Scores of new complaints from heartbroken puppy buyers are streaming in to The Humane Society of the United States after Animal Planet Investigates: Petland premiered Monday night. In the one-hour special, Animal Planet followed HSUS investigators as they tracked down puppy mills that supply Petland stores. The expose also featured tragic stories from several buyers who discovered their puppies were ill. After the airing, The HSUS began receiving additional complaints from across the U.S. about Petland puppies with severe congenital disorders and diseases like parvovirus and pneumonia. At least two people reported the awful news that their puppies died the day after they were purchased.

“The stories are heartbreaking,” says Stephanie Shain, senior director of The HSUS’s puppy mills campaign, who was interviewed for the special. “But as heartbreaking as the reports are, we are encouraged to know that the show will help warn potential puppy buyers never to buy a puppy from a pet store or from any seller whose operation they haven’t personally visited and screened.”

Excerpts from some of the heartbroken families’ stories include the following:

“I can not begin to describe the heartbreak and emotional turmoil we went through with the death of [our puppy ….] It was horrible on our entire family. Weeks of unanswered and unreturned phone calls from the Petland owner, crying kids, crying mom, no puppy at Christmas time…” – Stephanie, El Paso, Texas

“I bought my beautiful little Havanese puppy, took him home for five days, and fell in love with him. He became ill on the fifth day with vomiting and diarrhea, was hospitalized, diagnosed with Canine parvovirus which was incubating in the puppy when I purchased him, as confirmed to me by the hospital. He died after 5 days of treatment for this terrible and highly contagious virus. We are heartbroken.” – Janet, Bronxville, N.Y.

“Petland told us she was from a good breeder, we even had her certificate of registry, and that there were no genetic problems or health problems. The vet prescribed Mindy drops and ointments to take several times a day, but it wasn’t working and her left eye was looking worse, so we took her to a specialist. She needed surgery right away that cost us $2,500 dollars. They saved her eye but now she has monthly appointments and medications that come to about 250 dollars a month, she will need these treatments for the rest of her life.” – Christina, Tucson, Ariz.

“Normally, I would NEVER buy from a pet store, but I went to [a Petland store] to purchase bird food for my brother’s birds every few weeks and Little Red was in one of those tiny cages and I watched her grow until she could no longer sit upright in the cage. I couldn’t leave her there – she looked so sad. Within a few days, she developed a limp. She had bilateral hip dysplasia. In fact, according to the vet – she had the worst dysplasia he had ever seen in all his years of practice. Both hips were completely disarticulated. Surgery was not an option due to the degree of malformation of both the hip sockets and heads of her femurs. The vet said there was no way the breeder didn’t know this condition was present in his dogs.” – Melissa, Poteet, Texas

“I had asked time and time again if the dogs today are from puppy mills and the employee expressed over and over that their company may have received puppy’s from mills back then, but DO NOT deal with any form of puppy mills today. This was assured to me after explaining my previous history and concern with Petland. […]Frustrating and expensive is what this clearance puppy has been to our family. We will do the best we can, but none of it is surprising to me anymore!” – Amy, Park Ridge, Ill.

“Sadly I learned a hard lesson. I had heard from people before tell me ‘oh don’t buy from pet stores’ but I felt like oh no my husband did business with [the pet store owner] Peter and he assured us he buys from breeders, I guess you just don’t expect to be lied to, everything he said in the Animal Planet Investigation were a lot of the same things he told us. I’m very sickened that he would cover up where the dogs really come from and make up lies.” – Christina, Tucson, Ariz.

The HSUS urges consumers who have purchased a sick puppy or who want to report a puppy mill to share their concerns with The HSUS at humanesociety.org/puppymillstory.

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Owners of the Pasco Petland store on Monday denied charges the store gets its puppies from mills and brokers who mistreat animals that they crank out for profit.

“I never would’ve opened this (store) if there were shady things going on,” said co-owner Dan Miner. “I mean, there’s too much money at stake to do things like that.”

Miner’s comments were in response to a report the Humane Society of the United States released Monday that claimed more than 95 percent of Petland stores have bought dogs from large-scale brokers or directly from puppy mills in the past few months.

The Humane Society, a national animal protection organization separate from the Benton-Franklin Humane Society that operates a shelter in Kennewick, used public documents to trace shipments of more than 15,000 puppies from commercial brokers to Petland stores.

The Humane Society said the Pasco Petland — the only Petland store in Washington — gets its puppies from Mid-America Pet Broker LLC of Neosho, Mo.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this year cited the broker for buying from breeders without verifying that they were licensed, for using expired and incorrect medications and for using cages that were too small, the Humane Society reported.

Miner acknowledged the Pasco Petland gets the majority of its puppies from Mid-America, but he said the broker hasn’t mistreated animals as the Humane Society portrays.

“Absolutely not,” Miner said. “I would stake my building on it. I wouldn’t do business with them if that was the case.”

Miner said he wasn’t concerned with Mid-America’s past citations, saying just because a driver gets a traffic citation doesn’t mean they shouldn’t drive anymore. If anything, the citations showed the USDA was doing its job, he said.

He also showed a March 2 inspection record of Mid-America that reported no violations at the time.

All puppies sold at Pasco’s Petland receive three parvovirus shots before the store even gets the animals, and they receive physical exams from Coleman Animal Health Center before they are made available for sale.

Of the 700 puppies that have gone through the store since it opened last July, only three were found to have parvo, Miner said.

Nevertheless, the Humane Society recommended consumers not buy puppies from pet stores or internet sites, but instead buy from an animal shelter or a breeder’s facility that they can inspect in person.

Puppy mill dogs typically receive little to no medical care, live in squalid conditions with no exercise, socialization or human interaction and are confined inside cramped wire cages for life, the Humane Society said.

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