We are delighted to announce that the East Liberty Petland store plans to convert to adoptions-only of dogs and cats in the near future.
Eric and Marci Caplan, who own the store in East Liberty, Pittsburgh, have been in talks with two of the local animal shelters, the Animal Rescue League of Western Pa and the Western Pa Humane Society, about this arrangement. We do not yet know if potential adopters will be screened at Petland, as they are in animal shelters, so although we are calling the arrangement “adoptions-only” it may be more accurate to say that they will be “selling shelter animals.”
We are approaching this news with skepticism, hope and optimism, and thank the Caplans for taking the plunge. There will be a trial period of several weeks, which, if successful, will lead to a more permanent arrangement. We hope that this is a lasting relationship that benefits all parties, especially the animals. We really hope that this store is more successful at selling shelter animals than the Wheaton (Il) store, which reverted back to selling purposely bred dogs after a 3 month trial of adopting out shelter animals.
The Post Gazette report is below. We note that the Caplans say that they have been selling USDA-licensed and inspected puppy breeders, and of course we have to say that, as most of our readers know, USDA-licensed does not mean cruelty free. The USDA sets very low standards for their puppy breeders, and this is a big reason why we oppose the sale of purposely bred animals.
Petland to sell animals from sheltersTuesday, October 26, 2010By Linda Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRobin Rombach/Post-GazetteEric and March Caplan hold some of the last non-shelter puppies they have for sale at their Petland store in East Liberty. Once these puppies have been sold, the store will only have shelter dogs and kittens for sale.Puppies and kittens from commercial breeders will no longer be sold at Petland in East Liberty, a regular target of animal rights picketers.
Instead, that puppy in the window — as well as kittens and rabbits — will come from two local shelters.
“It’s a good thing to do,” said Eric Caplan, when asked about the change. He and his wife, Marci,, own the franchise for that Petland store, located at 6401 Penn Ave. in the Village of Eastside.
The store inventory currently includes five purebred puppies and three “designer” mixes, including a fluffy cockapoo, which is a cocker spaniel-poodle cross.
When those puppies are sold, the store will bring in puppies, kittens and rabbits from the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society and kittens from the Animal Rescue League of Western Pennsylvania. The store owners hope it will happen in the next week or so.
The Caplans are calling it ASAP: Animal Shelter Adoption Program. The animals will live in the store, and not all of their time will be spent in cages. The store has indoor exercise and play areas.
“We look at this as a step in the right direction,” said Dan Rossi, executive director of the Animal Rescue League. “We don’t get many puppies,” but the shelter is inundated with kittens. The Petland store does not have adequate living and exercise facilities for larger animals, but adult dogs may be brought from the Larimer shelter to Petland on weekends for adoption events, Mr. Rossi said.
Lee Nesler, executive director of the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society, said she is “really pleased. I think it’s going to be a wonderful relationship. It’s making a commitment to save lives.”
Very few puppies are turned in to Allegheny County shelters, presumably because spay and neuter campaigns are working. Ms. Nestler said the local Humane Society gets puppies from surrounding counties “and from a shelter in Georgia where unfortunately there are plenty of puppies” that need homes.
ASAP has the approval of Petland corporate officials.
“We have many franchises that have partnerships with shelters and rescue organizations” and a Petland store in Texas “has never sold purebreds. They’ve always been totally shelter adoptions,” said Elizabeth Kunzelman, director of marketing and communications at Petland’s corporate office in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Petland has 100 stores, and only four are corporate-owned. The rest are franchises.
Eric and Marci Caplan have owned the East Liberty Petland for two years.
Small numbers of animal rights activists have regularly picketed the Caplans’ store. Picketers object to purebred puppies being sold in stores while millions of animals in shelters and rescue groups need homes.
Picketers also said Petland sells animals from so-called “puppy mills” — described as large-scale for-profit facilities where breeding animals and puppies are kept in crowded, filthy conditions with little or no socialization.
Mr. Caplan said the puppies he and his wife sold came from commercial breeders licensed and inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he said, and from some local breeders.
The Caplans will add a service fee to the shelter animals that are sold, he said. “It won’t be a profit. It will be to help cover our costs.”
Kittens are usually $60 at the Animal Rescue League. The Caplans expect to add about $30 to $40 to that cost to cover the care they provide. The Western Pennsylvania Humane Society puppy adoption fee is $200, and Mr. Caplan said he’ll add about $100 to the cost.
The adoption fee includes neutering by a veterinarian, inoculations and microchips. The Humane Society fee also includes the cost of training classes.
Linda Wilson Fuoco: lfuoco@post-gazette.com or 412… .
I am a volunteer with Sacramento County Animal Care and Regulation in California and 6+ years ago we partnered up with the Elk Grove PetSmart to place homeless shelter cats through their adoption center. We’ve been very successful and are approaching the placement of our 900th cat soon. (We hope to reach 1,000 by December.) We volunteers completely run the center and PetSmart generously donates the space, food and litter, and periodically other items also. We screen all adoptions actually more than our shelter does. Once a shelter cat is selected for our LAPCATS program, he/she stays with us until adopted. We rely on foster homes quite a bit too. It’s been a great partnership with PetSmart for the animals.
I am really glad to read this! I am currently protesting a petstore here in Ames, Iowa. The owner gets his puppies and kitties from a USDA licensed breeder that has had up to 500 dogs on their property in the past two years. Black Friday was our “kick off” protest and we were met with positive praise! The owner was shocked and much to his disapproval, we plan to be there every Saturday through Christmas Eve. Stories like the one you posted give me hope that our protests will work too! I hope to write a post just like this one someday soon. Thank you and, as always, ADOPT, DON’T SHOP!