Sick puppies Petland Waterford Lakes has a history of selling unhealthy, even dying, dogs. Even after a lawsuit from the state and a ban from the county, there’s no guarantee the suffering will end.
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BY AVA LOOMAR
IDDEN in the back room, a puppy’s body shuddered on the cool metal lid of a washing machine. The shih tzu was only a few weeks old. It almost looked like a stuffed animal with soft fur and a cute, squashed snout. It was prime puppy-selling age. But it was too skinny. Too weak. Too sick. Shih tzus are already prone to breathing problems — a side effect of centuries of inbreeding — but this one struggled to squeeze air into lungs the size of a baby’s fist. The kennel technicians guessed it had an upper respiratory infection, but nothing was listed on its signed health certificate. Whatever out-of-state breeder it had come from clearly didn’t care for it. And now, only days after arriving at the Petland in Orlando’s Waterford Lakes, the shih tzu puppy was dying. It didn’t yet have a name. Five kennel technicians tried to keep the puppy alive. A more experienced tech put her lips on the puppy’s snout: Blow. Pump. Blow. Pump. Blow. Pump. It was too late for CPR; the tiny shih tzu needed a veterinarian. But the owners of the store didn’t like sending their puppies off-site unless absolutely necessary, former employees said. An older kennel technician pushed a new hire out of the room. The young woman, a mid-20s Orlandoan, hurried home from the store, images of the puppy’s crumpled body burning her eyelids. The next day, the shih tzu was gone. The new employee approached the kennel manager. “What happened to the puppy?” she asked, scared she would hear that it died.
It went to the vet, the kennel tech replied. She shouldn’t worry: “This is not common here.” The puppy never came back to the store. Over the next five years she spent working there, the young woman realized that her first day was emblematic of her entire Petland experience. She had naively thought the store she worked in would be a wholesome place where animals, staff and customers were all happy. Today, after arrest threats, harassment, racism and trauma-based insomnia, she thinks she was very wrong indeed.
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IDSUMMER 2021: The Orange County Board of Commissioners sat on the dais before a color-coded crowd, wearing red T-shirts emblazoned “Save Our Pet Stores” or yellow ones reading “Vote Yes for Puppies!” The open session was in its fifth hour, and Mayor Jerry Demings already looked tired. The real debate — the one that had dozens of attendees overflowing into the lobby — was about to begin. The ordinance, first brought to the commission in 2018, would prohibit the retail sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet stores in Orange County. According to research from the Humane Society of the United States’ Stop Puppy Mills campaign, there are 10,000 dog breeding facilities in the U.S. [continued on page 18]
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NOV. 10-16, 2021 ● ORLANDO WEEKLY
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