We bought a puppy from a pet shop and he has severe medical problems--he's had to have bladder surgery ~ $2000 and is on a special diet plus medication. We love him dearly and know in our hearts he shouldn't have been sold through the pet shop. We wanted to give him a good home and we have, but it's been a very costly road. I just worry what will happen next. I'm never at ease with him... It's very sad...

We got very lucky when we bought our Bulldog puppy from a pet store. We had seen him a couple of months earlier, him and his brother. I actually liked his brother better, but when we went back 2 months later and he was still there and the brother was gone, It broke our hearts to see him there. He was on sale, so we took him home. We have been very lucky that he does not have anything wrong with him. We had our verterinarian look at him and he is a "perfect specimen" as he put it. It breaks my heart everytime I go into a pet shop and I know where they come from and what kind of conditions they live in. I think that Pet shops should be outlawed. They are so cruel, and they do no kind of background check to be sure that you can even own a pet, and that you have the proper conditions to take care of the pet, or that you will be kind and loving to the animals.

Ed, I am so sorry that you are having trouble with you pet. I hope that he will be over his problems and can go on living a happy, healthy and long life with you.

The pet shop owners probally have no idea the extent of the illnesses.If so they are guilty of deciving the customers.The customers are what keep them in buisness,the dogs can`t talk but the customers really get some brass on this and open their mouths.~Peace Glenna~

I work countless hours for a national all breed rescue and it just breaks my heart to see those "cute" puppies for sale in the local stores. Those people gazing fondly at their antics have no idea of the horrors this puppies parents have gone through. The parents are often kept in wire pens, with little to no shelter from the heat or the cold. The only contact they have with humans is when they are dragged from their crates when it is time to breed to make more money for the miller. They are treated as a commodity and when they are no longer useful as breeders they are often taken out and shot! I have 7 rescue dogs in my home at this time and each comes with its own baggage and it just breaks my heart. I pray each night that I would no longer have to work for a rescue because the public would have opened its eyes and seen beyond that "cute" puppy. Bravo on your report, we need more education and this expose is but the first step. Thank you.

Dear Mr.Cohn:
I work with the public and I had mentioned to a customer just tonite, that I was looking to get anouther dog, and, she mentioned to me If you do anything DON'T go to Fin & Feather in Groton,, she bought a dog there and the dog was very sick and she paid alot of money for him.. I thought you should know about this pet store as well.. Please, don't use my name on the news, because, I do work in two public places and dont want to be a target in anyway.. But, I believe if you can to put an article in the local papers and you will most likely get that person to respond,, she was very upset. I didnt think to get her name, and didnt know about this ,, til I came home and saw your report on the channel 8 news at 11pm... thank you, and keep the good work up for animals.
Tammey

dont u love how u ask channel 8 news not to put your name out in public and they put it out on this page they dont care who they ruin!

I would like to help the family who need $7000 is there anyway they would be willing to take a donation? Just write a comment back

Dear Mr. Cohn: I just watched you story about Gizmo and am very horrified that this type of thing does go on. I have been very lucky though in purchasing puppies from pet shops. I have two healthy adult Shi Tzus whom my family and I love very dearly. I think there should be insurance that the pet shops should carry that cover the adopted pet for at least the first six months of the pet's life, if not for the first year. The cost of this insurance should be absorbed mostly by the pet shops. If this is the business they want to be in it is one of the costs they should have to absorb.

Just because All pets is an advertiser, you should have told your viewers Where the dogs came from. Seem like you buckled to the dollar, and your hard hitting report landed on a bed of feathers

For one, all of my dogs came from a pet store. For another, I used to work for a reputable pet store in Connecticut and I would like to address a few issues with your broadcast.

First off, the pet store lemon law in Connecticut is as short as it is because it only covers illnesses that came directly from the store (they would only show up within the first two weeks after leaving the store). All stores are supposed to check dogs for any visible problems and treat them and disclose all this information to the purchaser. Any normal puppy has indeed been through so much stress that it will most likely develop at the very least a cold due to the fact that increased stress decreases the strength of their immune system. If these colds or kennel cough go untreated by the owners (which will be covered by store warranties) it will not develop into pneumonia. Also, almost any puppy will have a parasite upon a stool examination.

Second, many Connecticut pet stores do not have a warranty that covers congenital defects (birth defects) because they do not need to. In all honesty this should be the responsibility of the breeder, not the store, or the broker.

Which brings me to my next point, not all puppies in pet stores come from "puppy mills." There is a broker which will only take one to two puppies of a breed from any breeder per 10 months,t hereby the breeder is not making a significant enough profit to be temped to "over-breed." There are breeders that sell puppies to brokers who are certified by the USDA and subject to surprise inspections by Animal Control to keep their liscenes. Also, a broker may be an extra step in a puppy's trip to a loving home, but at the broker is where the puppy undergoes its most thorough vet examinations, receieves its microchip (where applicable), and also receive any needed medical treatment such as hernia repairs from birth complications.

I, for one, am upset that the media lumps all stores together without getting all the facts and doing research about ALL the pet stores around. I know there are bad ones but I also know there are good ones. Some may say that all pet stores contribute to pet over-population, but the breeders are not going to stop breeding and the pet parents are not going to stop buying.

I am also upset that the media even gives certain people the time of day because they are just looking for money. For one, if you love your pet "like one of your children" you would find a way to pay for the surgery. And another, if an animal seems like it is in pain why wouldn't you get it treatment immediately? I know I love my dogs like my sons and I would do anything I had to to help them.

But that's just the opinion of someone who has lived and breathed the life of both a pet store that sells dogs and one that doesn't for the past three years.

Thank you.

Alan, I saw your report tonight, and feel so much for that poor couple who have spent so much to keep their pup Gizmo alive. It is disgraceful what they are going through, but you can tell they love the dog and are doing everything they can. VERY sad!

I won't even go into a pet store. All my animals were given to me by friends, or adopted from a shelter, all but 2 lived to be 17 years old, the other 2 lived to 13 and 15 years of age.

My opinion is that these places should be shut down, as most are putting people through financial, and emotional problems.

*************************************************
ed, I really feel for you, and truly hope your dog makes out well. God bless you for doing as much as you have already to give your dog a good home, and lots of love.

Amanda..Not everyone has the financial means to pay out 7,000 for their pets. Your statement that if they really loved the dog they would find the means is ridiculous. They are doing all they can right now, and already have shelled out 2 grand.

MK..I have no idea who you are, but if you are able to help those people, may God bless you!!!

I hope Mr. Cohen keeps us updated on Gizmo!

PS. it may be sad to see dogs in kennels however, it is the most sanitary way to keep them healthy. places like the dog house and all pets club where dogs are kept in open rooms spread illness. If a puppy in a kennel gets sick, it will most likely not transmit the illness to another dog whereas in an open room a puppy can give a sickness to every dog in the room. also pet stores CANNOT knowingly sell a dog with any sickness to a customer. the lemon law doesnt sxpressly mean that the pet parent must return the dog outright. some stores will offer the option of returning the dog just long enough for it to make a full recovery, therefore the pet store will incur the entire vet cost and the family will get back the same dog, healthy as can be.

with the pet stores that have warranties, pet parents will incur the costs initially and can then be reimbursed by the company. also, some stores offer a warranty that exceeds the lemon law. maybe the law is a little lax, but then again, so was the way conveiniently kept a certain name out of the broadcast.

JJ maybe you think money is the only thing that matters. but thats all there is for them to do. these people arent trying. there are vets out there that will make payment plans so you can get your surgery and pay it off when you can. there are credit cards... which do the same thing. if they have bad credit and cant get approved for the plan, they can get a cosigner. its not hard to try harder

oh and why doesnt the media ever interview a vet or an animal control officer from the dept of agriculture who randomly inspects pet stores?

and i meant to say money isnt all there is

I have been involved with rescue for years and have also gone into a Lancaster County puppymill. Annually I march on these puppymills and do everything I can to close them. To this day I have nightmares about the things I saw. Last weekend I visited the petstore that was viewed in tonight's news and researched the source of the dogs in their possession. These dogs came from the heart of US puppymills. These dogs may be cute and playful but what about the emaciated, neglected parents that they came? The underlying illnesses were visible in tonight's newscast. Stricter laws are needed to stop puppymills. Help fight this by not buying dogs from petstores. See what it's all about by visiting www.awarenessday.org

Amanda, maybe they are just not in any finacial situation to take out a loan. Don't forget, a loan has to be paid back, and usually with interest. For all you or I know, they may be on a fixed income or something. I'm sorry, but I disagree with you that they are not trying.

I am retired and on a fixed income, and I know darn well there is no way in the heavens I could shell out any 7,000 for a pet, or most anything else. I believe these folks probably bought the dog with whatever money they had, expecting NO additional problems, yet got stuck with a very sick dog.

Yes, I am sure there are a few pet stores that are reliable, but I have heard many horror stories, and am glad I acquired my animals the way I did. Even when one of my dogs had a litter of Collie pups, I gave them away, but only to people I knew would take great care of them.

Let's all hope that Gizmo gets the care he needs, and the couple are able to raise a healthy dog.

Thank you all for your well wishes. My dog is doing ok right now and he has such a nice personality. Who ever did raise him before we got him from the store had to have been good to him because he's friendly and smart. I have had 2 other wonderful dogs and we got them from shelters. They were tougher to train since they were"someone elses troubles" but I still miss them terribly... Did you ever stop to think that, we as dog lovers, don't have enough time in our lives to meet as many wonderful dogs as we'd like to? I would have another couple if I had room and money... Thanks, Channel 8 for bringing this issue to the folks....Ed

So I understand that this is a big problem and they might not have too much money but I agree with Amanda. If you are not ready to undertake the responsibilities of paying for a dog's vet visits or hospital stays than you should not be buying a puppy. Not to mention feeding them and taking them for annual visits does cost a pretty penny. You should be somewhat prepared when you take a puppy home instead of impulse buying.

Regardless whether dogs come from pet stores, puppy mills, or a "accidental at home births" this has to do with the responsibility of the new owner. Let's say it was not a dog but a baby. Just because you take great care of yourself for 9 months and you have a child does not mean there won't be birth defects or other such problems. Now if there are such problems you would get them fixed no matter what, because that is your child. That is what a puppy is, a child; the possibilities and responsibilities are the same. There is always a chance something can go wrong, no matter what happened before the puppy, or child, came into your life. Therefore I do not care about pet stores, I have seen bad stories but I have also seen great stories. I have also seen devoted parents who love their new puppy "like their children" who would do anything to handle problems because that's what parents do.

In regards to this situation I do feel badly for the puppy because of the pain it is in but that has nothing to do with the pet store in question. If it was not possible for the new owners to see the problem in the store how is the pet store supposed to see the problem.

So all in all the problem does not lie within the pet store it lies within the responsibility of the owners. If the vet you are seeing now will not let you pay off the surgery in installments then you can find a different vet who will allow it. Obviously you will have to pay the money back, I don't think anybody is saying you won't have to. But it's kind of like financial aid for college, you will have to pay it back later but it helps you reach your goals at the present time. Your goal at the present time is making sure that your puppy gets better and can lead a healthy life so do some research and find a vet that will care about the pain the puppy is in.

Thank you Christy... your last comment made a lot of sense. The puppy is obviously in a lot of trouble not to mention pain and it needs help. The family needs to find a vet that really cares about the animals not just the money. And JJ I don't care what kind of money or fixed income anyone makes and when it comes to the welfare of an animal, interest shouldn't matter either. A vet that really cares will work with a family to get them their surgery.

I personally have been to some "interesting" pet stores, but i have also been to some that are pretty impressive. I can see both sides of the story, but agree that when you take an animal home, whatever it may be, you are taking on a lot of responsibilities. I have grown up around all types of animals. Ive had dogs from breeders and pet stores. Both were healthy and lived a long life. I understand there are some stores out there that should, infact, be shut down, but there are some that should be talked about in a positive aspect. A dog is like a baby they can get illnesses. A reputable pet store will offer warranties on their puppies that dont necessarily require the family to return their new member, but keep and treat their new family member. I believe that CT state laws only requires the pet stores have a 15 day return policy due to illness and maybe reimberse $200.00. So are the pet stores in the wrong leagally, NO. IT is however to knowingly sell a sick puppy to anyone. If someone noticed something about the puppy why didnt they question the pet store at the time, and think about purchasing the puppy. If the owner of the puppy didnt see any problem at the time then how were the people at the store supposed to know there was an issue? I mean everyone is human and the workers of the stores cant work miracles and tell if a dog has an issue. Not everyone is a vet, but maybe thats the real step... talk to a vet and see what they have to say. Find out who that store uses as the vet and ask them why they couldnt find this problem...

Just one more thing that i have recently noticed was that Breeders have caller ID and dont answer their phones if there is a problem.... pet stores must answer their phones due to the fact they are legit businesses. So call the store, harass them if you must, but try and get in contact with a breeder when you have a problem. Also, if these puppies are coming from legit places you should recieve their "paperwork" which will have the breeders information on it. Why not contact them since they are the original source of the puppy.

Tammy.......you are like the Master Card commercial..."priceless"...........lol

People make prices..GREEDY people for the most part........I have seen some "pricey" pets out there the people that buy em mostly for "status" and for "attention"........no animal on the face of the planet is worth the hundreds or thousands that some are sold for........its like the idot people who buy the "exotic" pets and cant care for them.......

I strongly believe that pet shops should
obtain their puppies and kittens from local
breeders, if they sell the animals at all.
I have bought two dogs from pet shops, and
was not really surprised that neither of the breeders responded to my letters. One dog was sick with hookworm, coccidosis, and
kennel cough. As long as uneducated buyers purchase pets from store owners caring more about the almighty dollar, animals will suffer
owners who care more about the almighty

I have read some of the comments and feel I must express what I know as a worker at an Animal Shelter. Pet Stores need to be held at a higher standard as they are selling a specific product. per say. They are the experts on this and therefore the person trusts that they have made sure of the health and the history of the puppy. Whether the pet stores like it or not unless they have actually visited the place these puppies have come from

they can not say they are not from Puppy Mills.
I always tell someone that if they must get a puppy to please go directly to a breeder and make sure they interview them and get references.

With in the influx of puppies coming from not only the pet stores but coming up from other states via rescues the backlash to the shelter will be intense.

I bought a mini schnauzer puppy from the very same pet store alluded to in the clip last night. It was a horrible experience. We saw her when she came in and she had a cough. They told us that they were "watching" it per the vet who checked her out but they also put her in the back in a kennel by herself. I had paid for her and I told them that I wanted her seen by the vet or released to me so I could take her to my vet for treatment. They refused. I went back several times to visit her and spring her from the cage so she could have some kind of interaction. When the Sunday came-they told me that she would have to stay until Wednesday because she still was coughing. Mind you the vet has still not come back to see her since her initial visit on the Wednesday and would not be back until the following Tuesday. The store manager told me that he nebulized her with a prescription drug. I found out that it was a drug that was not to be given to small breed dogs because it can hurt their growth plates. This manager also was not a licensed vet and dispensed the medicine to the dog on his own whim under probably "a blanket order?" At this point they were saying that if the vet deemed that she needed further treatment she'd have to stay there even longer than the Wed date. I kept pressing them and visiting the puppy and at one point I was walking around with the puppy I had paid for in full and one of the employees was folloing me like I was going to steal her! At this point it became a rescue mission to get that puppy help. The vet made her visit to the store and lo and behold I received a call telling me that the puppy was cleared to go home that the vet didn't hear any thing. I went right over and got her and brought her home...yup you guessed it Sick!

I took her right to my vet and she was treated. We were lucky...she only had kennel cough and because I persisted to get her out it didn't progress to something worse, but she was a sick pup. I posted negative reviews of the pet store and my experience and received a call from the owner who was very intimdating, demanding that I rescind my reviews. He also told me I was banned from coming into his store, which he rescinded later in the conversation . This all happened last June and I still have not gone back in there and won't. He wouldn't pay for the medication I had to puppy on and I had to press to get my papers for the pup. I did report him and the vet to the dept of licensing and the fda. . The kicker here- is that I have 2 other (older dogs) bought in the older store years ago. They are all from the same breeder and have been in good health,except I just learned this year (after getting the puppy)that my 6 year old has a heart murmur-somethign that perhaps came through her breeding. She's ok now and I will treat her as needed, but it really makes me wonder what's instore for my cute little puppy now. I've decided to train her to give something back. She's in training to become a therapy dog to visit patients in the hospitals with the ultimate goal of becoming an alzhiemers therapy dog.

