Companion Animal Protection Society Asks Laguna Beach to Ban Sales of Pet Factory Animals

May 1, 2012 UPDATE: Laguna Beach Passes Ordinance

 Laguna Beach City Council Members, The Companion Animal Protection Society (www.caps-web.org) is a national, non-profit organization that exclusively investigates pet factories, puppy mills and pet stores. We have a national record of success exposing commercial breeding operations that violate federal and state laws. Our investigations and direct action campaigns have led to the ordinances that ban the sale of puppy mill dogs and cats you see being passed throughout California. We assisted the cities of West Hollywood and Glendale in the drafting of their ordinances. The Los Angeles ordinance, which is in the works, is based on the evidence from our investigations and our recommendations.

 We were appalled to read the letter sent to you by Peter Weinstein, senior director of the SCVMA, who purports to understand anti-puppy mill legislation. We believe his letter breaks his oath to “do no harm.” It is full of false information and we sincerely hope that is unintentional. It is obvious that he knows nothing about the puppy mill business and its sinister relationship with pet retailers. He has evidently never been to a puppy mill and we have been inside thousands of them. We do not believe he speaks for most veterinarians. All the veterinarians we know would like to see an end to puppy mill cruelty and a ban on the sale of puppy mill pets. Furthermore, and even more shocking to us in the animal protection movement, is that Mr. Weinstein seems to be cravenly protecting his business of selling medical care to the owners of sick puppy mill dogs, and protecting the deceitful business relationships between some veterinarians who enable unscrupulous dog dealers.

CAPS’ investigative evidence is included in several lawsuits being filed on behalf of consumers who have bought sick puppy mill dogs in California pet stores. Some veterinarians who work with these pet stores are in fact co-conspirators in the fraudulent business practice of selling puppy mill animals. They actually profit from treating the illnesses and congenital defects that are diagnosed in puppy mill dogs. CAPS does not profit from investigating and exposing these facts.

 We applaud you for considering a ban on the sale of puppy mill animals in your city. We have irrefutable evidence that inhumane breeding factories have been supplying California’s pet stores. Ordinances banning the sale of puppy mill dogs and cats is the way to end puppy mill cruelty. Anti-puppy mill ordinances in the form of a sales ban, successfully relieve the local municipal shelter system by encouraging pet retailers to “go humane” (by holding adoptions of your local homeless animals instead of selling puppy mill pets). This is a win/win for the city, for the tax payers, and for animals. This type of measure is not unduly punitive to pet stores either. We have a lot of experience converting pet stores to our humane business model and they do very well.

 This is not only an animal protection issue, it is also a consumer protection issue. With such an ordinance, you will be taking a bold step to mitigate the suffering of animals in other states as well as protecting local consumers from being defrauded. Having investigated over 2000 commercial breeding operations, we can tell you that without a doubt, that even when commercial breeding operations adhere to USDA minimum standards of care, animals are being abused and neglected. We’d be happy to show you evidence of that.

 Sincerely,
 Carole Davis, West Coast Director, The Companion Animal Protection Society

Chris Brown Illegally Selling Pit Bulls?

Watch Carole Raphaelle Davis, West Coast Director of The Companion Animal Protection Society on CNN with Jane Velez-Mitchell talking about Chris Brown and his selling of pit bulls on-line.

Carole Raphaelle Davis of CAPS Decries Pit Bull Breeding by Pop Star Chris Brown

Is Chris Brown breaking the law once again? The Companion Animal Protection Society would like to know. Is he breeding dogs without a breeder's license? Why are his personal dogs, who live at his mother's house in Virginia, not sterilized as they should be? Is Chris Brown's mother a backyard breeder? Are they subject to a breeder's inspection program? If so, where is their license and where is a copy of their last inspection report?

Chris Brown's publicist claims "this is not a business venture." If it is not a business, then why is his mother selling the eight puppies for $1000 each? Does Brown's mother really need another $8000? Are they not paying taxes on this money? The IRS and the Board of Equalization will want to know.

There are strict laws about dog breeding in the state of Virginia (see here ) that Mr. Brown might want to look at before the authorities come looking for him.

Chris Brown has once again shown us how thoughtless his actions are. Our nation's shelter system is experiencing a deadly pet overpopulation crisis and it is unconscionable to breed, sell or buy dogs while over five million companion animals are killed at the pound every year.

And Pit bulls are plentiful in the shelters. Once they enter the shelter system, they only have hours to live unless someone steps up to adopt them. I did an Internet search today and found over nineteen thousand pits in danger of being killed for lack of adopters.

Grow up, Chris Brown and act like a responsible human being. We do not need more pit bulls right now. There is a glut of them being killed as I write this. Sterilize your dogs like you are supposed to and stop making money off your dogs' backs. Stick to making money from your music and stop exploiting animals.

For those of you who might be tempted to buy Brown's dogs, take that $1000 and give it to a family in need. Then go to your local shelter and save a dog's life. You'll feel good about yourself.

