There is a pet shop that we drive by in Donelson, and I’ve always wanted to stop in to see what kind of fish they had. So I loaded up the kids and after DD got her allergy shots we went there. The first thing that hits you when you walk in is the smell. A funky mixture of cigarettes, old fish tank water, and dogs. And there on the floor, on a diarrhea stained newspaper, were puppies that barely lifted their head when we walked in. Their food bowl contained dry dog food that at one time had been watered down, but was now hard and crusty on top. It was covered in fly’s. The puppies were on old stained newspaper, and the one that did get up to see us was stepping in little puddles of dog diarrhea.
A crusty middle age woman came from the back and croaked “Can I help you with somethin’?”. She glared at us, obviously annoyed that we werent there to buy anything. There were smelly rodent cages, and a ton of birds, and even though the bird cages looked clean, I didn’t see any toys for the birds. The shelves, floors, and items were covered in a thick layer of dirt/dust. There was one kitten there, who she shoved into a cage on the floor and he just started howling and crying to get out. “You can’t come out because you’ve been bad” she told the kitten.
I got us out of there as fast as I could. It was horrible. I poured hand sanitizer on all of us and left. I wondered how to make a complaint and who to complain to.
3 Comments
Write a Comment»First of all I’m sure you got a local phone book handy, I will call animal control or animal welfare and see if they can refer you to an agency where someone can go in undercover and “check in” on those poor animals. It sounds like some old woman trying to run a pet store without the proper papers, or her papers must be way outdated. Otherwise she must know beforehand when an inspection is coming and cleans up very fast to make it presentable! For those animals to be subjected to that filth is purely disgusting!
Sorry your kids had to witness that and hands up (and out) for the hand santizier!!!!
i would call metro animal services. i would probably call some rescue agencies, they probably have more experience in these types of matters. my mother is a corgi breeder and the breeders are always ready to out puppymills as those folks are just in it for the money and breed and sell without regard for the health and well being of the animal. and mills generally sell to the shops like this
a better business bureau would probably be appropriate at a certain level.
I would go with Dana’s suggestion to call Animal Control and see whether they can do something or recommend someone. You also might want to contact the local code enforcement department at the city or county level. If you cannot find out who to contact let me know and I will find out for sure for you since I am fairly involved in the local government here and they all talk to each other. As for the better business bureau, my experience with them is they tend to be more concerned about collecting dues from members than dealing with complaints.