New Jersey Pet Shops

New Jersey has about 50 pet shops that sell puppies and kittens - several sell puppies purchased exclusively from Pennsylvania and Ohio Amish and Mennonite-owned puppy mills. 

Almost all puppies in pet shops come from puppy mills and because there are NO breed standards in dogs bred in puppy mills or puppies sold in pet stores, there is no guarantee your puppy will be what you think he or she is!  The Chocolate Lab puppy pictured at right is from an Amish-owned Pennsylvania puppy mill; does he look healthy and sound to you? His coat is dull. His belly is distended (could be parasites) and his feet are splayed, from living in a cage with wire flooring.

Many puppies grow into dogs that have uncharacteristically long or short legs, ears and tails. Some people end up with 20-pound Chihuahuas or 50-pound cocker spaniels; others get Shepherds that are mixed with Malamutes and Huskies; Maltese that look more like Havanese and ShihTzus mixes, and so on.

Most pet shop employees have limited knowledge about different breeds. They do not properly screen buyers to match them up with the “best” companion animal, resulting in a puppy that needs lots of exercise but is confined to a crate all day while no one is home or a puppy that is not good with children.

These puppies are the offspring of intensively confined (caged) parents who have little or no socialization, so chances are great that your puppy will suffer from inherited emotional and behavioral disorders such as nervousness, hyperactivity, fear, and food aggression.

Non-congenital illnesses seen in pet shop puppies are typically kennel cough, pneumonia, coccidia, giardia, parasites, and sarcoptic mange, among others. Serious illnesses include distemper and parvovirus, which can be fatal.
 
Inherited disorders might not show up for 3 – 9 months. They include demodectic mange, deafness, blindness, hip dysplasia, cherry eye, premature cataracts, glaucoma, epilepsy, retained testicles, spinal arthritis, overbite, underbite and more.

The mark-up of a puppy sold in a pet shop can be as high as 1,000 percent. Many brokers or pet shops pay as little as $10.00 for a puppy or as high as $300.00, then turn around and sell the puppy to you for as much as $3,000.00! High price and registration papers do NOT mean a quality or healthy puppy.

Remember, pet shops are only interested in making the initial sale – most are not interested in providing follow-up support or additional resources and information to buyers. Paying for veterinary expenses cuts into their profits and many store owners will fight you every step of the way should your new puppy become ill shortly after purchase, even blaming you, the buyer, for your puppy’s health problems.

The pet store is one business where, once you walk out the door with a puppy, the customer is never right!

Pet Shop Complaints

We’ve received a significant number of complaints on puppy stores where:

• Buyers are required to look at a “notebook” on puppy mills before they see or handle any puppy. Employees denounce the horrors of puppy mills despite the fact that their own puppies come from puppy mills!

• The breeders’ names provided are USDA-licensed commercial kennels, commonly known as puppy mills.

• The retail markup of puppies is as high as ten to fifteen times the wholesale price. A commercial kennel owner from Texas recently reported that he was paid only $200 by one major puppy broker for a male Yorkie and the shop in question sold the puppy for $3,699.00!

• Paperwork obtained by numerous complainants who balked at outrageously inflated prices also shows ‘on-the-spot’ slashed prices. Original retail prices of $4,500 and $3000 were instantly reduced to $800, an astounding 83% and 73% markdown.

• Buyers are required to purchase a so-called health warranty for $99 and pay a $60 “delivery fee” despite that the puppy brokers deliver puppies to stores every week.

• Buyers are often given incomplete names or addresses of breeders or brokers. We allege this is an effort to make it as difficult as possible to learn the truth about the puppy’s origins.

• Puppies have been sold with a supply of unmarked or unlabeled antibiotics. The reason:  the puppy “was getting over a cold” i.e. kennel cough or perhaps even an upper respiratory infection. 

• Buyers report that store owners/managers/employees are rude and verbally abusive when buyers report back that their recently purchased puppies are sick or unfit for sale.

It's the law!

Puppy cages in NJ pet stores selling dogs or cats must have a label listing:

    the sex and breed of each animal kept in the cage,

    the date and place of birth of each animal,

    the name and address of the veterinarian attending to the animal, and

    the date of the initial examination of the animal.

Each store shall also display conspicuously on the business premises a sign not smaller than 22 inches by 18 inches which clearly states to the public in letters no less than one inch high the following:

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

The sale of dogs and cats is subject to a regulation of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. Read your animal history and health certificate, the Statement of New Jersey Law Governing the Sale of Dogs and Cats and your Contract. In the event of a complaint you may contact: Division of Consumer Affairs, Post Office Box 45025, 124 Halsey Street, Newark, New Jersey 07101. (973) 504-6200.