We aren't going to realistically stop people from buying that cute little puppy and that's what ehe is banking on. You aren't going to be able to edcuate everyone about where the dogs are coming from e either. We need to lobby to pass some kind of legistation stoping pet stores in CT from improting any live dogs and cats. Simply pass legislation that makes it illegal for these stores to sell the Dogs and Cats...if that happened all around the country, that would dry up the puppy mills!

Simple solution. Put the puppy mills out of business. Get your pets at the Humane Society.

Getting a pet at a pet store is very selfish. The customers, whether they realize it or not, are looking for "new" just like buying that new computer. If they say that the pet is a part of the family then what is wrong with getting a pet from the Humane Society which has more love for these animals than any puppy mill pet store?

Visitor...I've gotten both. My first one ever from the pet store was a pup that had been sitting there. The day before I bought her I had just had to put down my beloved Fluffy cat with a brain tumor. Admittedly-it was a decision made during duress, but my 8 year old is a happy, healthy dog who had been sitting in that store for a while. I had a mutt at home that I got from someone. my other girl I got because she was sitting there for a while-again-it was emotions that played on it, not selfishness. I also adopted a 13 year old schnauzer from the pound. I was his 3rd home! He had been dumped by "selfish" people who actually lied about him and tried to have him put down. He was so happy when I found him and lived another 3 happy years with us. He was one of the best dogs I've ever owned.

You can't make generalizations. Smart people fall for the emotions of the cute puppy. It doesn't make them selfish either. That's what the store owners bank on. Recently I have to say things have gotten out of hand with the "designer" mixed breed dogs that people are paying out lots of $$ for. I simply don't understand that at all.

no need to go to a breeder, my pet, she was a stray, a very dear friend found her and she offered me the kitti, named "sami"...she was about 7...now she's 17 or 18, still acts like a kitten, and eats, well, lets just say she rarely eats cat food... i just got her a gift the other day, a bird feeder, now she has wild game to chase...

as to the question at hand, a good law would read, the owner keeps the pet, and the store pays all the medical bills related to the defect...just watch how quick pet stores stop buying from 'puppy mills' and buy from reputable middlemen

one other thing about her, she just loves tomato sause, must of lived in an Italian house...

Pets are a luxury, not a necessity. And too many people point fingers saying that it's the pet store's fault. I agree that there a lot of problems with one particular store, but are these people that are selling the puppies & other pets really trained to even know that to look for, as far illnesses? How are they housing the puppies? How sanitary are they?
And as for the Veterinary side of it, I have worked as a Veterinary Technician for over 15 years and have worked at an emergency hospital for over 5 years. I see these puppies every day coming from pet stores with severe illnesses and congenital defects. Congenital defects cannot be avoided. People should do their research on specific breeds before purchasing a puppy. As for the "designer puppies", they are mutts, you can save a healthy dog from the shelter, instead of spending thousands of dollars. Again, pets are a luxury, not a necessity. Everybody should know about health insurance for pets and Care Credit for emergencies. It is a financial sacrifice to own a pet, and not something that should be taken lightly.

i ADOPTED MY DOG FROM THE HUMANE SOCIETY AND THANK GOD THERE WERE NO PROBLEMS AND A VET DOES CHECK OUT THESE DOGS AND THIS HUMANE SOCIETY TOOK GREAT CARE OF HER. SHE IS THE BEST DOG I EVER HAD. OBEYS EVERY COMMAND FIRST TIME AND NOT A SECIND TIME. SHE BONDED WITH AND BECAMSE A FRIEND TO MY LEARNING DISABLED SON. I RECOMMENED ADOPTION. I NEVER GOT A BAD DOG FROM THE HUMANE SOCIETY

My Husband and I had have purchased three dogs from the same pet store. The first dog we purchased a Male Siberian Husky died on our Dining Room Floor at the age of 3 1/2 He had just had his yearly shots in September and died in October for no apparent reason. We have a Female Siberian who is not the healthiest pooch. She has a muscular issue and has a bleeding disorder. We have another dog who seems to be O.K. Since we lost the Siberian Male we've done nothing but worry. Losing him was a very traumatic experience. There's not a day goes by when we don't wonder if he'd still be alive if we got him from a Breeder. Huskies have a life expectantcy of 12 years. We took very good care of him and he died very young. With no warning.

Never never never never buy a dog or cat from a pet store. ALWAYS adopt. Save a life. Pound/rescue center animals are the BEST. Its much less expensive, I only had a $100 adoption fee at the humane society for a 12 week old puppy who is the absolute best dog you can ask for.

The hummane society is great and i think it is a wonderful thing they do there, but what happens when they get over populated and dogs get older there? has anyone ever asked that question? If you get a puppy from a pet store or breeder or the hummane society, it started off at a breeder at some point in its life. The chance of it having a cold or parasite is high because it came from another live animal. Puppies have low immune systems to start their life just like a baby and it needs to become stronger. Do babies get colds? Yes, do we blame the doctor that delivered them? No!!! People need to read up on the specific breed they are looking into and realize that a new puppy is like a new responsibility, finacially and mentally. Realize what you are getting into before making that purchase.

michele... something similar happened to one of our K-9s He was the only dog i knew that could count to 3...(one of our teachers would give him 3 dog cookies from her desk, if he only got 2 cookies he would sit and wait until he got the third one, then snuggle with the teacher, then go back to work)

the dog as perfectly healthy, developed a cardiac condition, and died in it's handlers arms with in a couple of hours...

we miss him at work, i only saw him "work" once, what a team member to have on our side when walking the "toughest beat in Connecticut"

We Bought our Cocker Spaniel Puppy
3 weeks ago from All Pets Club in Branford CT. On vet exam on the next day, a fecal sample was taken, & kennel cough was diagnosed. The next day, Giardia was found in pup's stool. This is not to hard to treat, so we took home meds and began pill regime.. That afternoon, puppy bagan couging more loose sounding cough, so brought him to vet again. He was diagnosed with beginning onset pneumonia. We were told this could take a puppy down very quickly, & that a car ride from Trumbull to Branford would be too stressful for his body. We had him hooked up to IV's and after a hospital stay of 5 days, I'm happy to report that the pneumonia is gone. We are still treating the bacterial Giardia in his stools. Otherwise, he is a healhy and sweet puppy.

The store owner finally returned my phone calls after a week and a half (he was on vacation) & his employees could make no decisions as to helping us financially. Long story short- when he called, the man sounded honest and sincere and promised to "reimburse in full" for the vet bill.

One and a half weeks later- no reimbursement, no more contact.= He also claimed his pups came from breeder who sold only to his 2 stores- maybe to here in CT, but we looked her up, found her cited for dirty conditions, and came to find out she breeds all kinds of dogs, not just cocker spaniels.
Unfortunately, by buying our dogs from these places, we support these puppy mills. We have rationalized that we saved a sweet puppy's life, for alot of money- but- there are so many venues to rescue dogs from. The only way to stop this puppy abuse is not to give these pet shops any business, and to report them to the State Dept of Agricultureal Inspection division. Unfortunately, they are inundated with these complaints; I wonder how much they can do, if anything.

I feel for the people in this news story.
However, with so many cats and dogs in shelters, I have a hard time with people buying dogs/cats
from a pet store. Shelters take excellent care
of the animals there and for a small amount of
money, you can get a terrific pet. I urge
people to try the shelters first.

I am familiar with the pet shop in last night's broadcast because I too purchased a sick puppy from them and have incurred over $1,000 in vet bills, prescription dog food, etc. I love my dog like a child and have taken full responsibility for her medical bills but my problem with this store is their false advertising. The reason I purchased my puppy from them was that they claim they do not get their dogs from puppy mills only from reputable breeders. I have since learned through the Freedom of Information Act, that my puppy came from a breeder who has over 600 dogs at their facility and has been cited several times by the Department of Agriculture (agency that oversees breeders) for having unsanitary conditions, animals placed in crates that are too small and have sharp edges that have cut into the animals, animals let out in the cold, etc. I would not classify this breeder as "reputable". If I was able to find out this information on my own, I am sure the pet shop shown in last night's story is well aware of this or should be.

Like I said, I have taken full responsibility for my pet's medical bills but I would not have purchased a puppy from this store if I had known the truth about where it came from.

If anyone would like to find a history of the animal you purchased at a pet shop, please go to petshoppuppies.org. They offer free reports on any puppy purchased.

Amanda, get your head out of the litter box. And all you people that buy from pet stores, you're just making more room for the millers to continue to breed sick and genetically poor dogs. You arent doing the dog a favor..you're not 'saving' him...your just making more room for sick dogs. Females are bred before the age of 1 and are constantly bred till their uterus collapses. Their toes are splayed from the wire floors...and the lucky ones that make it to a rescue need so much rehab even so far as walking on grass or a carpet is frightening to them. Go to a local reputable breeder. Do your research. Anyone that works at a pet store or owns a pet store should visit a puppy mill. Genetically defective dogs breed more genetically bad dogs. And it's the dogs that suffer. Amanda, maybe you should contribute towards Gizmo's vet bills...it's only $$$.

All the dogs I have owned were purchased
as puppies from private owners who advertised
them in the local paper. My pair of Dobermans
were bought in the 70's and lived to ages
12 & 13. My first Jack Russell was purchased
in CT during the 80's and is still kicking
at age 16. My 2nd Jack was bought 3yrs. ago
in R.I. He visits nursing homes & competes
in agility. My 3rd Jack was purchased in
Florida ,sight unseen,with help from my
brother. She's in agility classes.

All 3 Jacks are healthy happy dogs. Why? Because I
made sure the original owners had the pups
checked & vaccinated by a certified vet before purchase. I also questioned the owners, checked
the pups parents and living conditions.

I will never buy from a pet store. I've heard
too many horror stories and know people who
got scammed by them. No dog is worth $500 or
more. Prices are rediculous. If your going
to spend that amount of $$, then buy from a
reputable/registered private breeder. AKC
will be happy to direct you to them.

As for Gizmo & Ed's pup, my heart goes out
to them. I pray GOD gives you a miracle.

AMEN to Jane Dough!!

Jane Dough... people like you are ridiculous. You see one puppy mill and you think every breeder is the same. They are not all the same! And not every pet store is the same! If it is so wrong for a pet store to get puppies from breeders throughout the country, why is it okay for them to get puppies from "local" breeders? Are these breeders any better because of their location? Does them being "local" mean that they aren't puppy mills? And as far as me contributing to the vet bills don't make me laugh. I feel bad for Gizmo and everything but that family CAN handle it on their own whether people believe so or not. I have my own dogs to take care of. Also, if you get your pet from a shelter where do you think they originally came from? Little rays of sunshine? They're all the same dogs! As I said before, there are brokers who inspect breeders and have their own rigorous standards. Congenital defects cannot be stopped. They happen. And sometimes they can't be seen until weeks or months or years after the puppy is born. You are all lumping things and issues together that are not as simple as black and white. There's a big area of grey here that needs to be separated. You can't just say "pet stores" or "breeders" or anything of the sort because they are not all the same. Do your research whether you will be adopting or buying or breeding for yourself. When you go into a pet store you have the right (in Connecticut) to have access to the puppies records, the vet that saw the puppy, know about the puppy's broker AND breeder. If you want to buy a puppy just because you fell in love with it, that's on you.

I have had many, many pets over the years, our entire family are animal lovers. Never once did I have to "buy" an animal. Most of mine came from friends, and yes, a couple were breeds that if sold, would be expensive, but the families just wanted good homes for their pets offsprings.

Naturally we paid for any vet bills etc. etc., but never had any out of the ordinary problems, and almost all my animals lived to 17. The cat I have now was dumped on my vets doorstep after hurricane Bob, and that is what they named him. LOL

When I was going away for the weekend, I took my dog to the vet for the usual shots and a weekend stayover. When I saw the cat in the cage, I asked how much it would cost, and they said.NOTHING, just a good home. Naturally I had the vet give it shots and a bath, and told him I would pick both the dog and cat up on monday when I returned. So far, Mr. Hurricane is still going strong at 17.

A friend of mine bought a minature poodle, and it seems every time she turns around, she is at the vets office for one thing or another, and yes, she has spent a small fortune on her dog.

I realize pets are a luxury, but you still shouldn't have to go half into debt to raise one. I still say these people on the news got a raw deal, and I hope poor Gizmo gets the help he needs. Who wants to see any animal in pain 24/7? Trust me, if I could shell out the 7 grand for it, I would.

Happy TGIF folks, I'm done venting. ;-)

I use to be a long time customer of the pet
store, ALL PETS CLUB shown on channel 8 last
night. I use come in so much that I got to
know some of the employees well. I no longer
go to to this store for the following reasons.

Over a year ago, APC did a raffel for their
"non-profit org" that the APC owner started called "P.A.R.T"
,"Protecting Animals Rights Togther" which I
was told by their employees trying to get me
to buy a ticket that the org is for people
who need help in situations like Gizmo's and
to help their owners thay can't afford to pay for their
vet bills. After donating for a raffel ticket,I
I tried to look up on this org and found that
it did not exist! Where did all of this money
go? THE APC van the store drives even has a
logo for part and says "we are a proud
sponser of PART". After discovering this, I
saw this was another money hungry pet store
and choose to never got there again.

For another reason, the store thought it would
be a great idea to have a 2 toed sloth as a
pet mascot. After a few months the sloth
magically disapeared. When I asked an old
Lady I knew in the Small animal and Bird
department where their mascot had gone, she
was upset and told me" the owner told me
to say we sent it back to the breeder but
to be unest, he died!

For a pet sore that cames they care or are
"turning the key to a new generation of pet
care" obvisouly doesn't. Why couldn't this
store send it to their vet? Or why couldn't
their non profit org help Gizmo?

I can't wait to see the pet store owener try
to talk their way out tonight on 8.

I hope that thi store looses business and
that if channel 8 is so bothered over this, they
should set an example and not allow APC to be
a sponser and advertise on their channel. By
keeping their sponsership they telling us that
this is a reptuible place.

Amanda, at least with local breeders you can visit their kennels...see how the dogs are kept. Even local breeders can be bad breeders...research research research. Vet references...owner references...do as much research on your soon to be family member as you do looking for your next car. Any breeder proud of the pups they raise will be affiliated with a breed dog club...reputable breeders do genetic testing so they dont breed such defects such as missing vertabra. Spay and neuter your pets. Stop the insanity!!!!! Shut these disgusting unsanitary pet stores down! Make sure the breeder you go to is in it for the right reason...the dog...not their wallet and there are lots of breeders in it for just the dog and the breed they love.

If people want to avoid pet stores they should go to "petfinder.com." They can adopt a dog or cat that has been rescued from a shelter. They can get all breeds and ages. We adopted a black lab, rescued from the South, it is the best dog we have ever had. These dogs have all been checked medically and are up to date on shots. Check it out and save a dog.

i purchased a papillon puppy on Friday, January 25, 2008, from All Pets Club in Wallingford, Ct. That weekend the dog starting coughing and gagging. We called our private vet and the puppy was diagnosed with Kennel cough. The vet bill was approx. $43.00 and the medication had to be purchased at CVS and that appr. $50.00. On Wednesday, February 8, 2008, the puppy had a bowel movement that looked like the only was i can describe would be a miscarriage (never seen nothing like that) called the vet immediately, the saw the puppy immediately and diagnosed him with Giardia bill was appr. $150.00. I did call All Pets after the incident with the Kennel Cough but waited to see your news report last night. I know they will not do anything for us and they know there is no way we will give the puppy back, I am writing today to all state agencies regarding my situation and how a 15 grace period is not a sufficient amount of time. This puppy caught these illnesses from All Pets, my puppy was never near any other dogs once we left that establishment and he was outside twice. Now the measures we have to take with the Giardia is so overwhelming because this illness is contagious to humans and not only that they know they are selling sick puppies. THIS MUST BE STOPPED. Money is part of the issue but they selling sick puppies to me is a type cruelty to animals and/or negligence and they should be prosecuted for this.
please respond to this, because this business practice should be monitored more closely. I spent $1,200.00 for this puppy and so far have incurred almost $250 in vet bills in less than two weeks and the puppy has to be monitored almost 24/7 cuz we want him to get well and we do not want to catch this illness. thanks for your time. Cindy

Dont ever buy a pet from the pet store at the Ct Post Mall. He is disgusting.

------------LITTLE LIVES-------------
Forcing animals to reproduce like widgets in a factory is a deplorable act and should be illegal. It makes me nauseous to hear about people selling little lives like they are just factories used to produce revenue.
Why don't more people rescue abandoned animals instead of encouraging pet overpopulation and in essence animal abuse? This cycle also promotes inappropriate pet owners who don’t have to go through an application process to see if they are even capable of providing good care. Too many people buy and discard animals like toys their children have grown tired of.

