Monday, February 20, 2012

Hudson's Owners Called The Owners About Their Malls In St. Louis and Found Them So Uneducated and Only Worried About Making Money


Westfield Mall in St. Louis at Chesterfield Mall and MidRivers had a horrible pet store chain in them and protestors out there every week trying to educate the public and everyone from their general manager of the mall to the corporate top executives turned a blind eye to the problem. It is Hudson's opinion that in this struggling economy they were too worried about losing money then doing the right thing.They were repeated contacted and educated on all the breeders this store was using including her own breeding facility.One breeder was breeding over 740 dogs and the violations of the breeders they were using was heartbreaking. Finally the breeder's store was closed and her breeder license has been taken away for five years but NO THANKS to the help of this mall. These scumbag puppy millers find every loophole they can and try to sneak under the radar and involve so many family members to make money off innocent animals who live a life of pure hell so these greedy worthless excuses of human beings can make money hand over fist off them. Shame on people with no conscience like this....how do you sleep at night???
Westfield Group, the owner of Westfield Malls, owns two malls in CT that currently lease space to pet stores selling puppies. The CT Post Mall in Milford, CT is home to the newly opened Bark Avenue, while the Westfield Meriden Mall houses the Gentle Jungle. Both these stores sell puppies that are sourced from large-scale, commercial breeders commonly known as Puppy Mills.

A puppy mill is a factory-like, profit-based puppy breeding operation. Dogs in puppy mills face miserable conditions including forced repeated breeding, inbreeding, poor or absent veterinary care, limited social contact, no exercise, poor shelter, and filthy, overcrowded cages. Unlike reputable breeders, puppy mills crank out puppies without regard to their health and genetic profiles, resulting in many generations of animals with serious inherited health issues.

The puppy mill industry produces more than half a million puppies per year. Many of these puppies end up local shelters and pounds after they are purchased on impulse in a retail stores, which almost never screen the purchaser to determine if they can, in fact, provide a loving a responsible home for the animal. Retail stores sell puppies without being spayed or neutered, leaving the chance that even more unwanted dogs will be born as a result. Puppies that do not sell in retail puppy stores are often returned to the broker or mill to be destroyed or sold for breeding stock.

This cycle of misery and irresponsibility is growing increasingly unacceptable to the public. Animals rights groups are exposing this industry's dirty practices to the public and they are no longer finding these stores or their "merchandise" acceptable. Large retail stores that anchor Malls will becoming under increasing pressure from consumers to oust retail puppy stores from their locations. Westfield Malls would surely not lease space to retailers selling obscene or exploitative merchandise; however, by allowing puppy selling pet stores in their malls, they are doing just this.

It's time to tell "Gentle Jungle" in Meriden and "Bark Avenue" in CT Post- Milford to move out or stop selling puppies.

The tide of opinion in turning and it's time for Westfield Group to take the right step toward being an enlightened and humane company. Macerich, developer of about 70 malls across the US announced last year that it would ban the sale of live animals in their malls. It's time for Westfield to do the same!

Just Discovered Another Fabulous Blog About Animal Welfare and Animal Issues


Reality Check: Not All Rescues Are Precious Pups
A sad, yet still common site on the streets of Iquitos
Recently we have posted many photos of abandoned puppies and kittens. These cute and helpless creatures tug at our heart strings. Today I write to remind our supporters that Amazon CARES is SO MUCH MORE than a rescue center, no-kill shelter, and adoption center. If our sole focus was to rescue street dogs and cats in need, we would barely be making a dent in the actual problem facing Iquitos. That is the issue of overpopulation, ill animals roaming the streets, and a lack of positive action on the part of the government to remedy the situation.

Prior to the advent of Amazon CARES, street animals were routinely shot, poisoned or drowned in mass culling of the population. A portion of our Mission Statement reads
"This is the reason that Amazon Community Animal Rescue, Education and Safety (CARES) was founded in 2004. Citizens with a desire to protect countless stray animals stepped in to create programs that the government did not provide."
What makes us different from similar charities? We are based in the community. While I, the Director, travel back and forth, our employees are primarily Peruvian. We work with existing facilities and available resources. We have a large geographic focus, the Peruvian Amazon. We work with local municipalities, offering solutions, and if they accept, we set up mobile spay/neuter clinics in the poorest neighborhoods. But that would not be enough. Learn more about our Spay-Neuter-Release programs.

How do we create a sustainable solution for animals? We return to these same neighborhoods and jungle towns again and again. This way we can ensure that this area will not have animals continuing to procreate, thus repeating the cycle of animal overpopulation, abandonment, and abuse. It does no good for a group to "drop-in" to a community and perform surgeries for 1-2 weeks if there are no plans to continue working in that region.

Help us name this beautiful dog ???






