what you want." Granted, he was probably pretty stoned at the time, but it works surprisingly well as I navigate what's left of this "jolly" season.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/pets/2009-12-24-dolittler25_N.htm
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