Where are the animal right advocates to rein in this issue? I think its wonderful that you are reporting on such a HUGE but little discussed topic. Please, please continue this kind of work.

I would like to know why your piece failed to mention the pet store in question..The All Pets Club of Wallingford and Branford. Could it be because they advertise with you???? Very poor piece
left out of the story. Again you disappoint.

I'll gladly (and I have) purchased pets from the local pet store. Simply to avoid these holier-than-thou "pet rescue" people. You know the type. These idiots who want 16 references and a blood sample in order to adopt a pet. And then they call you for months afterwards wanting to know how the pet is doing?!? I don't need that aggravation, I'll take my chances at the pet store. We got a kitten three months ago at the local pet store here in Torrington and he is wonderful and very healthy. NOT ALL pet stores get their animals from unsavory sources.

Let's address this so called pet lemon law. My concern for a new and improved would ultimately lead to increased euthanasia of pets.

If a customer brings back a "defective" pet to the pet store what will the store do? Obviously weigh the costs of bringing a pet back to health or euthanizing the animal.

I adopted a cat or should I say she adopted me. My wife and I moved out to Colchester. After two years of being here I noticed a cute little cat hanging around our yard during the winter. I don't know where she came from. I'd like to think someone dumped here off and left her here but the way she looked when I first saw here told me otherwise. I figured she was living out in the woods for some period of time.

Now I must say, I wasn't a cat lover at this point in time. But seeing her in the condition she was in struck a nerve and got me concerned for her health and safety. I never thought of bringing a cat into the household at that time. I just wanted her to be strong enough to defend herself and healthy so I started leaving food for her.

When I first saw here she was mangy and skinny and skidish. So I started leaving a bowl of food for her by the back door. Weeks later she was more plump, had more energy and a nice clean and thick coat. After about 1 year of this routine she eventually she warmed up to me and the family and became less fearful.

That was three years ago. Miss Piggs a petite and pretty Maine Coon Cat is now part of our household and family.

I can't describe the joy I get when I see her each day.

I too purchased a puppy from the All Pets
Club in Branford on 8/22/07. The very next
he was checked by a vet and i was told "you
were sold a very sick puppy". He was taken
to the hospital by the third day on death's
door. Afer thousands of dollars in vet bills
he is doing fine. That is a lot to spend on
a dog that cost $1,100.00! I was treated
disrespectfully by the puppy manager regarding
my complaints. I wrote to Attorney Blumenthal
and he sent out Animal control to inspect.
They closed a bin and removed a few puppies.
The warranty was revised slightly, but if we
do not try to change this lemon law we are
basically as consumers doomed. A store credit
is simply not enough for the emotional and
financial burden we suffered. I am willing
to go try to change this law, but need support.
I am so glad this is coming to the for front.
Pet stores should sell pet supplies and small
pets, but not puppies! comparing this animal
to a computer that needs repairs is disgusting.
and that is just the mentality of the people
working at this store. I have come across
many people in the same situation that shopped
at this chain. The owner is delusional in his
thinking and is making tons of money at the
expense of these poor sick pups. I am really
interested in what this store owner has to say
when they are interviewed. Let's change this
puppy lemon law to support the consumer and
the puppy not the seller!!!!!!!!!!!

John-you are so right about the holier than though rescue people. They even turned down a friend of mine who has impeccable credentials! And I mean impeccable.

Amanda...How did you/do you like your job at All Pets' club? I do have a theory about this guy. I think he started out many years ago and it really wasnt all that bad-at least he tried. But greed got the better of him and those $$ signs just stared looking mighty pretty to him.

My prediction for tonight...He'll insist that he only buys from reputable breeders. He'll be "hurt" that this is happening to him because in his mind he's only doing what's best for the puppies. I don't think the guy knows the difference between fiction and reality. If the reporter persists you might see him turn and start to become defensive and maybe even intimidating ending with him covering the camera with his hand and telling them to get out.

I have been waiting for this day to come since early June 2007 and I am loving every minute of this!

Amanda, you are so off the beaten path it's sad. You miss the whole point. Those people bought a dog under certain pretenses - this is blatant false advertising since this particular store claims their animals come from 'reputable breeders.' This $7000 bill is so over and above what any new pet owner should have to incur so soon after getting a puppy. Put the blame where the blame needs to be - on the breeders and those stores who buy them to sell for enormorous profits. For years and years, we have been against pet stores selling dogs and cats and adding to the existing overpopulation. We were members of a rescue group whose main mission was to spay and neuter to prevent the unnecessary breeding of cats and kittens. Pet stores just add to this problem continually and do not allow shelter animals to find good homes. MILLIONS of cats and dogs die every year because there are not enough homes for them. They are perfectly good animals but the shelters are so inundated that in order to make room, many animals who are perfectly healthy and would make perfect pets are martyred/euthanized because there is no room. Breeders and puppy mills contribute most to this problem constantly. If you did YOUR research, you would see that nearly every breed of dog and cat have rescue groups - no one needs to go to a pet store to buy a pedigree. Many shelters also have pedigreed animals. Also, why is it that in the west moratoriums are put on breeders to allow shelter pets better chances to find homes? Because the almighty dollar speaks too loudy here. Do you realize that global warming and the many changes in the weather as seen this week with the tornados in the south - and the hurricanes like Katrina - leveling Louisiana - left many pets homeless. So many had to be rescued because people had to leave them behind or many who were homeless before remained homeless. When these animals were rescued, they were put into many shelters who could accomodate them. The same issues arise when a raid is done on a puppy mill - just recently, 1000 puppies were confiscated and needed placement - as reported by Whoopie Goldberg on the View. One organization took the first 100 puppies but 900 still remained homeless. Why is it that a pet store like Petsmart can give space to the local Humane Society PURPOSELY not selling puppies and kittens to allow homeless animals a chance at being seen and adopted? These are the stores we need to support. I have a friend who drives from the coast to Petsmart in Waterbury just to support them for that very reason. They DON'T sell puppies and kittens. They have it on their website exactly why - to give shelter pets a chance. Keeping in mind environmental changes where disaster can strike at any time, and the sad overproduction of animals by these supposed "reputable breeders" - the shelters are never going to have a chance to help reduce pet overpopulation when pet stores are making money hand over fist. It's manmade procreation for profit. Pet stores need to stop being supplied with dogs and cats from these breeders and puppy mills. People need to stop buying from them or supporting stores that do this. Pet stores can make plenty of money just in the supplies of food, litter, and toys to make a good day's pay - plenty of owners love to spoil their pets. If pet stores really cared, as Petsmart does, more would do the same - house shelter pets - not dogs and cats from breeders. People, smarten up. Visit a shelter and give a shelter pet a home. Get online - visit petfinder.com or surf the web for those pedigree rescues. And when there is a disaster, find a place in your heart to take in one of those homeless pets.

Breeders and puppy mills are the source of the overpopulation existing in our country today as well as irresponsible pet owners who do not spay or neuter their pets. Amanda, people need to be educated that stores that sell animals for profit are the worst contributors to the real problem - they take advantage of an unsuspecting public who need to know the staggering statistics of animals who die every year in our shelters because there are no homes for them - and yet the breeders keep breeding - the puppy mills keep producing - and pet stores keep selling. Any store that has an animal that goes out and falls sick beyond the 15 day return, then that store should be responsible for the care. If they are selling an animal that is supposedly free of problems, then in 15 days, it may not necessarily show. Fifteen days is not enough coverage.

Hopefully after this, more people will be aware of the horrors of the 'cute' puppies in the pet store and prefer to adopt from the local shelters instead. Hopefully the State of CT will create stronger laws with longer periods of time for these owners and the East Coast will put that moratorium on ALL breeders to give shelters a chance to find homes.

Amanda, get with program.

John, your comment on the holier than tho rescues is shameful. Do you have any idea of the time, effort, and money that goes into caring and in many cases socializing pets for adotption? If a pet rescue needs 16 references and a blood sample, good for them for wanting to check you out. At least they care enough about the animals they originally housed to want to be sure that the animal is happy and healthy - unlike a pet store that just hands you a bill of sale.

Mr. Cohn, we thank you for your news cast and hope you will continue to follow up on this story and continue to shed light on the horrors of these animals coming from breeders and puppy mills that are being sold in pet stores and contributing to the overpopulation and martyring of animals in our shelters who are unable to find homes.

Mr. Cohn, why was the "Pet of the Week" not shown today? Did it have anything to do with the story about the pet store as it is known they sponsor the spot. Yet, the animal shelter shouldn't be penalized for that - have WTNH continue running those even if they have to donate the time and money as a community service. These animals that are in the shelters need every opportunity to find a home and "Pet of the Week" has given many that chance. Please don't stop running that very important advertising for shelter animals.

The owners of All Pet's Club used to own another store in Wallingford called One Stop Pets but it closed down. It appears that they keep doing the same thing over and over. They don't care about the pets, only their money.

CTsoxfan: I am with you - I cannot wait to see this interview. He is going to say "This is a tough buinsess" probably 10 times. That is the line he kept using with me. Well you chose it! Stick with selling products and small animals then!!! The sign "bringing families together" and the phrase they use "we love them before you do" makes me ill. How do you explain to an 8 year old that his beloved animal has to be brought back because it is sick! And of course what do you think they will do with it - it's too costly for them to pay the bills so euthanizing it is cheap. You do the math.
And we haven't even touched base on the dogs taht are brought into this store to visit/shop. They are being exposed to parasites themselves. Humans can even get giardia. The handed me the puppy with poop all over it and never offered me papertowel or anything to clean it up. There is no quaranteen for the sick pups - they all infect each other.
It's just nuts! He needs to be shut down!

Let's see some hard investigating on this for once. Enough with the softball questions. Try separating
yourself from the pack 8. Do something we really
car about!!!!!!! Not the same old boring stories!

Is it true that during the making of this story Mr Cohen had his NUTS bitten off?

A direct quote from APC's website says: "We go to extreme measures to ensure quality healthy puppies from top knotch breeders."

Go to this link - would you call these "top knotch?"

http://www.petshoppuppies.com/report.asp?ID=48A1755

I have a confession to make: after having PROMISED myself I would never buy a dog from a pet store because of the puppy mill issue, I nevertheless went into the pet store with a friend who was there to buy bird food. I immediately fell in love with a little whippet, paid a small fortune for him, and never admitted to any of my dog-rescue friends where I had gotten him.

A year later, I was looking on Petfinder.com, a website listing all dogs across the country available for adoption. Lo and behold, there was a nearly identical female whippet in the pound nearby! I went to meet her and it was love at first sight!! I discovered that like me, her owners had paid a small fortune for her then found out she was a bit of a maniac (actually, more than a bit) when left alone for any time at all. Always one to appreciate a bargain, I promptly paid the $5 fee to adopt her. That night, she promptly climbed under the covers next to her new brother and we have lived happily ever after.

The moral of the story is that any dog you can buy for about $1,000 in a pet store can likely be found in a shelter or pound for about $5. AND you'll be saving a life.

In response to MP comment. One stop pet shop
changed their name to ALL PETS CLUB so that
they can start a Chain of stores.
The Brandford store is the second they opened.

ALL PETS CLUB in wallingford had their parrots
put in quarentine several months back due to
the parrots having Psittacosis which is transmitted
from birds to human.

If you read up on Psittacosis, birds gets due to dirty conditions and "coming in contact" with wild caught birds".
Eveything I go in there, the changes are stuffed with more birds in the change then there should be.

Sorry I Didn't type in english...

ALL PETS CLUB in wallingford had their parrots
put in quarentine several months back due to
the parrots having Psittacosis which is transmitted
from birds to human.

If you read up on Psittacosis, birds gets this
due to dirty conditions and "coming in contact with wild caught birds".
Eveytime I go in there, the cages are
stuffed with more birds in the cages then there should be.

If this place has so many complaints against them, how in God's name do they keep in business? Isn't there some law that if a place gets X amount of citations, they are closed down?

I'm not familiar with that place, but I know for sure, if I am in that area to visit relatives, I won't stop there even for any pet supplies.

Dying to see the 6 P.M. report from Alan!!!

Why? Why do people buy pets at pet stores? There are so many deserving pets in shelters who need homes. petfinder.com. They should stop selling pets in pet stores.

Try to research where your puppy is coming from. Ask questions and call the breeder or look them up online. Be careful of inbreeding puppy farms. I bought our bichon online from a kennel in PA with a 2 year warranty. She was 7 weeks old and potty trained. We went back and got her friend a dox-chon, both great, the groomer told us what great dogs they are. We got a birth certificate with the parents information on it. Our Vet was impressed. Research, don't impulse buy.
Look online, we did, drove to Elizabethtown , PA and got the greatest dogs anyone could ask for. Bottom line, be careful,again research and ask questions. We talked with the breeder on the phone for an hour before we got first pup.

Oh my, oh my... Where to begin... First: Jerry Pleban comments about "people are better off buying from a pet store and not out of the newspaper" are so off base...I am a bulldog breeder and I stand behind my puppies for longer then the lousy 15 days that the state demands. I gaurantee my pups for one year, they are free of parasites, dont not have kennel cough and are half way if not fully house trained when they go to thier new home!

Second: If any of you buyers from APC have any papers that say "Lambrier" or "Hunte" on them, yes, they came from puppy mills. Those are the 2 biggest brokers in this counrty. They send out the "buyers" to the "breeders" (and I use that term loosly, be cause to me they are lower then dirt)to go and buy whole litters, not just one or two pups, then they bring the pups back to their facilities, clean him/her up, give them shots if needed, and ship them out! They drive for days in the back of these trucks, until they reach the pet store that has ordered them. And if they are lucky the pet store wont refuse them, because if the store does refuse them, they will travel onto the next pet store at a discounted price. Now, if no one buy this poor little living, feeling, loving animal, it will travel for days back to the facility and be....well you can fill in the rest.

Thrid: Not a puppy mills are in the mid-west...PA, is also full of mills!! DO NOT BUY FROM THE AMISH!!!!!!!! They are as bad, if not worse then the mid-west millers. Amish people think that animals are just commodities. They have no ethics in breeding. They sell whole litters at 6 weeks old for $1000 to people who in turn bring them back into this state and sell them as their own. You have no knowledge of this when you buy that cute face, but when things start showing up, you wonder why.. Well now you know!

Im not trying to sell you my puppies, or say Im better then the rest...Im just trying to warn the general public. You have got to be so careful.

ED, IF YOU NEED MONEY FOR GIZMO LET ME KNOW, I WILL DO WHAT I CAN TO HELP THAT LITTLE GUY WHO DIDNT DESERVE THIS.

THAT IS JUST ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF POOR BREEDING AND JUST PLAIN NOT CARING!!! NOW THIS POOR DOG IS THE ONE PAYING THE PRICE!

AMANDA...YOU SHOULD SEEK HELP!!!

The store owner had very little to say, except the stupid..Better then out of a newspaper line. Noticed he didn't even try to offer a solution, or any help for the folks that bought the dog.

Nice guy...YEAH, RIGHT! Wish there was a fund raiser or something where folks who wish to could donate. Even on a fixed income, I would contribute something.

Business is business.......this will NEVER change...........

jen...i'm very happy we gave you pleanty of material to work with... ("where to begin")

thanks for the professional information...

Yes John, business is business, but the guy could have been more compassionate. He was so matter of fact, yet he had the nerve to say..We are here to help. Puulllease.

I know he, or any pet shop can't fix all problems people encounter, but geez, with this all over the news, you would think he would try something just to at least make himself look good.

Oh well, time to change my "bracelet", I'm complaining again. ;-)

jj.. i re-cycled mine about 7 mins after that blogg was posted..