If you SUSPECT dog fighting anywhere in the USA then there is a wonderful group of tough guys in Atlanta who will help investigate dog fighting for you. They provide evidence to convict for the police for FREE. They also offer a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest! Last year they went to speak to rescue groups and law enforcement. Very tough, former MARINE heads it. call 1-877.215.2250 or web: helpstopdogfighting.com .

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Demonstration at Happiness is Pets

WHO: CAPS (Companion Animal Protection Society)

WHAT: Demonstration at HIP store

WHERE: Happiness is Pets 15647 S. 94th Avenue Orland Park, IL 60462 (708) 403-3223

WHEN: Saturday, February 11th ~ 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

WHY: Bringing public awareness to the Distemper / Pet Store / Puppy Mill Connection

HOW: Talking with public and potential purchasers of puppies. Passing out informational packets to inform shoppers that they have a better option: adoption from a local shelter, a rescue or petfinders.com
Organizers are hoping this demonstration will be less chaotic than the January 29th demonstration which ended in the store owner’s son, Jonathan Berning, being arrested for assaulting a woman.

For more information:
Contact Kristen Kaminski (CAPS Chicago Volunteer Coordinator) at 1-815-690-4996
Thank you for your time and consideration in attending and/or reporting on this important event.
Intimidation methods used to scare off demonstrators:
January 29, 2012: Jonathan Berning was arrested for assault (seen here in back seat of Orland Park police car) at the demonstration held last Sunday, January 29, 2012.

November 19, 2006: Jonathan Berning was seen here, attending the first demonstration held at the Warrenville HIP store (now closed). He walked directly up to demonstrators, filming with his camera in an attempt to intimidate.
July 1, 2008: After nearly 2 years of peaceful demonstrations held at the Warrenville HIP store, it CLOSED on July 1, 2008. The owner of the store, Ron Berning, had filed suit against three citizens of the town, shortly before Christmas in 2006, claiming libel, but later dropped the suit. The defendants and their lawyers believed it to be merely a scare tactic to discourage the demonstrators.

Westminster Can't Handle The Truth ???


Many of you are aware that the Westminter Dog Show dropped Pedigree as a sponsor because of the 'sad' commercials it ran promoting shelter dogs/adoption (the poor audience couldn't be subjected to 'depressing' ads and besides, it's only a matter of life and death for the shelter dogs--no big deal). Below is a great article and at the bottom a video clip from Steven Colbert.

Kathy GuillermoVice president of laboratory investigations, PETA; author, 'Monkey Business: The Disturbing Case That Launched the Animal Rights Movement'
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Westminster Can't Handle the Truth

The big story out of Westminster this year isn't what's going on in Madison Square Garden -- it's what's NOT going on during the commercial breaks in USA's and CNBC's coverage of the country's biggest dog show. That's because Westminster has ended its two-decade sponsorship contract with Pedigree and sacked the dog-food maker over its popular advertising campaign that encouraged adoption of homeless dogs in shelters.

You might be scratching your head and wondering what could be wrong with a feel-good message like that, but then you probably aren't saddled with a guilty conscience like the good people at Westminster, who have finally been forced to come out and admit that they really only care about putting on a good show, and screw those sad mutts waiting for homes in animal shelters.

Not that they said as much in so many words. What they actually said was, "Our show is a celebration of dogs... When we're seeing puppies behind bars, it takes away from that. Not just because it's sad, but it's not our message."

Right, because their message is "Buy, buy, buy." Buy from pet shops, buy from breeders, buy from puppy mills. We don't care where you buy your dog (because the American Kennel Club will issue "papers" to any breeder, sight unseen, no matter how large or small) -- just buy. But whatever you do, do not under any circumstances adopt one of those needy dogs from a shelter. What kind of sick and twisted killjoy are you?

"Show me an ad with a dog with a smile; don't try to shame me," said David Frei, the Westminster Kennel Club's director of communications.

Apparently, viewers weren't entirely in agreement with Mr. Frei. According to Pedigree, it received $500,000 in pledges after its 2007 Westminster ad campaign. "People did not look away," said Melissa Martellotti, spokeswoman for Pedigree's parent company Mars Petcare US. "They were inspired to pick up the phone and make donations." Another Pedigree spokesperson said that shelters around the country had thanked the company for raising awareness about the plight of homeless dogs.



It is estimated that six to eight million animals are left at shelters every year and roughly half are euthanized. Most of these animals are young, healthy, and friendly -- and at least a quarter of them are purebreds. There is nothing "wrong" with shelter dogs and mixed breeds -- they are not inferior to the dogs you see prancing around the ring at Westminster (in fact, studies show that mixed breeds are often healthier and even smarter than purebreds) -- they simply lack Westminster's marketing might.