Corona del Mar Pet Store Closes Under Pressure From Animal Rights Activists

CdM I Heart Puppies Store To Close

by Amy Senk, reposted from Corona del Mar Today

Read online here: 

posted: February 24th, 2012 12:33 pm |11Comments

UPDATED with comment from store owner and from an animal rights activist who had investigated the store.

Eight months after its opening drew thousands of protesters to Corona del Mar, I Heart Puppies is closing its retail shop at 2801 East Coast Highway, according to a sign in the shop’s window.

“I Heart Puppies would like to thank the community of CdM for their kindness, generosity, and support. Sadly, we are closing our store front,” the sign states. “I Heart Puppies will continue to provide the same quality puppies for sale on our website, where we will be able to offer a larger variety of breeds. We take pride in offering puppies from our reputable breeders; we personally visit our breeders and their kennels and continue to monitor them to maintain the highest level off quality. We look forward to providing you with professional, quality one one one service in selecting your future puppy.”

The store opened on July 1 at 2801 East Coast Highway, selling $1,500 puppies, food and accessories; read our story here. But the shop soon drew scrutiny from animal rights activists, who said the owners bought their dogs from inhumane Midwestern puppy mills, and protesters began picketing the shop in August; read our story here. Protesters also attended several City Council meetings, asking that Newport Beach consider a ban on puppy sales, but Council did not respond to those requests.

The store’s owners, Brooke Bradford, Suzanne Bradford and Summer Gorjian, defended their puppies and said they visited the kennels and breeders personally and did not buy from puppy mills — although animal rights activists challenge their claim.

In an email today, Carole Raphaelle Davis, West Coast director of the Companion Animal Protection Society, said the store’s closure was not the “victory we hoped for.”

“We wanted IHP to thrive as a ‘rescue only’ store like so many other pet shops we have converted to the humane business model,” she said. “We investigated and exposed evidence of the horrific puppy mills they were buying from and then we staged the largest animal rights protests in NB history. No store selling factory-bred pets has ever been able to withstand our formula of investigations and protracted protests by local activists…They could have made money AND saved lives of OC homeless pets desperately in need of homes.”

She added that many protesters continue to hope that the Newport Beach City Council would ban the sale of puppy mill animals.

“The public loves dogs and hates puppy mills and it is time for an ordinance in Newport Beach,” she said.

Protests and pressure from animal rights groups were not the reason for closing the shop, but rather high overhead and economic factors, owner Suzanne Bradford said today in an email.

“We are closing our store front and just doing Internet sales, with our same quality puppies,” she said. “We are planning a breeder tour to visit our breeders and look for some larger breed breeders. We are revamping our website (iheartpuppiesca.com) will have videos of available puppies, parents, the breeder and their kennels.”

All puppies have been sold, she added.

A sign in the shop’s window says the final days will be Saturday and Sunday, when all merchandise will be 75 percent off. The shop was closed earlier today, and no puppies were in the cages in the window. The shop also has a Craigslist listing that says beds, toys, harnesses shampoo and other items will be discounted because the shop is closing.

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Comments

Lease

February 24th, 2012

easy come easy go I guess well thanks for bringing in the very first protest I've ever seen in 30 years good luck to you all (both sides of the coin)

Dan

February 24th, 2012

I am happy to see the drama will end this weekend. I hope the leasing agent will not make another unscrupulous choice in selecting a new tenant. I think consideration of a LIQUOR STORE there at the crosswalk to the ELEMENTARY SCHOOL will not be on the table this time, but one cannot be certain.

carole s

February 24th, 2012

This is the best news I got in a long time!! One less puppy mill front to support cruelty. Great job everyone, educating and informing people about the evil pet trade business. Support your local shelter and adopt/rescue, SAVE A LIFE!!

Dina K

February 24th, 2012

Too bad IHP is going to "continue to provide the same quality puppies for sale on our website." Puppy mill puppies aren't the quality most consumers would want. "Kennel" is just another fancy term for puppy mill and IHPs is counting that trusting consumers won't. Informed, progressive people know to adopt from a shelter or rescue, NOT purchase an animal from a "reputable breeder." If dogs are bred while others die in shelters, what's reputable about that? Seems more despicable to me. Shame on you - Brooke Bradford, Suzanne Bradford, and Summer Gorjian for your greed at the expense of animals and ignorant consumers.

Barbara Davilman

February 24th, 2012

If anyone ever needed any more proof that these women are just in this for the money then the decision for them to close their store and 'start selling dogs over the internet' is the proof anyone needs that they're greedy, inhumane assholes. Online dogs can go right to dog fighting rings or used as bait. No reputable breeder sells online without interviewing the home and doing a homecheck to make sure their puppy is going into a 'good, safe, loving' home. I'm so disgusted by these women...here's hoping karma's a bitch.

Don

February 24th, 2012

Bittersweet. I agree wholeheartedly with Ms. Davis' comments within this article. These women had an opportunity to convert this business to something that truly put animals first. Instead, they proved what so many of us saw from the start: a revenue-generating venture to be established through the forced procreation and sale of puppies slapped with thousand-dollar price tags. Now they'll continue their disgusting activity amidst the shadows of the Internet...unconcerned from where puppies come, with the places they end up, or the thousands upon thousands that die simply for having no home. The world would be a better place with fewer callous, soulless people as these three. Congratulations to CDM and all those who opposed IHP. Where there are animals, there will always be compassionate, caring humans fighting as their voice of reason and understanding.