I have learned so much from this blog! Jen-thank you for the generous offer--We're doing ok with our pup right now-Unlike poor Gizmo--the dog Alan featured...
I was amazed to learn about the Amish!! I believe our pup was bred there and brokered to our local pet store who I always thought was reputable... I know when the time comes I will adopt from a shelter and never do the pet store thing again...I went ahead and looked at some things about puppy mills and I'm so upset to think I patronized something like this...are there puppy mills in CT? I was just wondering.

hello everybody my name is dan and i have worked for all pets club for about 4 years durning this time i started at a mainteance person my job was to maintain the pens make sure the puppies had plenty of food and water and ESPECIALLY TOYS. durning this time i began training to do all the puppy paper work with my co worker shelley and colleen. at any time i could pick up the phone and call any one of these breeders on there cell phone or home phone send an email, receive pictures of there kennels and also form a wonderful relationship with them. all pets club was originally one stop pet shop your right but we did not get shut down we switched our name to all pets club. we currently do have 2 locations wich are inspected and are monitored. these kennels may have a lot of adult dogs in there kennels but ya know what how many acres do these breeders each have? well anywhere from 50-100 ok you want us to buy from local breeders ok well lets see who around here has the land to support a kennel? breeders around here are smaller breeders wich breed one breed.
if you purchase a puppy from us you can have any information you want. the breeders telephone number or any contact information we want you guys to able to talk to the breeders they love hearing from the customers. jerry is a nice person and our warranty does not only go 15 days. if there is a congenital defect in your puppy from 6 months to a year you receive and 80% refund and you get to keep the dog. you get your money back and get to keep the dog. congenital defects are something we can not control. our breeders do not inbreed and in fact registration papers and pedigrees are provided upon purchase even sometimes pictures of parents. i know jerry very well and ya know what he does care because he has 5 dogs himself wich came from our breeders and ya know what its not all about the money. its about making the customers happy with there new companion I CARE ABOUT EVERY SINGLE PUPPY the same way and treat them all the same with love and attention. yes do sometimes we run into a problem when a dog is sick yes.. do sometimes you run into giardia yes because they are running around and playing together. would you rather see them in small crates and seperated with no toys and nothing to do? i dont think so and thats why where different. it is sad what has happened has happen to gizmo and i feel bad for him. a number of my co workers have bought dogs from us as well as customers that come back for there 3rd and sometimes 4th dog. what bothered me most is the pictures they showed of the "puppy mills" on the tv there is no way in hell we would ever buy from a place that looks like that ever. that is not any of the kennels we acquire our puppies from. i am not going to sit here and make you believe something your not going to but when people start saying we dont care thats when i have a problem cause i care and i care an unbeliveable amount. if anyone has any questions we are here to answer them. i love working at this pet store and i have sold my close friends and family puppies through here and i would never want to work at any other pet store.

also we do not get our puppies from lambriar or hunte and that is the leading brokers in the united states. some of our breeders are on comitees against puppy mills

ED...Anyone or place can be a mill...if they mass produce dogs, they can be considered a mill, then you have backyard breeders, which is different but not, if that makes sense. If you want more info, i will tell you what I know. Im sorry Ed I thought Gizmo was your dog.

Jeff...was that sarcasim?? Not really to sure, and you didnt give me any "Material" to work with. I know much more then you think!

GIZMO'S OWNER...IF YOU SOME MONEY TO HELP HIM, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

DANNY!!!!..ANY REPUTABLE BREEDERS WOULD NOT SELL TO PET STORES...BOTTOM LINE.

Actually my job was not at All Pets Club, as I said, All pets club is disgusting. the dog house is the most foul place ive ever been. the way they keep their dogs spreads disease. and as i said before, there was no way for the breeder or the store in this particular case to know there was a problem with the puppy.

im sick of arguing with you people. im not saying pet stores are good or bad. im just saying there is an in between you people are missing. you do raise good points. and so do i. this country is so driven for people to side with one extreme or another its ludicris. there will always be problems with animals. putting an end to puppy mills and pet stores is not going to change that. thats like saying stop procreating so that we wont have any more birth defects. millions of dogs are sold at both breeders and pet stores annually. of those millions there are bound to be issues. yes, pets are overpopulated and maybe breeding them makes that even worse. but breeding them properly helps alleviate these problems.

lets put it this way, the media thrives on controversial topics and everything that is bad about them. are we ever going to hear about the good the military is doing outside this country? no... just like youre never going to see a proud pet parent tell the news about their wonderful experience with a pet store.

yes, puppymills are bad.
please, have your pet spayed or neutered.
if your family makes the decision to get a pet, go to a shelter first.
but if you buy from a pet store, do your research.
its that simple.

Those of you who are complaining that pet stores are horrible and all pet stores have dogs from puppy mills are misguided. All Pets Club is an prime example of a store that is changing this stereotype. They have worked with private breeders for over the last 8 years! Some of you have mentioned that APC used to be "one stop pet shop" and then became All Pets Club so that they can be a chain of stores. This is true. But heres the thing, the folks who are behind this store are very committed to the betterment of all pets. They have a saying about all pets and it goes something like this: "All Pets Club - turning the key to a new generation." This is exactly what their mission is. I have never seen a group of people (especially from a pet store) so dedicated to taking care of all of their animals so very well. I urge all of you to goto their website at allpetsclub.com and check out their 'commonly asked questions' section. Also check out their 'About APC' section...

Also, for those of who you think i might be some sort of owner or employee of APC, I am not. My family bought a dog, a little yorky, from One Stop Pet Shop over 11 years ago and he has never had a problem, at least not one that had anything to do with where he came from or how he was treated before we got him. He is a very happy dog with a great disposition and we couldnt have asked for a perfect addition from our family. We have since shopped at One Stop Pet Shop and then All Pets Club all the time.

Finally, I am truly sorry for the woman who had received the puppy from this store that had this congenital defect with the missing bone in it's neck. I can only imagine the pain you must feel when you realized this. However, I do feel that you should have gone through All Pets Club with the paper work. I believe they have a warranty that covers such defects... By law they MUST offer the 'puppy lemon law', which i believe is a shame...but their own warranty covers much more than the puppy lemon law does. I believe the only 'catch' is that you must go through their vet's in order to get them to cover any costs of any sort.

I purchased my dog 3 years ago from All Pets Club in Wallingford. I had a wonderful experience. The staff was nothing but helpful to me choosing my pup and answering all the questions I had about her. I asked if there was any way I would be able to speak to her breeder just so I could get more info on the parents and the breed itself. They were more then willing to give me the breeder’s name, address and phone number and I have since had a wonderful relationship with her. I researched her online and couldn’t find anything wrong with her kennel. She emailed me pictures of the parents and everything. I know you get the pedigree and everything with the puppy but that doesn’t answer all the questions. I know that at any time if I have any questions I can pick up the phone and call APC and they will be there to help. They have been in the past and I don’t see why they wouldn’t in the future. I understand there are times things can go wrong. I feel really bad about Gizmo and can only imagine the heartbreak his owners are feeling. As an animal lover it breaks my heart to ever see anything happen to them. I wish they could always be 100%! But unfortunately that will never be. My dog has been diagnosed my Lyme disease. I used Frontline and got her the vaccination against it, but still she got it. After the first initial time, she’s had issues with it about 5 more times. It is a costly thing to have to keep treating, but being her owner that is something I made a commitment to when purchasing her. She weighs over 100lbs and seeing a dog not being able to move and have it all happen in less the 24hrs and not being able to help her really hurts. I would never want to see any animal in any kind of pain. And is wish the vets out there wouldn’t always demand so many tests to be run and charge so much. This comes down to not just the pet store, but the vets as well. $7000 is a lot of money I understand that. Was there ever a second opinion or a vet who “loves animals” as well willing to work with the family? Did the family ever speak with the vet that the pet store uses? There seems to be so much information not being spoken about. I would like to hear from both sides. All and all I will continue to be a customer of All Pets Club and would like to thank them for all the help they have given me over the years.

Danny - I believe you are being naive about the "breeders" that All Pets uses. For one, Dot's Little Doggies" has over 1500 dogs. If you don't believe that's a puppy mill, think again. Do your research on these "breeders" I think you will be very surprised at what you find.

Yes I read the comments about the Amish, my two puppies came from Eizabethtown, PA right near the Amish.the lady has a website and electricity in her home. We spoke on the phone and she took through her "doghouse" which was very clean and inspected by the state. She provided papers for our dogs with the parents and papers to rigister with the ACA. If she thought we were not right for these dogs she would not either to us. She provides a 2 year written warranty on the puppies health. And guess what her most expensive is $700. We paid $550 for Bichon Friese that was almost potty trained at 7 weeks old.The dox-chon was $600 and potty trained. Pet stores don't do that. Her dogs were real clean and their personalities are different for the Missouri or Kansas dogs. Not everyone in PA is scum. This lady has called our house to check up on her two little friends she sold to us. They are doing just fine. The drawback is she does not ship. So we had to drive 4.5 hours to the Hershey area to get our pups, but it was worth it. Sorry about the little dogs that have to be born with problems. Yes it is big business and unfortunately the dollar rules. People are overcome by emotion in a pet store and slap down that $1400 or more for a ppor little pup that did not ask to be born this way. There should be laws about this stuff, but lobbyists kill it each time. Again research before you buy. Look opnline, don't buy on impulse. Wait and go back. we had to set an interview with our breeder. Because we were so far there was a phone interview, then we talked when we got there and she brought out the pup.
She said she never really had an major problems. The bichon had one ear mite which our Vet took care of. Aside from that they little clowns and love to run and entertain. Our breeder gave them TLC in the early going and it showed. Research, research and more researc is all I can say. Our pups we not dirty and laying in a cage full of debris and whatever. Yes I feel for all those little pups in petstore prison.

Another thing I think everyone should know is the vet that checks out these dogs is Millpond Veterinary Hospital. They used to be a very reputable vet that accepted patients on a referral only basis. I guess they let money rule out over ethics. It's a shame.

MC Millpond vet does not vet check both stores. my puppy was checked by Powder Ridge Vet which is the vet i had been using and am very happy with. Either way i think the vet still has the best interest in the pup at the end of the day....

Danny

If APC is so wonderful and caring, then explain the cold-hearted lack of response from the owner???? Also, if a store is going to be the key of change, then selling defective merchandise should be offered compensation. I am certain there are some good situations, but the fact remains that there are many BAD ones all coming from your store and the research is showing the dogs are coming from puppy mills - there's no way to say otherwise. Getting dogs from a 'reputable breeder' that offers more than one breed of dog is a puppy mill. I know you will say what you must because it is your place of business but the store is irresponsible and selling under false pretense - sorry, not buying your defence.

Amanda, if you have nothing more to add, then don't write. This blog is for people to voice their opinions whether or not you like it. This is a topic that pulls at many heartstrings and shouldn't just be set aside because YOU are tired of it. It's a cold and cruel business and plenty of folks don't care for it - especially knowing the information that is surfacing at this point.

You would think that if the owner of the store cared, he'd offer some assistance - he's made no public effort to do so. I think plenty of people can see right through him now!! If you care about your product, then stand behind it. But, even then - puppies as products - JUST WRONG!!

Oh, and I must add - this situation is dealing with living breathing feeling entities - not computers with broken parts. Broken computers - you either cough up the dough to fix, or toss it and get another. A broken puppy - that's a whole other situation.

Thank you...

Although I agree that people should try to
adopt an animal from a shelter or rescue, its not always the answer. I adopted a puppy through a shelter. It was a very exiting time for us because we had waited until the right time to bring a dog into our home. We got "spider" home and within two hours he was throwing up and had severe diarreah.
We brought him the the vet the next day and they took all sorts of samples. We brought him home but realized we had to keep his kennel outside becuase he had no control of ANY of his fluids. The next day the vet contacted us and he had parvo. We brought him back but at that point he was to far gone and we had to put him down 2 days after we got him. The rescue didnt want to even acknowledge the fact that he was sick because that would mean that the other dogs would more than likely have it also. It was heart breaking and definately not what we expected.
Parvo is such a strong bacteria that we had to wait 6 weeks before getting another dog..and even then we had to get industrial strenght disinfectants that specifically killed the parvo virus. We got our nexx dog from a breeder.

the fact is that no matter where you get an animal from, it could have something brewing or a birth defect that the breeder, rescue..etc is unaware of. Its part of owning an animal. They are expensive and there is no getting around that.

As i mentioned earlier I brought a bird from All pets when the store had recently converted over from Pet stop. I know the people who hand feed those baby birds when they are shipped in. They truely love those animals and take the best care of them they can. If a breeder ships in a sick bird, what ever it has will spread. The workers are in constant physical contact with the birds and that alone makes it easy to spread a disease from on bird to the other. its not because of dirty conditions, I have been in the back rooms where usually only the employees are and they are clean. I dont know about the dog areas other than the fact that every time I have ever been in the store ( alot...) the rooms they stay in are always clean or being cleaned and you can see right through in the back room and there is always alot of activity back there. The employees working to stay on top of all the animals in thier care.

With that all said, that doesnt mean that I feel that they should not be held responsible for the health of those animals. Actually, if they care so much, they should not worry about what the law says and do what is right. have a vet on staff and an area set up for that Vet to work in and care fo sick animals. They charge and arm and a leg for those dogs so I am sure they can afford it. All animals purchased should be able to be brought back to that vet for treatment,shots..etc for 6+ months. If the store cares so much, it would go up and above.

The fact of the matter is that the puppy mills will not shut down if we stop buying from All Pets. And our own human nature for instant gratification ..no matter what the cost keeps places like All pets in business. And lets not mention the holier than thou rescues ( i have dealt with those too for the african grey i adopted. I jumped through hoops for 3 weeks to find out that the foster home didnt even have an adequate set up to care for him..thier answer when I questioned that..they didnt require thier fosters to be set up like the adoptees. I felt they should be the example to learn from..but this is another story). The rescues make it very difficult and uncomfortable for people to adopt . its the sad truth.

I really dont see what the big problem is.
Any new animal that comes into our house goes straigh to the Vet. It will get a clean bill of health before it is allowed to live with my famliy.

ms jen... my sentiments were from the heart...not of a sarcastic nature... :-) ...besides, i've dated a "jen" and the name brings back nothing but pleasant sentiments...

if i disagree, as my fellow bloggers can attest i tend to be a little more direct and use swear words like cxhit, damn, bastard, etc...i'm sure chan 8 blogg police have had their "finger prints on the delete button" with a few of my comments...

Go into APC and notice the registrations on the pedigrees of the purebred pups. I'm not talking these crazy designer mixed breeds. Most if not all of them are registerd ACA, not AKC. There is a difference folks. These so called breeders he's getting the pups from are banned from registering their litters with AKC because they are registering so many. That just screams puppy mill. So what you can talk to the breeder or at times they'll send you pictures. They are business people and are doing what it takes to keep their income flowing folks.
How do you know the picture you are receiving is actually the real parent? Stop being so gullible.

Danny-How do you explain my experience? How does a manager who does not have a veterinary degree make the choice to administer a prescription medicication to a 9 week old pup? I hold the vet accountable in this case as well. An employee no matter how loyal has the ability to diagnose and dispense prescription meds without the pup being seen by the vet. Plain and simple. No notation of that medicaiton was on my paperwork so it only makes me wonder what else is going on back there.

If the owner is such a stand up guy, why did try to ban me from the store because I was not happy? He didn't even try to rectify my situation, didn't even offer to pay for the medication that my pup had to be on. He doesn't care about the customer, just the bottom line. BTW-he doesn't have to bother to call me to tell me I'm banned becuase I haven't and won't step foot in that store again and if more people would do the same, it would hit him where it will hurt him the most.

And finally, Shame on Channel 8...some expose. Yup you too cave to the almighty $$. Nothing like watching a good old game of nerfball last night. tsk tsk.

I am an animal lover and own 3 dogs, 2 cats, 1 fish and 1 snake. The snake is my sons lol. My 2 cats were adopted from animal rescue's, my first dog I got from an ad in the paper, my last 2, yes, I did, I bought them from a pet store. My shephard was purchased from the pet store in the waterbury brass mall, my sharpei-beagle from the puppy patch in watertown. I am fortunate that all my animals are healthy and happy and after reading all the blogs, realize how it could have been different. I did pay a hefty sum for both purchased dogs, I didn't buy them for status, I bought them because I fell in love with them at first sight and I'm an animal lover. If I could rescue every dog in the shelter, pounds and yes, pet stores, I would which is naeive on my part because I feel that these animals still need a home. These so called puppy mills aren't going away. A very good friend of mine purchased a dog from a breeder, paid a little less than what I did and 3 months later, had to put the dog down because of a birth defect in her hips where the puppy could no longer walk. The breeder did not return the money paid, the breeder said, you can have another puppy from the next litter. What I'm trying to say is, you take chances no matter what. I have children in my home though they are older now but I felt that I couldn't take the chance of an adopted dog possibly biting one of them or their freinds because you don't really know their temperment. Yes, I'm sure I could have adopted a puppy but the humane society is not close to home and the animal rescues around here only have cats, which mind you I have 2. I went through quite the process to adopt my 2nd cat and sadly, had to lie a bit just to get him. He had been stuck in a cage for 6 weeks since being rescued and when I asked what happened to him, it was the prior family could no longer take care of him, he was 4 years old. The woman told me that many people tried to adopt him and she said no to all of them including an "older woman" she said was in her early 70's. Now, 6 weeks in a cage, or go to a home where someone wants you, I personally thought they would have made great companions but it obviously was not my decision. He has a great home, I love him to death and he's very well ajusted, even with the other dogs. My last experience with my puppy bought at the puppy patch was a very positive one. The owner loves these dogs. They run around, interact with others and let me tell you. A week later when I went back to purchase dog food, I brought my puppy with me and as soon as she saw the owner, she went right to her, kissing her and going absolutely crazy to see her and such so I know these puppies, before they go home, are already so loved and well cared for. Do I think these so called puppy mills should be regulated more? absolutely. Should they be limited to how many dogs they can breed? absolutely. Should they be clean and disease free? definitely. When my next door neighbor went into a nursing home and I visited her on a daily basis, should she have been sitting in a wet diaper every time I went to see her? no she shouldn't have and every time I complained, I got, we're short staffed. Should the food I put on my table that I pay alot of money for and feed to my family be disease free and healthy for human consumption? Of course. Is it? My heart bleeds for gizmo and that family. I would not have 7,000 to do surgery on an animal either. It's not the family's fault, it's not the puppies fault. If they didn't buy gizmo, someone else would have and will continue to do so. Instead of COMPLAINING about all the sick puppies being sold.......do something about it.

