Pet store protest heats up in Orland Park
BY STEVE METSCH
Despite the frigid weather Sunday, things got a little heated during a protest outside an Orland Park pet shop.
While members of the Companion Animal Protection Society were protesting puppy sales outside Happiness Is Pets, 15647 S. 94th Ave., a woman got into an argument with a protester.
Words were exchanged between Michelle Winslow and protester Dianne Arp, who called the Orland Park police.
When police arrived and were talking with Arp, the other woman’s husband, Robert Winslow, approached and tried to talk with police.
After Winslow refused to leave the scene, police had him place his hands up against a vehicle and took his driver’s license.
After police talked to him, Winslow’s license was returned to him and no charges were filed. Emotions ran deep on both sides, so a police officer and a trainee lingered in a car in the parking lot.
CAPS members protested outside the store because two dogs purchased at other stores in the chain have died of distemper, a disease contagious to other dogs.
“They have not been to his breeders. Ron Berning knows he sells puppy mill puppies, and he doesn’t care about the problem,” Arp said.
Berning, of Lemont, owns the Happiness Is Pets chain.
Protesters stood on the sidewalk along 94th Avenue, holding signs and chanting slogans against the chain. They urged motorists to sound their horns if they supported their cause. Several did.
Nancy Malinowski, of Orland Park, braved the chilly weather because she opposes puppy mills, places that breed puppies to put them up for sale.
“I have adopted two puppy mill parents. They’ve spent their lives in cages for five years. Just to see the emotional damage it has done to them ... they don’t know what grass is or how to walk up stairs, just learning how to be a normal dog. They’re really skittish and don’t know how to play,” Malinowski said. “You have to kind of be like a mother hen and teach them how to be dogs.”
Employees at the Orland Park Happiness Is Pets shop declined comment and said Berning was not available for comment.
CAPS spokeswoman Kristen Kaminski, of Manteno, said “the owner refuses to talk about or take responsibility.”
The puppies “are not vaccinated properly, are not taken care of, are fed horribly and are bred over and over until they die, basically,” Kaminski said.
Pet store protest heats up in Orland Park - Southtown Star
BY STEVE METSCH
Despite the frigid weather Sunday, things got a little heated during a protest outside an Orland Park pet shop.
While members of the Companion Animal Protection Society were protesting puppy sales outside Happiness Is Pets, 15647 S. 94th Ave., a woman got into an argument with a protester.
Words were exchanged between Michelle Winslow and protester Dianne Arp, who called the Orland Park police.
When police arrived and were talking with Arp, the other woman’s husband, Robert Winslow, approached and tried to talk with police.
After Winslow refused to leave the scene, police had him place his hands up against a vehicle and took his driver’s license.
After police talked to him, Winslow’s license was returned to him and no charges were filed. Emotions ran deep on both sides, so a police officer and a trainee lingered in a car in the parking lot.
CAPS members protested outside the store because two dogs purchased at other stores in the chain have died of distemper, a disease contagious to other dogs.
“They have not been to his breeders. Ron Berning knows he sells puppy mill puppies, and he doesn’t care about the problem,” Arp said.
Berning, of Lemont, owns the Happiness Is Pets chain.
Protesters stood on the sidewalk along 94th Avenue, holding signs and chanting slogans against the chain. They urged motorists to sound their horns if they supported their cause. Several did.
Nancy Malinowski, of Orland Park, braved the chilly weather because she opposes puppy mills, places that breed puppies to put them up for sale.
“I have adopted two puppy mill parents. They’ve spent their lives in cages for five years. Just to see the emotional damage it has done to them ... they don’t know what grass is or how to walk up stairs, just learning how to be a normal dog. They’re really skittish and don’t know how to play,” Malinowski said. “You have to kind of be like a mother hen and teach them how to be dogs.”
Employees at the Orland Park Happiness Is Pets shop declined comment and said Berning was not available for comment.
CAPS spokeswoman Kristen Kaminski, of Manteno, said “the owner refuses to talk about or take responsibility.”
The puppies “are not vaccinated properly, are not taken care of, are fed horribly and are bred over and over until they die, basically,” Kaminski said.
Pet store protest heats up in Orland Park - Southtown Star
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