Puppies and dolphins ... in today's Times

In today's L.A. Times:

Staff writer Carla Hall reports on a pet store in the Beverly Center that will be moving out after puppy mill protests.

For 15 years, Pet Love has been a fixture in the busy Beverly Center mall, its brightly lighted interior showcasing furry puppies for sale behind glass-walled kennels.

But for the last six months, the sixth-floor pet store has been targeted by the Best Friends Animal Society, a national animal rescue and welfare organization that is waging a campaign to get Los Angeles pet shops to stop selling animals born in what the group calls inhumane puppy mills.

On Tuesday, it appeared that pressure from the group was forcing Pet Love to leave the upscale mall.

At a news conference near the mall Tuesday, Best Friends official Elizabeth Oreck said that the Beverly Center would terminate the lease of Pet Love at the end of January.

The owners of the store could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Also, staff writer Thomas H. Maugh II has a report on bottlenose dolphins and their use of tools -- in this case, sponges.

Photo: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Sarah]

Victory!

[Dawn]

YAHOO !!! But what happens to all those pets in the window when the doors close?

[Steve]

Note that the article says the store is moving out of the mall, it doesn't say the business is closing for good. So has their selling of puppy mill dogs really been stopped? Are they just going to re-locate and do it all again?

If the store had just agreed to stop getting their dogs from these horrid (they really are horrid) puppy mills and instead offer homeless dogs for sale or adoption then they'd still be in the mall. Maybe the store somehow didn't know it was getting it's supply of dogs from a bad place, but once it was pointed out to them why didn't they change their ways? Doesn't sound like Pet Love really loved pets at all.

For those who don't know what a puppy mill is... it's a place where countless dogs are kept in very cramped and dirty small kennels and never get exercise of any sort or love and attention, their soul purpose is to breed and make puppies... one litter after another until the mother is worn out. Then once they're too old to churn out puppies they're often killed.

The moral of the story is: don't buy your dogs from a pet store as most have dealings with puppy mills, instead either adopt a homeless dog from a shelter OR buy your puppy from a reputable breeder personally.

[ginnie carmdoy]

One pet store at a time, lets start closing them down,Thank god for the works of these angels.
Thank you we need one of your groups in every state and start shutting them down. And if they want to stay open just stop selling puppies! We have thousands being euthanized every day in this country. This needs to stop. So many dogs still need our help in the puppy mills, we can do this!
thank you!

[michele6933]

There's no such thing as a REPUTABLE breeder . Only lazy greedy humans making money from animals . Go get a real job .