I have heard that donations for Gizmo are being taken at 'LICK YOUR CHOPS' on West Main Street in Branford. How completely awful these "horror" stories are. My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by these unscrupulous business owners. You know, down deep inside, that what you are doing is wrong - how do you live with yourselves? As the saying goes, you reap what you sow.

I just want to say, Personally I only once bought a puppy at a pet shop that was years and years ago. I have rescued puppys and dogs from local animal shelters. All I know is no matter how long you have before you can bring the puppy back for an exchange. I am sorry it takes me 5 minutes to fall in love with an animal I wouldn't ever be able to take an animal back. I would do everything in my power to fix my new baby. I think that pet stores shouldn't be able to sell puppies. My brother and his wife got 2 puppies from the mall and both of them had upper breathing problems and stuff. But they love the puppys so they brought them to the vets. But like I was saying pet stores should NOT be able to sell puppies at all. They charge way too much and they don't do a very good health check. Down with puppy mills also. Go through a breeder. And love your puppies.

for critters that don't speak english, the pets have spoken volumes here @ this blogg!!!

they do offer us 'unconditional love" too...

Dan - your comments are either dictated or you are extremely naive! If you are eager to believe what you hear and only see in pictures, I have some land I would like to sell you...and I'll even send you pictures; heck I'll even supply you with names and phone numbers. You're a scam artists dream!

I refuse to purchase any product from APC; I'll drive miles to get what I need elsewhere. I did visit the Branford location to see for myself what the store was like. As I approached the area where the puppies were, the owner Jerry, sounded like a a pitchman. It is obvious he is only interested in the profit he makes. And as for mixed breeds that people are willing to pay hundereds for, there are plenty of mixed breed dogs for less at the SPCA and various other shelters. And does anyone ever ask, how can APC keep bringing in so many puppies week after week (of many diverse mixes) and Dan states they receive pups from 2 locations; how many litters do you think a dog has?? It is clearly a puppy mill!
Bottom line is people need to stop purchasing pets from pet stores and start giving homes to those pets that have been abandoned.

After reading each and every blog entry we would like to let everyone know the details of Gizmo's issues that were not televised. Gizmo was purchased from All Pets Club in Branford, March of 2007. Like many of you that have written, there were issues from the start. Giz had kennel cough & had to stay at All Pets Club for an extra week or so. We went to visit him every day. When we took Gizmo home we kept the same vet that All Pets Club uses, a new home was a big enough change, we felt changing vets would be overwhelming and besides... who knows the dog better than the vet who has been caring for him since his arrival in CT? During Gizmo's vet visits I spoke with the vet about him being in pain and crying alot especially at night. I was told that Gizmo wasn't used to using his muscles as he was in the pen at All Pets Club & possibly a small cage with the breeder as well, the vet stated he wasn't used to getting all the exercise he was getting at our house since he has full run of a good sized fenced in back yard. We had no reason to doubt the vet. June of 2007 Gizmo tried to jump up onto our bed and we brought him to a local animal hospital where after several xrays, they determined he was ok, although they did state he had "something" abormal with his spine but he would out grow this, they gave us some pain meds for him and told us that they would be forwarding records from this visit to his regular vet and we would get a call from the regular vet in a couple days to check on Gizmo. Sure enough his regular vet called, asked how he was doing, he was doing ok and the pain meds were helping. Giz was up to date on all shots & vet visits til fall of 2007. He would have his good days & his bad days, but as the vet advised it would be quite awhile til all of his muscles would strengthen and he would be used to all that exercise. Shortly before Gizmo was due for his next visit, he started having accidents in the house, and he would fall alot when running. We decided to go to a new vet and get a 2nd opinion. It was vet number 2 that caught an issue although not knowing exactley what the issue was they referred us to Shoreline Animal Hospital in Shelton. They gave the final diagnosis. We tried dozens (literally dozens) of times to contact the owners of All Pets Club, they were either on vacation or were to busy to take my calls depending on what employee answered the phone. We did get a call back from the Branford store manager who is the one who compared Gizmo to a computer and We also got a call from the puppy department manager also from the Branford store who made a comment about mother nature not being fair. We to this day have NEVER spoken to an owner. We were NEVER offered ANY kind of resolution. The only warranty offered for one year from All Pets Club is for hip dysplasia, birth defects are covered for 6 months. Our son worked for All Pets Club in the puppy department. We didn't pick Gizmo, Gizmo picked our son. He followed our son around the puppy department. After weeks of pleading we caved and bought Gizmo. Soon after our son gave up his job at All Pets Club on good terms, as it became overwheleming to work, go to school and participate in sports. Gizmo was the first (and the last) puppy we have ever purchased from a pet store. We feel the puppy lemon laws should be changed. We like the idea a previous reader stated regarding insurance... that was a wonderful idea! We think puppy mills are awful. As far as All Pets Club providing detailed information about the breeder... that didn't happen with me, we received a womans name with the city and state she is from that is all. All Pets Club has a sign in front of their store stating something along the lines of finding true love inside. If that is truely how they feel how can they not help all these people that have had and are still having issues with the puppies they are selling? How can they sleep at night knowing what these families are going through? The goal of All Pets Club is to get customers to fall in love with the puppies and make them a member of their family, how can anyone compare a member of someones family to a computer???? We are not the first family to have these issues and we highly doubt we will be the last. Please don't let it be you or someone you know. We would like to thank WTNH and Alan Cohen for bringing this issue to light. We would also like to thank Michelle, Carol and Tammy from Lick Your Chops in Branford for all of their support and the Branford Animal Shelter as well. Thank you to everyone for your support and concern for Gizmo. If you would like to get updated information about Gizmo you can contact Lick Your Chops in Branford as we will be in close contact with them.

Breeders in PA are where the term "puppymill" came from, they are disgusting.

Hunte is not a breeder, it is a broker. They have nothing to do with the conditions of the breeder although they do try to control them with their stringent regulations about where they get puppies from.

Oh and by the way, whoever said I should seek help... what are you like 12? How juvenile of you.

I think we have forgotten in all these comments what the story was truly about. It is about a family who took on the responsibility of an animal without thouroughly contemplating the possibilities of issues that may arise. Please, if you are going to buy, adopt or rescue any animal remember that it is a responsibility not a right. Like anything in life there is always a possibility that things may go awry. Plan. Be responsible. Be a good "parent".
As for AllPetsClub I have this to say: I have had the great fortune of knowing Jerry the owner for 18 years. I have been a regular customer of his for all of them. From the opening of his first store to the present and will continue to be. I have purchased many of my furry, feathered and scaly friends from him. I have also aquired some thru other means. Some have had their "issues" other not....but then again so have my children. I love them all and care for them all. That is my responsibility.
His store is always neat and clean. The variety of product available amazes me. His knowledgeable staff always hard at work yet available to answer any questions. Even as the owner he stops to work side by side with his staff no matter what the task. I wouldnt shop anywhere else.
Wherever the animals come from they are well cared for once inside his doors. Of that I am certain. Both of my dogs came from one of his longtime breeders and have brought me and my family nothing but joy.
I think the presentation of this segment by Channel 8 was very unfair. I tried to reserve judgement until Mr.Cohn had given them opportunity to respond. What a shame. Very poorly done. A true investigator would have remained unbiased and presented the whole story impartially. That is not what I saw. If this was about the law it got lost in the finger pointing and emotion. All Pets Club followed the law. Like it or not it is the law. Unfortunately since these are living breathing creatures there is no guarantee other than that when confronted with a problem emotions will run high. Gizmo's problem was a genetic one, not something visible or easily detectable. Niether is it in children. Children or often covered by insurance. It is also available for pets. Be responsible.

I will say it again, pets are a luxury, NOT a necessity!! I think it's absolutely absurb that every puppy I have seen come from APC has been sick with upper respiratory issues. I also think its absurd how many of these puppies are over vaccinated before they are 5 weeks of age. There vaccine history paperwork is absolutely ridiculous. I think that APC should be shut down. To refer back to Danny who works for APC, he said "durning this time i began training to do all the puppy paper work with my co worker shelley and colleen." what type of training? is anybody that works there trained to work as a Vet Tech? he also said "its about making the customers happy with there new companion I CARE ABOUT EVERY SINGLE PUPPY the same way and treat them all the same with love and attention. yes do sometimes we run into a problem when a dog is sick yes.. do sometimes you run into giardia yes because they are running around and playing together. would you rather see them in small crates and seperated with no toys and nothing to do? i dont think so and thats why where different. " i WOULD rather see them kept seperate from one another, less chance of them spreading communicable diseases to one another. do you acutally have any SOP's on disinfecting the cages? giardia is a zoonotic disease, meaning it can be spread from puppy to person!! and it's spread through a fecal-oral route, meaning your puppies that you are selling are less than clean!! please, people do some research before buying from a petstore, back-yard breeder or rescuing from a pound!! Not just on the place where they are being housed, but about the breed itself. There are so many breed specific problems, that people do not know about. Also please do some research on pet insurance & Care Credit!! And remember, LUXURY, not necessity!!

To all the people who have the false negative to say bout All Pets Club here I am to say you need to research every little thing that can and can'tbe seen. I am PROUD to say that I see it all and I back the owner and every thing that he says. I see first hand how the people that work there take care of the dogs and how they care for them weather they are sick or well. I have seen worse conditions at the humane society at least the store does not smell and the dogs are well bathed and kept clean. No matter where you go you might have an illness come out ok people get real it happens just because one bad thing happened that should not bring every one and their brother to chime in and make stories weather they be true of false. It should be between the customer in question and the store not people who know nothing about the situation. I would buy all my pets from APC and go no where else even if I was paid to. The owner and ALL his staff at both stores have all the love and caring that any person could have for the animals that they sell. They are vet checked by a very professional vet with whom I take my own dog to and I would trust no other. If you don't this then don't take it out on the employees and the owner. He has the upmost care and compassion for his staff and espically for the animals. It is a shame about this woman's dog but this store and the employees are not to blame and they do not deserve all the wrong doing that this has brought on. Listen it is going to happen and they can't stop defects that GOD has given these various animals and that is how life is. I send my full support and feeling to the staff at both stores now and ALWAYS.

To Lisa H. I work for an emergency animal hospital and all we see come out of APC is SICK puppies!! I have not seen one healthy puppy come from there. If they are so sanitary, they would not have so many sick puppies!! I would love to see what protocols they follow. I agree that certain congenital defects cannot be avoided, but God does not give them those defects, in-breeding does, so lets leave God out of this!! But, upper respiratory infections and certain intestinal parasites can be avoided, if they are sanitizing correctly!! Every client that I have seen with a sick puppy from APC have tried calling countless times and the so-called owner does not return calls. Maybe this owner is a little too overwhelmed with what he has. I really believe that these 2 locations need to be shut down. My heart goes out to all the people who have had the unfortunate experience of buying a puppy from APC, or having dealt with their employees, including the owner!!

Lisa H...tsk tsk...what koolaid have you been drinking? First of all read all the posts. It's quite apparent that Gizmo's story is not the only one. It's just the one that has been brought to light. Each and everyone of us who has had an issue with APC is not making it up. My issue was very real. I filed papers with not only the FDA, but the dept of licensing against the vet as well as the store. My only wish is that more people would do exactly the same.

It's quite obvious to me that there are many, many people who have had issues. Time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Long story short-DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM APC-that will be the only thing that affects them.

Mam you have bought over 2 dogs from APC and ONLY the last one had problems. And I am not drinking any bad kool aide. It should be left between the customers and the owner and they do return phone calls. They have lives outside of the store just like you and I. The vet they use is a very professional person and he has SAVED my dog's life as to the other 3 vets that knew nothing but my wallet. So there is nothing wrong with the vet that they use at APC. Why when one person has problems then why do others come out of the wood work only after one person has.And they have enough loyal customers to stay that will support them TSK TSK on you too

We were very lucky that our experience with the pet store was good and our bulldog was healthy. I still don't feel that any animals should be bought at a pet store. The only reason that we bought him was because we felt so bad for him. He had been in the cage he was in for 4 months, and his brother was gone. If the All Pets Club was so caring about their animals, why wouldn't they do the same thing that Petsmart does and help find homes to the millions of animals that need homes in this state. I had gotten a kitten from the Humane Society about 7-8 years ago. She was a great cat. Her and the other cat that I had gotten from Animals for Life got along great. We have pictures of them sleeping together and washing each other. When I had my son, she did not like him and would scratch him. I contacted the Humane Society in Bethany where I had gotten her and they had no room to house her. It took me over 1 year of constant calls to the humane society and really getting angry for them to take her back. It is not that they didn't want to take her, but they are so full with animals, the didn't have the room to take her. I felt horrible that I had to give her back, but it was unavoidable. As for the rescues, They are absolutely fantastic. We had to give up one of our Border Collies to the rescue. She was deaf and we did not know how to take care of her. When my nephew was born and started to crawl, he would crawl over to her and grab her and slap at her, the way babies do, and she would get so startled and snap at him. Once she realized it was just him, she would lick him and cuddle with him and "apologize" to him. I contacted the rescue and she was placed almost immediately. I kept in contact with the person that fostered her and found out that she had been placed on a farm, which is were she needed to be. We did not do the research on that particular breed and were not aware that she needed so much room to run and to let her instincts roam. Research is the key!!! Make sure that you know what you are getting and are able to accommodate it. It broke my heart to give my dog up to the rescue, but, I prefered for her to go somewhere that she could be taken care of, and had the room that she needed that we were not able to give her. Some people here say that the rescues make you jump through hoops and give blood, GOOD! Most of the animals that are given to rescues have been abused in some way, or had their hearts broken already by having to leave their homes for one reason or another. They have already been through some kind of a trauma, they don't need to go through the stress of being bounced around from home to home, because they were not placed with the right people. All animals need stability, love, companionship, and someone who will love them back unconditionally. All animals need that. The rescues try to find people that are perfect matches for the type of breeds they are rescuing, so they are in PERMANANT homes. I applaud the rescues and think they are doing a fantastic job. Now if we could just shut down the puppy mills, and stop the pet stores from selling puppies and kittens, the world would be a much better place.

Correction...my 6 year old has just been diagnoxed with a heart murmur (from bad breeding) And she has a skin condition. These are things that wouldn't have happened if I had bought from a reputable breeder, but I bought her because I too felt sorry for her stuck in there for so long. I also think he's gotten worse in the last few years. He gets many, many dogs a week. Far bigger than when I bout years ago.

As for the store owner-he doesn't care. Didn't care enough to pay the $20 for the medication mine needed.

Lisa please explain how an unlicensed staff member who does not have a DVM can make the decision to give a puppy baytril which can affect the small growth plates? Hmmm....don't tell me the vet blanket order because that simply doesn't fly. The vet deemed the puppy in good health the only time she saw her. The puppy started coughing the next day. I asked that she been seen by the vet and they declined saying that they were going to watch her, that it was just stress. Then the puppy manager decided to give her a prescription drug on his own? Lisa-please explain how he can do that legally? I think you need to check your facts a bit more.

The only way to stop the selling of sick animals is for Gov Rell to pass legislation which states that pet stores cannot sell live animals other than the small kind you keep in cages. People would have to find thier animals through breeders or rescues/shelters. This would stop the sale of
puppy mills and the sale of wild caught birds, not
to mention the impulse buying of animals whos
novelty wears off and ends up neglected or abandoned.

Saying that APC should do things like Petsmart...they actually do. If you did look into it you would know that the Branford store works with the Compassion Club and helps them find good homes for their kittens and cats that ARE spayed and neutered.

