A 1.5-pound female chihuahua was stolen from the Furry Babies store in the Louis Joliet Mall. Video captured an image of the man taking the dog at about 8 p.m. Friday night.
Here is what an employee posted on the Joliet Patch Facebook page:
I work for furry babies in the Louis joliet mall. We have a man on camera stealing one of our babies. She is a 2 month old blue chihuahua. He weighs about 1.5 lbs. this was around 8 pm last night. It has been reported to joliet police.
Here is a links to a story broadcast on WLS-TV (Channel 7) Saturday night on the theft:
The guarantee means nothing, it's not even worth the paper it is written on. There is no legal definition of a puppy mill so they can guarantee all they want. And since there is no legal definition of a puppy mill, you can't actually prove the dog came from a puppy mill so it would never hold up in court.
Reputable breeders work tirelessly to create dogs that meet the breeds standards and are in excellent health and temperament. They will also guarantee, along with pedigree papers, that you will get your money back if the dog has any health or temperament issues. Real breeders carefully screen their customers to make sure the dogs are going to the best homes possible. Think about it, would a great breeder give their dogs to store, just to have the pups they lovingly raised go into random homes?
I've helped shut down two puppy mills and the conditions these dogs are forced to live in are absolutely heartbreaking. The only way to be sure that you are not supporting puppy mills is to adopt or use a reputable breeder. Anything else is more than likely supporting the torturous abuse of animals. I highly encourage all to do their research on puppy mills. Just do a google image search for puppy mills and you will see the tip of the iceberg
No one is saying that they don't care about this particular puppy. The point is, if anyone cared about ANY puppy, they wouldn't support this store. It's simple supply and demand. One puppy sold means one more puppy needs to be bred and one more puppy will be abused. The loss of profit from this one dog means they may not be able to buy 30 more puppy mill dogs. And while the stealing was definitely wrong, I'm ok with their loss of profit in this case. If he stole it because he wanted a dog and couldn't afford it, he should have rescued one from a shelter. If he stole it because he is an animal activist, he should have found a better way to make his point. I'm not sure what kind of background checks are done on the customers before they place their dogs. I question the sanity of anyone willing to pay that much without doing any research, so I don't have a whole lot of confidence in the people going home with these dogs anyway. At the very least, I hope there is some kind of screening process. Otherwise selling the dog to a stranger would be just as risky for the dog as being stolen by a stranger.
http://www.peta.org/issues/Companion-Animals/puppy-mills-dogs-abused-for-the-pet-trade.aspx http://www.unitedagainstpuppymills.org/ Do some research