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Westminster Dog Show is a Sham

While Winners Celebrate, Dogs Are Dying by the Millions

By Carole Raphaelle Davis

Not everyone jumped for joy on Valentine’s Day when Malachy, the Pekingese, was named Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show. Real dog lovers raged. Why? Because a Peke won a beauty contest and consequently tens of thousands of Pekes will suffer a horrible fate. Because it means rough years ahead for Pekinese breeding dogs who are abused in puppy mills and backyard breeding operations. Because thousands of Pekinese will be dumped at the pound when the novelty wears off. The Westminster Dog Show and its parent, the American Kennel Club, the most established of the breed registries, has blood on its hands.

I wasn’t always this angry about dog shows. As a teenager I was a total dog geek. I would run every year to Madison Square Garden, the dog lover’s Mecca, to buy the three-day, all-access pass to The Westminster Dog Show. Since then, during twenty plus years in the animal protection movement, I have learned the truth. The Westminster Dog Show is a sham. Behind the flashing lights and the trophies are the American Kennel Club’s dirty little secrets:

1. Annually, the AKC, a “non-profit” animal enterprise, profits over 40 million tax-exempt dollars promoting the business of dealing dogs; many of them inbred with genetic malformations that are painful for the dogs and expensive for the owners. See the BBC’s special, Pedigree Dogs Exposed: 

2. They routinely register puppies from inhumane dog factories (puppy mills).

3. AKC reps are a constant presence at dog auctions, making deals not to promote the wellbeing of dogs, but to ensure registration fees from unscrupulous breeders. At these auctions, commercial breeders buy and sell breeding dogs,  their “product,” for as low as a dollar. The “product,” which should be a family pet in a loving home is instead sold to live out her sad life reproducing in a cage.

4. The AKC denies and covers up its responsibility for contributing to the millions of  dogs housed in our nation’s shelter system at our expense until they are tragically killed.

5. The AKC spends millions of dollars fighting animal protection legislation in every state in order to continue to profit from the dog dealing business.

And here are the dots it took me twenty years to connect: The Best-In-Show trophy awarded every year at the Westminster Dog Show fuels intense desire for purebred dogs. It promulgates the purebred fetish—the elitist idea that some dogs are better than others because of absurd criteria like the length of their hocks, the shortness of their snout, the texture of their fur or the protrusion of their eyeballs.  Many of the genetic traits that garner prizes at dog shows are congenital malformations that cause suffering to dogs and can eventually kill them. And by the way, none of those standards are the qualities that make us love our dogs and that make our dogs love us.

This year, because of the Westminster Dog Show, millions of people will covet the latest fashion accessory, a Pekinese dog, and commercial breeders will happily cash in on the bonanza. Pet stores will order them by the truck-load from brokers, who will buy them in bulk from commercial breeders. The word on the puppy pipe line will be: “Churn out those Pekinese puppies, they’re selling like hotcakes!”

You can order your Peke on-line at nextdaypets.com. All you need is a credit card and your Peke will come in the mail in twenty-four hours, just like a pair of shoes—if he survives the trip; many don’t. And when Peke fashion passes its peak, you can unload your used Peke at any shelter, where unless a socially conscious person shows up to adopts him, he will be killed.

While dogs are bought on a whim by selfish people who want what they want when they want it, over five million companion animals are killed in our nation’s shelter system for lack of adopters. It’s a national scandal that we are paying over $2.5 billion a year to house and kill these innocent animals. Twenty-five percent of those dogs are purebred dogs.

The Westminster Dog Show is a televised convention to promote the multi-billion dollar business of dealing purebred dogs. Behind the scenes is a sinister web of handshakes and deal-making with the long term plan of fighting any legislative measures the animal protection movement attempts to pass. Any talk of regulation that hinders the bottom line of commercial breeders in order to alleviate the suffering of breeding dogs is met with fierce opposition and deep pockets.

The commercial breeders and the clubs that enable them, like the AKC,  are stubborn in their insistence that animal rights activists back off . The breeders stick together, lobby Washington and take out ads in national newspapers to portray the animal protection activists as “fringe,” “extremist,”  “anti-business” and “fanatics.”

The animal protection movement is not going to back off. We will continue to expose the truth about the dog dealing industry and the shows that promote them. The Westminster Dog Show and the American Kennel Club need to come clean about their shameless disregard for the welfare of dogs. Instead, they congratulate themselves with trophies while we go broke cleaning up their mess, rescuing broken dogs, nursing them back to health, soothing their fear and finding them loving homes.

While the Westminster Dog Show winners celebrate, we cry over our dead—the millions and millions of dead dogs, our supposed best friends.

Carole Raphaelle Davis is the author of "The Diary of Jinky, Dog of a Hollywood Wife" and the West Coast Director of The Companion Animal Protection Society