Lisa H.-I'd like to know "And they have enough loyal customers to stay that will support them". Where are all there supporters? Have you seen the sick puppies that I have seen? The ones who's illnesses could have been avoided if they were housed in a clean enviroment? Do you know the heartbreak that these families suffer? Incubation time for upper respriratory infection is normally 7-10 days. These puppies are being sold and conveniently enough given a 15 day warranty. Most people who buy these puppies do not have the Veterinary knowledge and expecting that the pet store is not going to screw them and sell them a puppy that has been housed with other sick puppies!! I say for everyone to ban APC and if you bought a sick puppy, then call the State Veterinarian & have these petstores checked out along with this respected Veterinarian who "vet checks" them. These stores need to be shut down!!

My heart goes out to the Regan family, but I fell equally bad for the pet store owner. Puppies are live animals that can and do get sick. As I read all the comments here, the negative ones come from about ten people who have something bad to say about a pet they purchased here. Does anyone understand that the two stores sell thousands of puppies a year? If fifty dogs were to have serious health issues, that would be about 2% of all the puppies sold. Most breeders would be proud to encounter just two unhealthy dogs for every 100 that they breed. “Reputable Breeders” are said to breed less than 15 or 20 pups a year. So that would mean that a reputable breeder with the same health record would only run into a problem puppy once every 3 to five years. Guess what? All breeders have issues. Little puppies get sick. It is a fact that unhappy people are far more likely to be vocal than happy ones. If you were to accurately poll all of the store’s customers you would find overwhelming happiness with their pets. The fact that a technician from an emergency hospital says that ALL of the dogs she sees from the store is sick is most likely true- but what pet owner in their right mind would bring a healthy dog to an “EMERGENCY” hospital? And before we start talking about the GREED of the pet store owner who often works seven days and 70 hours a week to potentially eke out a decent living, let’s talk about the emergency veterinary hospitals. You think pet stores are out to make a profit? News 8 should ake a look at the practices of these emergency hospitals- most of which are owned by large national corporations (but it’s not easy to find the names or corporate headquarters) and they charge unbelievably exorbitant fees for their services which are often below the quality and concern of a local veterinarian. It’s hard to walk into one of these emergency hospitals without at least a $500 bill for just the visit. Usually, the ailing client is told that the dog will have to stay three or four days at an estimated cost of about $1000 or more a day and that if the customer cannot put down 75% of this estimate as a deposit, they are welcome to take their dog home and risk its very survival. The prices these emergency hospitals charge for services are three to four times and even more than the prices charged by regular vets because they have a monopoly on pet care at night and on weekends. And to add insult to injury, most of the vets that staff these emergency hospitals overnight and on weekends are either just or maybe a few years out of vet school. While these emergency centers usually have distinguished and qualified vets on their staff, the experienced doctors don’t staff the emergency room and their practice is usually limited to complex operations and diagnosis of illnesses no other vet can identify. That’s why, by the way that an operation like Gizmo’s ends up costing $7000! And do you want to talk about guarantees? Before an emergency facility will begin taking care of a dog, they require the owner to sign a document that insures that the owner has no recourse against the emergency center if the dog should die while under their care. Now that’s a real guarantee! But the fact is that when you are dealing with living breathing animals, especially small puppies, they do get sick- but with the proper care they almost always get better. Let’s see, if the surgery on Gizmo is unsuccessful does anyone think that the hospital would decide to refund the price of the surgery? Guess again!
Doesn’t everyone understand that the average human infant gets five to seven colds during their first year of life? It’s truly sad that as many as five percent of all human pregnancies encounter life threatening situations before even leaving the hospital? Maybe we should start blaming obstetricians for the unfortunate consequences that Mother Nature brings to the table. Oh, I forgot, there are many out there who want to blame the obstetrician and it is the frequency of baseless negligence lawsuits that has resulted in a serious scarcity of qualified obstetricians. If anyone thinks that dogs from “reputable breeders” or rescue shelters etc. are not subject to frequent and serious illness they are kidding themselves. But if a puppy from a pet store gets sick it must be the fault of the puppy store! If a puppy from a breeder gets sick it must be because of something that the grieving puppy owner did wrong. This is just nonsense. People order dogs from breeders months in advance only to be told that al or some of the litter failed to survive and they can’t get a dog for six months or so. People get dogs from breeders and when the dog gets sick, the breeder, in almost all cases, will not refund money but will offer a replacement dog. When a pet store does that it’s just them being cruel and greedy. The answer my friends is not to legislate against the pet stores, but rather to legislate against the truly guilty puppy mills. But not everyone who breeds seventy five or 150 dogs a year is automatically a puppy mill. How is someone supposed to earn a living selling just 15 dogs a year? The small breeder either needs to be independently wealthy or have a real job somewhere else in order to just breed 15 dogs a year! How about strengthening the USDA laws governing breeders so that the truly bad ones could not operate. And how about looking at the role of the AKC. Whoever said that breeders who register with ACA instead of AKC blame it on the fact that the AKC won’t condone a breeder that breeds a large number of puppies annually. That is absolute nonsense! The AKC will register any purebred dog that seeks to be registered. There are many facilities breeding 500 puppies a year that get AKC registration. The reason breeders have moved away from AKC registration is because it costs about three times as much to register a litter with the AKC as with any other registry. Yes, the AKC does, in very few instances, suspend the registration privileges of breeders, but the suspension is usually based on egregious instances of animal cruelty (frequently court convictions!) or some technical issue involving recordkeeping practices.
When bringing a puppy home from a shelter or a breeder or a pet store or a newspaper ad, they are taking on the liability associated with owning a living being that can and often will require medical care. The joke is that many of the dogs that end up in dog pounds are there because their owners could no longer afford to care for them or because their owners abused or mistreated them in some way. There are definitely bad pet shops but there are also bad veterinarians and bad pet owners.
I’d like the emergency vet tech who wants to blame the pet shop for everything to honestly address the issue of how many puppies end up in the emergency room with Hypoglycemia because their owners didn’t feed them enough as well as how many dogs come in with pneumonia because their owners decided to ignore a cough or a cold when it was early enough to be cured with $25 of antibiotics? And how about the veterinarians who see puppies with a slight cold and instruct the owner to “watch it for a few days” or maybe the pet is given some mild antibiotic which does less to cure the puppy’s cold than chocolate milk would? Do the vets feel any responsibility for a misdiagnosis or an improper treatment that results in the onset of more serious illnesses like pneumonia? Absolutely not! But they are the first ones to say that the reason your dog got sick was because it came from that horrible puppy store. The fact is that veterinarians are no more infallible than pet store owners- the only diofference is that they get to keep the owner’s money whether or not the dog gets deathly ill or fails to survive. It simply is not an even playing field. I’d love to see Channel 8 pursue the horrors that often result from improper veterinary care. But it just seems wrong to put any blame on a professional who spent 7 or 8 years in school to become a vet. The fact is nobody makes the right decision all the time- why do you think veterinarian’s “practice” their profession. No one has all the answers. It’s not fair. It’s heartbreaking. It makes great news stories. But if everyone would step back a minute and look at this whole mess rationally, the pet store is simply not the primary problem. The puppy mills are the worst. Some pet stores are deplorable, but so are some vets as well as some owners who don’t take the time to learn how to properly care for their pet. Unfortunately, we tend to generalize everything, but it’s rarely if ever, that anyone has a monopoly on the right answer or on the truth. Anyone who thinks they have all the answers is kidding themself.

To quote Petsmart's website - "When PetSmart, Inc. was established in 1988, its founders made a conscious decision not to sell dogs and cats. Instead, they established a PetSmart Charities Adoption Center located inside each of the 900 PetSmart® stores across the United States and Canada. Local animal welfare organizations that sign up to become a PetSmart Charities Adoption Partner bring their homeless pets to the center to help find them loving homes."
If APC truly wanted to bring families and pets together - donate the space otherwise used for puppy mill puppies and SAVE SHELTER PETS!! Stop breeding for profit. One litter per year per breeder is too many. Give shelter pets a chance. Establish Pet Adoption Centers modeled after Petsmart instead! If Petsmart could do it, all pet shops can do it. Save shelter pets! Take the demand away until the numbers of innocent animals dying in shelters isn't numbering in the millions per year.

Unbelievable! Is Petsmart in busines to make a profit? Absolutely! Their decision was a briliant one for their business because they get to sell lotsa of supplies to all the people who adopt dogs there. But have no doubt about the fact that the Texas team that opened Petsmart offered adoption as a means to make a profit. But for some reason, no legitimate dog breeder should be allowed to earn a profit! Businesses that don't make a profit don't stay in business. People who work for unprofitable companies lose their jobs. When did profit become such a dirty word. Profit is not the problem. The problem is with the bad puppy mills. Go after them and the cruelty will stop.

Sure ACA is cheaper than AKC and the dog owner gets no benefits with ACA. In order for my puppy to do rally obedience competition she needs to be registered with the AKC Since the the puppy mill did not register her with the AKC, I can't. I must now get an ILP number for her through them. The ACA does nothing and is an alternate organization formed because these breeders could not register with the AKC . Here is a listing for Suspended AKC breeders and their reasons. http://www.barkbytes.com/suspend/suspindx.htm

As for Vet Tech-I believe what he says. My own vet has said the same exact thing. There are many, many more people that have similar stories.This is a small sampling.

Dear Avid Dog Lover...
I work in the health care industry. You stated there are no guarantees on Gizmo's operation, and that you have to sign documents of no recourse... hate to tell you but people have to sign the same type of documents and there are no guarantees for them either! But if an operation is a humans only way out what would you do put them to sleep??? I think every living thing should get a chance to live. This pup is 1 year old, he didn't ask to be born this way, and I feel great that there are so many compassionate, caring and loving people in this world that have opened their hearts to him. Gizmo may not make it (but I strongly believe he will) but at least we all tried and we know we gave him a fighting chance. I know many people in the surrounding area of Branford since I was raised there. I also work for a community that the percentage of residents as well as the employees are animal lovers. We all feel our animals are our family. Now I will tell you something, Gizmo is well known in this community becase he has spent time there with the residents, curling up on their laps and bringing smiles to many faces. How do I know this.... I am Gizmo's grandmother. As for Jerry & his partner Butch... when my daughter first called you it was to advise you not to use this breeder in the future, but you ignored her calls and passed her on to people who have no compassion. I love how you say Jerry often works 7 days 70 hours a week to eke out a decent living, wow! How is it that they take so many vacations????

okay every one READ very slowly and carefully from the above typing from the "AVID DOG LOVER" Who ever you are i am on your side in this whole big mess of a situation. I am not saying that what is happening to the dog is right but these people have emotions and feelings and I see more than the average customer does and I spend alot of time in the stores and I can feel the love and the attention that the employees have for all of the animals. The animals get sick just like children and adults so if my kids get sick and have issues who can I send them back to who can I yell at and who can I try to get to go out of business.Any animal has just as much of a chance as getting ill as a human. And this so called emergency vet tech. I respect your career choice but you have to take the good with the bad and I see more healthy dogs from there as I dont work in oyur field why dont you trade spots with the people who do see the good side and yes there is a good side.Basically they are being supported by many and it WILL NOT CHANGE.

This is all very unfortunate. but the one's to suffer the most is (1) Gizmo and (2) Gizmo's owner's and th etrauma of dealing with it. I have been to APC many times as wellas other pet stores. I would not purchase from any of them. The Pups I purchased in PA did not come from a "Puppy Mill". The breeder cares about her dogs, the parents are on site, and she will take you through the kennel. It was remarkably clean. Her dogs have her personality which is bright and cheerfull.
They come will a 2 year written guarantee with a full refund . But yes you are right, who would do that? I would take out a loan if I had to help my puppies, They are one of the family. Oh, and incidently I take my pups to a great Vet on Rt 110 in Shelton, he said how remarkable these two dogs are. Great personalities and no problems. Both were
perfect when examined. they were a lot less than the pet stores. This lady interviews the family before she sells her dog to you.

I own 3 dogs; all bought from this pet store. Not one of them has EVER had the slightest problem, not one vet bill. In fact, my vet told me many people have gotten puppies from here. Three years before I bought my Golden from a private breeder in northern CT. 6 months ago I had to put him to sleep due to a genetic blood disorder. It doesn't matter where your dog comes from. Anything can be wrong with any puppy, kitten, bird or anything else. I wouldn't single out specific places for having ill animals. Again, it's everywhere.

Alright... Here's the deal about "veterinary knowledge" and the "lemon law". Yes, the incubation period of an Upper Reperatory Infection is 7-10 days. The Lemon Law is 15 days. Does that make sense to anyone now? Let me explain... The law extends only to 15 days because if anything having to do with the puppy's health, such as a URI, came up after 15 days then it did not come from the pet store. (if it is a congential problem, there ARE stores that have warrantees to help pay for this) This means if the puppy gets pneumonia on day 35, yes it did come from the store, however up to 10 days after you brought the puppy home what happened was it got something as simple as a URI and you failed to treat it. The same is true of almost any sickness with animals and people, if it goes untreated it becomes something worse in way more cases that it doesn't. So as far as pet parents not having the "veterinary knowledge" to know when a puppy needs to see the vet, that's crap. If your kid has a cold you go to the doctor to get antibiotics, no? How hard is it to use that common sense with puppies?

When I worked at a pet store that sold puppies and kittens, I would always try to inform new pet parents of what they were getting into. Because yes, pet stores will sell to "impulse buyers," but there are people that work at pet stores that care more about the animals than the money. For instance, if I got the idea someone wanted to buy a dog to do work for them, or be trained for dogfighting (yes, it has happened) I would ask them to leave. These animals are for pets only. At my new store... which by the way is a leader in the industry. I can spend almost an hour with a pet parent helping answer their questions and find solutions to their problems, and I will always refer them to a vet with ANY health related questions.

Also, if any vet won't work with you or refer you to somewhere else or help you find a way to get the money for something that is necissary for the LIFE of an animal, all they care about is money, not your beloved family member.

I do believe that there need to be harsher regulations for both breeders and pet stores, not to mention harsher punishments for people who do not follow them. But I do not believe that the breeders or the stores need to be shut down. However, the pet overpopulation problem does need to be better addressed. And by the way, PETsMART may be smart in a profit sense by donating space to adoption centers, but the reason they do not SELL dogs or cats is because they do not want to contribute to the over-population of pets.

Oh and by the way, there are vets who are so biased by their own opinion of pet stores, they will tell you there is something wrong with it that is the store's fault. And there are vets that will tell you something is wrong with your pet if they find out it came from a store just to get your money.

To CT Sox Fan- Please understand I have absolutely no connection to anyone at All Pets Club. But I know a lot about the AKC and the ACA. ACA was not formed for breeders banned by the AKC. The ACA is simply a means by which you can insure that your dog is in fact a purebred by getting information on your pet's ancestry going back as far as four or five generations. ACA will not register a "designer dog" like a labradoodle. If you wanted to buy a dog for field trials or for dog shows, then you should have purchased a dog that was registered through the AKC. I know of at least one reputable pet store in CT that sells many AKC dogs- icluding some with many champions in their background. I think APC does as well from time to time. But pet stores are there to sell family pets, not show dogs. When a dog has championship breeding, it is still not a guarantee that it will not get the usual puppy ailments or that it will not have a congenital problem that may arise years later. It also does not mean that the temperament of the dog will be any more or less suited to a family situation. Championship breeding only means that the dog is more likely to be in line with the standards of the breed. One of my dogs was sired by the Papillon that won Westminster six years ago and she has a variety of eye problems and breathing issues even though she is only seven- but she's very pretty. And I can guarantee she didn't come from a puppy mill. But guess what- she was AKC registered and we bought her from a pet shop in Manhattan! We did not care that she had championship breeding- we loved her for who she was and we spayed her two weeks before her dad won Westminster- We could have made many thousands of dollars by breeding her but that wasn't why we bought her. You really can't blame the pet store for selling you a dog that was identified up front as being ACA registered. If you want to buy tennis sneakers to play on a clay court, you really can't blame the shoe store if you buy a pair of shoes that are clearly identified as "running shoes."