The Westminster Kennel Club, the American Kennel Club (AKC) and the various other kennel clubs are as complicit in the deaths of shelter dogs as they would be if they had administered the lethal injections themselves. Not only do they promote and breed purebred dogs -- and in so doing take away homes from shelter animals with every litter that they bring into the world -- the dogs they breed and their offspring also end up homeless. (Yes, even dogs from vaunted Westminster breeders end up homeless -- a colleague of mine once adopted one.) To add insult to injury, the AKC also actively fights spay/neuter legislation introduced to combat animal overpopulation and homelessness.

Deep down, Westminster officials know that they play a starring role in the homeless-dog crisis, which is why they must cringe whenever they see one of those heart-wrenching Pedigree ads. Let's face it -- the ads are effective. No, the dogs aren't "smiling," but they haven't given up, either. Like the millions of dogs in shelters across America, all they want is a chance to strut their stuff, to prove that they are, if not the best in show, at least the best in your living room.

Steven Colbert's response

Click on this link: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/408346/february-14-2012/wWestminster-kennel-club-dog-show-2012


Saturday, February 18, 2012

Pet Stores Do Not Have A Place Anymore In This World of Educated People....

BY BILL BIRD
February 17, 2012
The lawyer representing the owners of the Happiness Is Pets retail chain said Friday a class-action lawsuit filed against the company “has no merit.”

A half-dozen dog owners have initiated litigation, alleging the chain sells ailing, disease-prone animals obtained from squalid puppy mills.

Visibly sick and distressed puppies have been driven to the company’s stores inside crowded vans, packed into crates and covered in feces and urine, according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago.

Store employees duped customers, the lawsuit claims, by assuring them the animals came exclusively from small, reputable breeders.

“In fact, the puppies at (Happiness Is Pets) are often sick, and come from some of the most despicable and horrendous puppy mills in the Midwest,” the lawsuit read in part. The plaintiffs claim to have been “deceived into buying sick puppy-mill puppies.”

An observer at one puppy mill that allegedly supplied dogs to the stores saw what is described in the suit as “a burn pile of puppies.”

Naperville attorney David Fish represents Ronald Berning, a member of the family that owns the 25-year-old chain. Fish late Friday said the litigation was baseless.

“We’re confident the lawsuit will be dismissed,” Fish said. “It has no merit.”

Fish noted Ronald Berning was appointed to an Illinois Senate joint-resolution task force by the director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture. That agency oversees pet shops here.

The task force’s work was “specifically related to disclosure of the origin and health of puppies that are for sale at pet stores,” Fish said.

That means Berning “has really been instrumental in creating the laws” that protect store-sold puppies, Fish said. He added members of the Berning family “care about issues like this.”

Fish also said a health warranty is issued by Happiness Is Pets for every puppy the chain sells. “So they really do stand behind their puppies,” he said.

The company’s website indicated Happiness Is Pets operates five shops in Arlington Heights, Downers Grove, Lombard, Naperville and Orland Park.

Its stores sell only puppies — more than 50 breeds, from beagles and Yorkie-poos to pugs and cockapoos, according to the website. The company has been “providing the Chicago area with healthy, happy puppies for over 20 years,” it indicated.

“We take pride in dealing exclusively with the best private breeders throughout the Midwest,” the website stated. “A full 50 percent of our business comes from satisfied customers and referrals.”

But the lawsuit contends the plaintiffs have suffered emotionally and financially, as they were frequently forced to take their ill puppies to veterinarians. They are seeking compensation for their losses, along with punitive damages.

Happiness Is Pets sought to conceal the poor condition of puppies, the lawsuit asserts, by having staff carefully groom and deworm them, and also by administering antibiotics that mask underlying ailments.

Plaintiff Jane Clifford described buying her puppy, Missy, two years ago for $798 — only to discover once she got the dog home that it suffered from a urine infection, kennel cough and other illnesses.

“Had Clifford been aware that Missy was sick and came from a puppy mill, she would never have purchased Missy,” the lawsuit declared.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Mark Your Calendars If You Live In St. Louis


Who: START (St Louis Animal Rights Team) http://start4animals.org/
When: Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
Where: Brentwood Recreation Complex located at 2505 S. Brentwood Blvd in room 102
Time: 7:00pm (should last ~2 hrs)
Topic/Speaker: Randy Grim, founder of Stray Rescue. A few of the things he will disucss: numerous unprosecuted animal cruelty cases, the city animal regulation officers and all that is wrong with their department, Stray Resuces 500-600 dog residents on any given day and the great enrichment programs that they have created for them, how lack of cooperation with the police make his work so difficult & why there is a strong push to make dog surrenders more unappealing. We want to be in a better position to help in any way with all that he is up against.
We will also discuss upcoming START events.