As for the vet techs- of course vet techs are going to see sick dogs. Healthy dogs don't go for emergency visits. And if you wanted to get an accurate reading of the health of the people in a given neighborhood, I don't think you'd say that sampling the people who are rushed to emergency rooms would be a good way to properly measure it.
ANDREA- please reread my original comments. Of course Gizmo should get the operation. Last month I spent over $5000 to save the life of my Yorkie that was hit by a car that drove away. The cost was pretty painful for me, but I was not about to let a dog I love dearly die because of the cost of saving him. If I didn't have the money, I could hve financed the cost at no interest via brochures at the emergency hospital. I probably could have saved a bit by asking the doctor to reduce his fee a bit (probably not much)- but the fact is that where there's a will, there's a way. As someone else mentioned, if it was a child that was at risk- most anyone would do whatever they had to in order to pay for the surgery. Owning a dog carries certain risks- regardless of where the dog came from. You simply cannot expect a pet store to have unlimited liability for anything that might befall a pet over six months after purchase. Now if the pet shop knowingly sold someone a dog that had a congenital defect they should have most of the liability- but I don't think that anyone is making that claim with Gizmo. He apparently became attached to an employee in the store who ultimately bought him- and I bet he paid a lot less than the dog would have been sold for to a retail customer. Not that the price really matters. But if anyone was in a position to know about the health issues of a puppy, wouldn't you think that someone who is an employee of the store would be in a position to know about the health of the puppy at the time of purchase. The owners of All Pets Club would have to be crazy to knowingly sell a 'defective' puppy to one of its own employees. And if someone is an employee of the store and they knowingly choose to purchase a puppy, don't you think they'd do a little homework and be unlikely to purchase a dog that had an existing condition. This problem is admittedly a very rare one and it is so unfortunate that the Regans have to deal with it. But life is, unfortunately, not fair. The very same problem could have arisen with a dog from the humane society or from a breeder. And what about probems that aren't so rare. Cavaliers are known to frequently have heart problems mid-life so does that mean that they should not be sold? Maybe it means that people need to do some research about the breed they buy and someone who cannot afford to pay for an expensive heart operation should never purchase a Cavalier puppy. There are similar problems with other breeds like the English Bulldog, but there are still plenty of people buying bulldogs who lack the financial resources required to care for them. This is not the pet shop's fault- unless they were aware of the defect. People who have limited resources shouldn't buy cars that require premium gasoline and expensive ongoing maintenance- but if they do you can't blame the car dealer.
There is no question that a dog is not like a computer that has a limited warranty-however, there has to be limits on the liability of the retailer even though there is a strong emotional tie that attaches to a loving puppy. While not quite the same, a film developer who ruins all the precious and irreplaceable photos of someone's wedding has liability that is limited to the cost of the film.
If the owner of All Pets Club goes on a lot of vacations that is not relevant to how much liability he should have. I can guarantee you that for many years this owner was probably tied to the business full time- and he has probably earned the right to enjoy some of his hard earned success. That doesn't justify him not getting back to customers in a timely and courteous manner, but I'm not sure that the owner in this case could have done enough to convince the Regans that he is honoring the obligations they think he should absorb for this pet.
And even if you believe that the owners don't care about the health of their puppies, you have to believe that the employees who work there- a number of whom made comments above- really do care about and love the puppies and are not likely to be intentionally and or knowingly sell pets that they know will become extemely ill.
Finally, there's one more outrage that I need to get off my chest- It deals with all the people who think that the USDA does such a bad job policing pupy mills. The Animal Welfare Act requires that any person with three breeding females and/or having a fairly small number of puppies offered for sale in any year be licensed by the USDA. There is a fairly long list of standards that the USDA measures via two annual inspections of each licensee. I think most of the people on this blog are aware that there are lots of these so called "reputable breeders" located around the state of Connecticut who fall within the licensing requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. But would anyone like to guess how many Connecticut breeders have been licensed and therefore inspected by the USDA? If you answered any number other than ZERO you would be wrong! The only USDA licensed breeder of any type in CT breeds sugar gliders not puppies. Maybe the News 8 team ought to start visiting the breeders in our own backyard (who are too good to let their dogs be sold in a pet store) to find out why they are in such clear violation of the very federal laws that all the supposed dog activists say the puppy mills are violating. This is obviously one of those situations where the puppy activists want others to do as they say but not as they do. It's real easy to criticize- but a lot harder to actually make a positive impact. Most of those commentin above are a perfect illustration of this fact.

Avid dog lover i always love coming on here and seeing what you have to say... i agree with all you have to say,.... my dog breed is not even reconginzed by the AKC and she is ACA registered... does that mean shes not a purebred puppy and that she must have come from a puppymill?? that means anyone out there owning the same breed as me much have gotten their dog from a puppy mill. Please people stop going after the pet store... if you really truely feel against "puppy mills" then thats where you have to go against....I love my dog more then anything! and she did come from APC... and you know what i couldnt have been happier with everything they have done for me and all the advice. I continue to bring my dog in to visit with all the people who took care of her before i was able to bring her home. The staff there really truely does care if you give them the chance to hear you out and listen they will be there for you. They have been for me over the years and i know many other people who have gotten their dogs from there who refered me. There arent that many breeders in connecticut and like Avid dog lover said none of them are usda lisensed that would be a concern to me if the breeder i was going to didnt even do what was expected of them from the law. All and all i am happy with my pup and the staff over at the apc stores and will continue to shop there... you cant put all the blame on the owner right now...

its ashame that people arnt educated about the real truth about petstores,ALL petstores and i mean ALL petstores get there puppies from puppy mills.any reputable breeder would never under any circumstances allow any of there puppies to go to a pet store,#1 petstores dont screen there clients to make sure that a puppy will have the proper care and that the puppy is the right match for the family,most puppies will develop there own personality and a reputable breeder will make sure that the breed is right for that person.2nd a reputable breeder is not breeding for solely profit purposes,a breeder is breeding for the love of the breed and to better the breed,not to just take 2 dogs and breed and make money,they breed for health, temperment,beauty,workability,and other reasons to keep the breed strong.pet stores are just trying to make a buck and dont care if the dog develops any kind of problem after there "warranty"is up..15 days thats ridiculous,any reputable breeder gives a 2year health/hip gaurentee or contract and if there are problems they WILL rectafy the problem,most cases a replacement dog or a purchase price refund.also reputable breeders are active in some sort of sport or show/breed conformation,the price that most breeders charge for puppies is usally the same sometimes cheaper or slightly more.on the other hand reputable breeders will have both parents on site,parents titles or paperwork,vet records,akc registration and family tree or pedigree,and with both parents on site you will be able to see how your puppy will turn out in both looks and temperment/disposition.reputable breeders will offer lifetime support for the dog,and with reputable breeders you can have confidence on knowing what your getting.these pet stores or what i call puppymill outlets get these dogs and knowingly will sell you a sick dog and tell you nothing is wrong it has been checked by a vet,or these puppy mills will inbreed dogs and will develop health problems of all sorts and even deformities that cant be detected until its to late.also the parents and puppies are kept and treated in the worst possible conditions imaginable until they are shipped to the "puppymill outlet"the humane society of america will have video footage on the website that will leave you in disgust and make you never ever under any circumstances buy a puppy from a "puppymill outlet"again.just type puppymill in your search engine and you will find all sorts of information about the subject.and "designer" breeds such as labradoodles or pompipoms and so on and so forth,those dogs are not purebred what so ever,they are purebred crosses which makes them highly priced mutts,if there are no AKC REGISTRATION then run as fast as you can,the "designer"breed is a whole other issue.just remember people to please use a reputable breeder and take the time to look at more than 1 litter,your making a decision thats lifelong for the dog,dont be a compulsive buyer that the puppymill outlet hopes for,it will save you alot of heartache and unnecesary vet bills.....ALL PETSTORES ARE PUPPYMILLS IN DISGUISE!!!dont let them fool you!!..no reputable breeder would allow there puppies to go to a petstore!!!

~ DON'T SHOP, ADOPT! ~
Shopping for dogs keeps the puppy mills in business. Puppy mills and bad breeders cause a lot of suffering to dogs. There are 4 million dogs and cats in shelters in the USA. 25% are purebred - 4 million are euthanized every year. BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION, NOT THE PROBLEM.

I told my girlfriend about the puppy's bought at all pets club. she said a friend did buy a yorkie. it got very sick and she returned it. she did get her money back but i'm afraid pets club put it to sleep. it's so sad they do not do not check on their puppies breeders and health. I bought my dog from a very well known breeder and had a full check up with the vet when I bought my Boston Terrier. she now 7 and doing very well.

I think that the people who sell the dogs to the pet store should be held responsible there should be more looking into the animals health before even being sold or placed at at pet shop and then I think the pet shop should have their own vet come in and check for health problems also. If someone is going to pay thousands of dollars for a puppy they should have the right to have the puppies be in excellent health.
The pet shops should take care of EVERY puppy and make sure he or she is completely healthy before even putting them up for sale. And they should have some type of insurance policy for the first 3 months.

Jessica, the breeders aren't held responsible and the pet shops generally do have vets who check the pets - the animals are sick no matter what and not enough is done to stop pet stores from selling them and the puppy mills from breeding them. The breeders/puppy mills stopped stronger legislation/regulation or people like the Regans and Gizmo wouldn't be in the situation they are. The Pet Lemon Law wouldn't be so weak.

People, Sen. Ed Meyer is taking up the cause of animal welfare. Maybe it is time everyone who feels strongly against pet shops selling dogs/kittens and puppy mills supplying them and even to make a strong request for breeders to observe a moratorium on breeding until the staggering numbers of shelter animals dying in shelters drops significantly, write to Sen. Ed Meyer - write to Att. General Richard Blumenthal and Gov. Rell. Something legal needs to be done to stop these acts of cruelty and protect the animals and it needs to happen NOW!

http://www.winddreamer.net/labfiles/alternative_dog_registries.html

Take a look at this website explaining the alternate registeries. Avid Dog lover and the rest can rationalize their feelings any which way they desire.

The bottom line.."Many more of these registries were created when the AKC began requiring inspections of large kennels & mandatory DNA samples for all male dogs producing more than three litters in a calendar year or seven litters in a lifetime - The American Kennel Club’s Frequently Used Sires Requirement."

Scroll down and read the whole website. Pay attention to the section explaining the alternative registeries then take a look at APC website and see how many of those alternate registeries are listed.
Regardless of any previous experience you may have had, it's an education and gives you real reason to think.

Wonderful suggestion Donna. Instead of bickering back and forth wasting time here, we should all write to our state representatives requesting that importation of these animals into the state be stopped. That's how we are going to stop this once and for all!

I urge all of you who agree to do this today and ask all your like minded friends to do so as well. If we all do it, then they will listen.

Here is Ed Meyers email for convenience:
Meyer@senatedems.ct.gov

You can reach the Attorney General here:
attorney.general@po.state.ct.us

So everyone has their points of view......bottome line, lets change the law. Everyone need to contact the State Rep. to try and change the law to be for the consumer and the pet itself. This problem is not going to go away. A 15 day warranty is ludacris. Voice you concerns to the right people.

I'll be penning my emails shortly. This is just going to keep going on and on - and I do hope Mr. Cohn keeps up on the story as it pans out - his exposure of this nonsense may finally help bring people together to bring change. Thank you, Mr. Cohn, for your hard work. I'll be passing the contact info on to my friends as well. The time to strike is now while the fire is hot.

I pray Gizmo and his family find a positive end to this story and his surgery can be done with success to allow for a happy healthy and LONG life with his family. Maybe any new legislation regarding the pet lemon law should be named in his honor - the Gizmo Bill.

We can all just keep going on and on. But pray and hope for the best for Gizmo and others like him. If we all know don't buy from a pet store , then either don't go in there because you know you are going to fall for one of those puppies or look online , research and buy form someone you have more than one meeting with. My Bichon has ACA paers, and yes my Dox-chon is a designer breed "Mutt". I knew she would not get the ACA papers. She healthy and who cares. Not too many people have a Dox-chon in CT. And I know who her parents were.

Thanks CTsoxfan - I sent Ed Meyer an e-mail as well as another to the Attorney General. Hopefully we can all keep this going until something has changed, don't give up the fight!

We would like to again thank everyone for their support. We also wanted to let you know that we have contacted Att. General Richard Blumenthal and a case is in the works. Also thank you for the contact info for Sen. Ed Meyer we will be contacting him as well. We would be honored if a new bill were named after Gizmo. Thank you again.

A change is legislation would hopefully make conditions better for the dogs and their future buyers. But I wanted to comment on one thing.
Above someone mentioned that if the law was different, the Reagans and Gizmo would not be in this position. ( so something similar to that..)

That is very true.

The Reagans would have another heathly dog, and Gizmo would have been euthenized because his birth defect would have deemed him an unsellable.
He would have been put down because of his defect and never given the chance to live with Good people like the Reagans who chose to fight for his
health and love him despite his defect.

My Mom and Dad bought me from a puppy store, not the one mentioned here. I have been with them for a month now and I am healthy. The day my Mom met me at the Pet Store, she looked at my papers, took the name of the breeder and went home and did her research. I love my new family and they love me.
While it is true that some pet stores are just filthy, I don't understand WHY these people keep supporting them? Don't you see the puppy in the corner with diarrhea or do you just look the other way thinking, "but its so CUTE".... ahhh, yes puppies are cute. People.... spend some time at the store! Watch what is coming out of the butts of the little ones. This would be your first clue NOT to get a cute puppy from this store. IF everyone actually spent some time in a pet store, instead of "OH how cute" they would spare themselves a lot of heartache in the end.
I also have to ask, while birth defects are a part of life, don't you people realize that these Labradoodles and such are nothing more then genetic freaks? Do your homework people. These genetic freaks and NOT made by mother nature. What does that tell you? Really, if you don't support these places, they will NOT survive. I feel sorry for Gizmo, but if he is in truly that much pain and in a body cast, do the dog a favor and let him leave this world with some dignity instead of suffering for a prolonged period of time.
For a race that thinks you are smart, most of you are pretty dumb when it comes to "cute puppies". STOP with the instant gratification! Do your research. Put the rotten breeders and puppy stores OUT OF business. Its simple, don't support them!
~ Jack

Under most circumstances, I would never make the following observation, but there is so many unfair postings being made here that one in particular probably best exemplifies the position of many of the dog activists who refuse to accept any explanations and who have one goal in mind- to shut all puppy stores. It usually goes way beyond that- there should be no more breeding at all according to many. So I suggest you go back to read the comment from “Against pet store/puppy mills” posted above. It begins with: “its ashame that people arnt educated about the real truth…” and goes on and on in a diatribe against all puppy stores, puppy mills, and uses the new term “puppy mill outlet” to describe any pet store. The information contained in the posting and many others is grossly inaccurate and unfair to many breeders and pet stores who care tremendously about every single dog they come into contact with. When you read the posting, you will find way OVER 50 misspellings and improper uses of grammar. So I guess the question is who is it who really needs to be educated?

As an animal lover all my life, it hurts to see how some Pet shops treat animals no more than products to be sold. Not all stores are like the ones mentioned above. Still I don't promote going to a pet store to get a cat or dog. All the cats and dog in my life have either been from a reputable breeder, from an shelter or were rescues off the street. They have all lives good long lives. If you really want to get a pet from the Pet store I recommend doing what "Jack's" people did. Find out about the breeder who put the animal there. Most breeders will not sell their animals to Pet stores.
Another thing if you want to pay a high price for a dog or cat a pet store, know that if you go to a reputable breeder they will most likely have had the animals given their first set of shot and are altered. Where as with pet store you pay a high price and still have to have the shot taken care of and have the animal altered. Think about that the next time you decide you want another pet.

Has anyone taken a moment to step back and review the entire Gizmo situation? The facts as explained by the Regans are as follows: Gizmo was apparently examined by four different veterinarians AFTER leaving the store. Only two of the veterinarians even suspected a problem and none of them were able to diagnose it!! It was only after many months with the family (also not seeing a problem for much of that time) that Shoreline Veterinary Hospital apparently identified what was wrong. If four veterinarians were unable to identify the problem why does anyone find fault with the store not disclosing the problem originally??? How can you expect the store to know of a problem that wasn’t apparent to the family for months and that could not be identified by four different vets? And please don’t forget, the Regan’s son was a happy employee of the store!!!
More importantly, I don’t understand why anyone including News 8 thinks that Gizmo’s situation would be any different if he had been purchased from a breeder. Or from a shelter. Or under some stronger state lemon law.
Let’s start with a purchase from a breeder. There isn’t any breeder I know of who would offer to pay the $7000 for the unusual operation. The most “reputable breeder” out there would simply offer the Regans another puppy. That is the policy of breeders! There are possibly a few breeders who might offer to refund the Regan’s purchase price. But that’s all any breeder would ever offer to do. And what if the dog was returned to a breeder? The breeder would certainly do their best to keep the dog comfortable but is only a minority of breeders who would be in a position to spend $7000 on an operation. It’s sad but true!
Now what if the dog was adopted from a shelter? The only thing a shelter would do is apologize and obviously give them an opportunity to adopt another dog. The joke is that there are actually some shelters who would consider whether they should allow the Regans to adopt another dog because they don’t have the financial resources to give it the required medical care! And what does anyone think would happen to the dog once it was back at the shelter? An extremely well-funded shelter might spring for the surgery, but that would be extremely rare. The fact is that even so called “no kill” shelters will nonetheless euthanize animals that are not suited to be adopted for behavioral or serious medical issues.

Finally, what would happen under a stronger CT state puppy lemon law? At most, a stronger law would extend the period in which the store would be required to either refund the original purchase price or offer a replacement puppy. How would that help the Regans? The toughest lemon law in the United States provides for reimbursement of veterinary expenses in an amount equal to DOUBLE the purchase price of the puppy. But this law wouldn’t be applied to a medical problem discovered over six months after the puppy left the store. And even if the Regans were to get double the purchase price for Gizmo as compensation, it wouldn’t come close to paying for the $7000 surgery!
Let’s say that the State of Connecticut in its infinite wisdom attempted to hold a puppy store liable for a congenital defect that is identified over six months after purchase and require full veterinary reimbursement, I can guarantee that no store would continue to sell puppies in CT. Before all of the activists start jumping up and down, you need to understand that the only result of this is that CT citizens wanting to buy a puppy from a puppy store would simply buy their dogs from stores in New Jersey or New York- most of which purchase ALL of their puppies from the huge puppy brokers like Hunte and Lambriar or who purchase many of their puppies from the Amish in Pennsylvania. All of the activists need not get too excited about this final option because there is no legislature in this country that would hold a business owner open to unlimited liability for a defect they had no knowledge of at the time of sale.

If anyone thinks that it isn’t possible for a “reputable breeder” to sell a dog like Gizmo is kidding themselves. No breeder can guarantee that a congenital defect might pop up out of nowhere in any puppy. Do you not understand that congenital defects like MS show up in humans long after they leave the maternity ward and all of the genome identification in the world has any likelihood of eliminating these congenital defects anytime soon. The fact is that a living thing is beyond the ability of anyone, including “reputable breeders” to completely eliminate. I know it’s hard for everyone to accept this, but just, for a moment, give it some thought. Gizmo’s family is in the same position as the family that tragically discovers that their toddler cannot survive without a very expensive medical procedure.
It’s very easy to get all excited about an unfortunate situation, and it’s always human nature to look for someone to blame. Unfortunately, most of you are simply picking on the wrong culprit.

And by the way, one of the best ways for a family to insure that they don’t get into the problem that the Regans are in is to sign up for Puppy Medical insurance. There are four or five different companies offering this insurance on the web and in most cases they would cover s much as 90% of the cost of this type of surgery. One of the companies is VPI which stands for Veterinary Pet Insurance. Th annual premium for this insurance is about $300 and it even covers some wellness visits and preventative .treatments. We are well on our way to legislating catastrophic insurance for all children, and maybe there should be a greater focus on pet insurance as well. The risks of not having this insurance are obviously potentially devastating.
I understand that there is a lot of information being posted here but there is a lot that I want to say so I’m going to do it a few shorter postings. I have a lot more to say.

I must answer the last post from Tena future vet tech- Any breeder who neuters or spays a puppy prior to selling it would be doing a real disservice to the puppy if it was anything under five months old. In general, puppies are not supposed to be altered until they are six months old. Altering them prior to that means that you are cutting off a lot of the development that takes place in the first six months of a puppies life. As to the issue of having to get shots, I know of at least one pet shop in CT that provides free vaccinations and rabies shots through its veterinarian until the dog is six months old.
And while on the topic of neutering and spaying, it should be understood that these procedures are highly frowned upon in such a nation like Great Britain where studies have shown that the lack of spaying and neutering does not increasde the number of stray animals. Go Figure! Also Many in Great britain argue that puppies continue to develop for over three years if they are not altered. How can we be so sure that we have a monopoly on the right answers?

This blog has more Popularity than the Presidential Primaries.lol~Peace Glenna~!*o*!

One of those vets that examined Gizmo was APC's own vet. That vet missed the diagnosis as well. Was this a case of protecting the store owner? or just not being able to properly diagnose?

This also goes deeper for many people. Many people on here and people who have written reviews elsewhere and those that I have spoken to personally, have expressed great disatisfaction with the owner of APC and the treatment they have recieved.

Sure nothing in life is guaranteed, but a reputable breeder works to ensure the breed standard and is responsible enough to make sure if there is a genetic condition, that the parents do not breed again. The commercial breeders that APC and other pet stores get their puppies from don't do that because like the pet stores they are in it for the money.

The State Dept of Agriculture told me that that the breeder makes about $200 a puppy. Where do you think the rest of the money goes? Right in the store owners pocket. The owner makes money even on the pups that have been marked down-don't let them kid you.

Sure the owner has a right to make money, sure he can fool himself into thinking he's an avid dog lover and is only doing the best, but when all is said and done, he is only one more part of the whole puppy mill business. Plain and simple

Im just a little concerned... did avid dog lover say that gizmo was sold to an employee of the pet store store in question? well im pretty sure if i worked someone and they has known that somethine was wrong with an item at the store that i would have not have bought the item.... that really makes me thing..

To Ct Sox fan- You really seem like you are at least interested in looking at both sides and not putting your hands over your ears and closing your eyes. So I am writing directly to you in the hope that everyone else might be as resonable as you seem to be.
As I said earlier, I have no connection whatsoever to APC. I have never even met either of the owners. But I really do love dogs and I really don't ever want to see a dog euthanized anywhere and I have come to know a great deal about the pet industry including stores, breeders, and sorry to say, lots of vets.

To think that a vet would do something so unethical as to falsify a diagnosis to protect a pet store is extremely hard to believe. I can't see any vet risking their license to do something so stupid. I hope we haven't all become so cynical that we would believe that. Having said that, I don't know who the vet or vets are that serve APC. But if they ever did hide a diagnosis to protect a pet store, they are far more guilty than all but the most horrible of puppy mills and should be prosecuted. But don't forget, in Gizmo's case, the puppy was seen by three other vets who were also unable to identify the problem. This makes it highly unlikely that the first vet saw something that was hidden.
To make the case that if Gizmo was raised by a "reputable breeder" is also a statement that also has no evidence to support it. Genetic defects are not necessarily predictable. There is no question that if the puppies geneology demonstrates that Gizmo's ailment appeared somewhere else in either the littermates or within one or two generations of Gizmo, then of course that breeder should never again breed Gizmo's parents. There is no evidence of that here. Gizmo's problem is extremely rare and could very possibly be a one time event. It is just not fair to automatically assume that because the dog came from a pet store and from a midwest breeder that Gizmo's ailment is a result of the genes of his ancestors. The very same ailment could absolutely show up in the litter of the finest breeder in the world. I know of dozens of stories of dogs from "reputable breeders" who came down with congenital ailments of all kinds, as well as many who developed pneumonia, had parasites, ear mites, and more- including many who neve made it anywhere near their first birthday. It can happen anytime and anywhere. What I'm continuing to be amazed at is how many of you think that The Regans would be in a better position financially if Gizmo was raised by a reputable breeder. The operation would still cost just as much and the breeder wouldn't be absorbing any more financial responsibility. There are all of these websites that claim to be there to educate the public about the horror of buying a pet from a puppy store. Most of them rely heavily on www.petshoppuppies.org which, upon the request of anyone who has bought a puppy from a pet store, will provide information on the breeder and broker and pet store that the puppy came from. This site is performing a valuable service, but it is certainly not attempting to provide the WHOLE STORY! I invite everyone to go to this site and look at exactly what service they provide. PetShopPuppies will not investigate any puppy purchased from a breeder or from a web site!!!!!!! Does that tell you something about their ultimate mission? If someone buys a defective puppy from a private breeder, this site will refuse to provie any information on the background of the puppy!!!! Sorry, but I don't understand the logic of refusing to investigate a sick puppy if it didn't come from a Pet Store!!!! Maybe someone out there will start a website called "WWW.ReputablePreederPuppies.org or "www.internetpuppies.org" so that those people who buy puppies at places other than pet shops can hav access to the same information as those who buy puppies from pet shops!!!
As you look at the information at the PetShopPuppies, please note that the site has failed to find negative information on the vast majority of requests they have received. Also please note that most of the USDA inspections which appear on the site are all from the years 2001 thru 2004. If you are going to rovide this kind of information, shouldn't it be somewhat current? Also please note that many of the pet shop buyers requesting information report that their puppies were perfectly healthy. Most important of all, please note that the way most people come to seek information on the backgrounds of their puppies is from posters placed on the bulletin boards of such disparate places as Emergency Veterinary Hospitals, Veterinarian's offices, and places like Stew Leonard's. And most important of all, please note that the message on these posters is anything but unbiased. The posters usually read "Did you buy a sick puppy from a pet store" and go on to say that this organization is dedicated to helping them with their problems by seeking legislation to outlaw the continued sale of puppies from horrible puppy mills and will also keep them informed of any potential class action lawsuits in which they can participate so they can recover the costs of their sick puppy. The poster includes a picture or pictures of dogs suffering in deplorable conditions. Now let me ask one simple question? How many people who are satisfied with the puppy they got from a pet shop are likely to contact this site? Obviously very few. Unfortunately this makes the information on this site totally inaccurate and incomplete because it only attracts the unhappy buyers- and if you're an unhappy buyer from a breeder, they won't even respond to your request!!! Sorry, but if you think PetShopPuppies provides an accurate picture of pet store buyer satisfaction, you probably still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction!
So Ct Sox fan- please give some thought to just how unfair the playing field has become!


I keep hearing claims that APC is either unresponsive or less than pleasant in dealing with many of these issues. If that is the case, there is no excuse for such behavior. I'm not defending them here, but I can understand how frustrating it is to consistently be blamed for either acts of g-d or even worse, the mistakes of veterinarians- most of whom are quick to blame everything on the pet store. And everytime a pet store owner brings a dog to be cared for in an extremely expensive emergency hospital (Yes, many pet stores do provide expensive care to their puppies rather than euthanize them!) and he sees a poster obviously solely aimed at further inciting the small percentge of his customers who encounter problems, it must be very hard for him to control his anger.
For many customers who are not educated dog owners, the word of the veterinarian is gospel and the word of the pet store owner is just not believed.
Believe it or not, most veterinary practices operate to make a profit. There are as many horror stories about veterinarians as there are about pet shops. I will address some of these in my next posting.

To Avid Dog Lover
I feel I may know who you really are and I think my daughter was too nice to you! I'm the fighter in the family, I will fight for what I think is unfair! I think you and these puppy mills should be exposed by the press, tv, billboards and whatever else it takes. If a living thing is dying and there is no hope, fine let it go. But if there is hope and light at the end of the tunnel all caring, compassionate and loving people would do whatever they can to save this life. I know a few employees of All Pets Club. One that got bit by an iguana in the chin & needed medical attention, a $200 shot, that you refused to pay for that employee paid themselves. To my understanding almost everyone likes dealing with Butch, and not Jerry. Maybe that's why Butch wasn't on tv, from what I hear he is the one with compassion. There's always one bad apple... Many of the teens in the shop pass meds or give shots to these animals are they qualified??? My grandson left in good standing but nowhere in this blog does it state that he was a happy employee. Where did that come from? Do you know him???? I believe in freedom of speech but I feel you are making a fool of yourself.

Yes MK, I said that Gizmo was sold to an employee of the store. But please understand that i was just as shocked to hear that as you are. If you scroll back up to the posting of Gizmo's grandmother-- sorry I don't remember her name-- you will find that it is a member of the Regan family who explained that Gizmo becme attached to her Grandson (I believe) when he was EMPLOYED AT ALL PETS CLUB!!!! And that the attachment grew over a period of weeks when this young man continued to be an EMPLOYEE OF ALL PETS CLUB and that the young man ultimately decided he could not resist buying this puppy while still an EMPLOYEE OF ALL PETS CLUB (and if you think they charge him full retail, you're probably wrong) and that soon after this young man left the EMPLOY OF ALL PETS CLUB on GOOD TERMS - (again, I'm quoting the grandmother!!!) and the only reason he left All Pets Club was because the job was conflicting with his school work. It certainly doesn't sound like the young man had any concerns about the puppies at APC and if anyone was likely to be aware of a health issue with a puppy they bought, wouldn't you think it would be an EMPLOYEE of the pet store??????????
None of this makes Gizmo's case any less sad or unfortunate but it certainly has to make you question whether APC hid something from the Regans. News 8 did a real poor job of reporting this saga in that they failed to report this very important piece of the story. OOPS!

Well Andrea, guess what, I can guarantee that you are incorrect about who I am. Once again, I have no connection whatsoever with APC or Jerry or Butch or whoever else works there. I have never met any of them. I admit that I visited one of their stores on one occasion and was fairly impressed at how they kept their puppies behind glass and on a clean and heated surface. That's right, i was only there one time about a year ago! You are welcome to believe whatever you want. After all that's exactly what all of the animal activists continue to do. If Alan Cohn at Channel 8 would like to contact me, I am absolutely willing to talk to him and let him know who I am- Someone who has eleven dogs of my own- all of them from pet stores- and someone who is sick and tired of people who are unwilling to listen to someone else's point of view if it disagrees with theirs. Sorry Andrea, but if you'd like to see a fool, take a look in your mirror.

Well, MK I guess I just remembered the name of the person who wrote about her grandson being an employee. Her name was ANDREA. And Andrea, I cetinly do not mean to be disrespectful to you, but as you can see from my last comment, I accurately quoted you by saying that your grandson left "ON GOOD TERMS" I apologize if misconstrued something you said in an earlier posting. I must have mistakenly interpreted that after working at a store and buying a puppy from there and leaving on good terms that he may have been a happy employee. In retrospect, I cannot believe i made such an outrageous conclusion.
And by the way, I'm not sure what you were trying to say about saving the life of a dog, but please understand that I am very hopeful that Gizmo can get the operation and live a long and happy life. just because i don't believe in trashing every pet store indiscriminately, doesn't mean that I don't care a great deal about every dog.

Dear Avid Dog Lover,
Yes our son did work at All Pets Club, we are not hiding that, if we were we would not have posted it in our first comment and WTNH knew this as well. No one is stating that All Pets Club knew from the start they were selling Gizmo knowing there were health issues. The problem is they don't communicate w/ the customers when the issues are brought to their attention and they don't try to offer any sort of resolution or assistance. We believed they used reputable breeders... a teenager trusting the word of his boss and we as parents should have done some research I have NO problem admitting that but you know what... it comes down to this a puppy that needs a surgery to get better... a puppy that didn't ask for this, a puppy that chose a family that will do everything it can to get him the medical attention he needs to get well and live a long healthy life. All Pets Club should not use puppy mills, bottom line!! PS... how did you know Gizmo was from the midwest as you stated in the comment posted 02/10/08 @ 22:12??? Wasn't in my comments or on the news.... dumb luck or do you know more than you are admitting to?????

To Regan Family-
As I said multiple times, my heart goes out to you. I have no knowledge of Gizmo's breeder but many postings have said that all of APC's dogs come from the midwest- so yes it was luck (I don't admit to being dumb). If any of the breeders that APC uses are truly puppy mills I agree that it should be stopped immediately. But not every breeder of a lot of puppies in the Midwest is a puppy mill. You are absolutely right, the issue here is about a poor puppy that needs an operation. But this should not be turned into an occasion to trash every puppy store and conclude that they are all despicable liars who don't care about the puppies they sell. Good luck to you and Gizmo. I just hope you can understand where I am coming from

I FOUND OUT THAT YOU CAN MAKE DONATIONS FOR GIZMO AT "LICK YOUR CHOPS" WHICH IS ON 71ST WEST MAIN STREET IN BRANDFORD CT.

Dear Regan Family...
If this store has a warranty that I dunno you probably have to sign or whatever, wouldn't you know what you're supposed to do? Why does the way the store communicates with customers after they purchase a puppy have anything to do with it? Number one, you signed it so you agreed with it. And number two, the warranty is obviously a legal document that explains things for you.

Also, why aren't you looking into a payment plan or line of credit in order to just get the operation if you care so much? If you care as much as you say you do, the amount shouldn't matter and even if it somehow does because you know you definately can't avoid it you would find someone who can have it fixed. Be it another home or whatever. You simply used a controversial topic to not only get your faces on TV and beg people for money, but put a slant on and slander an entire industry. Not all pet stores are the same.

And by the way anyone who believes they are and all pet store puppies come from puppy mills or that no pet store employee cares about animals or the homes they go into, etc. is an extremist whose views are never going to be changed just like all extremists. Example: PETA (or some form of them) extremists actually believe that NO animal should ever be kept as a pet and there was actually a video of PETA members going into shelters and adopting animals and then euthanizing them in a van outside just so that they would not have to "suffer" living confined.

Oh, and not all shelters and adoption agencies are complete angels either... look at what happened to ELLEN!!

Actually wait... can't your son explain the warranty to you?

oh and by the way... just because employees medicate animals that does not make them in the wrong. if a vet