Pet Store Proclamation Press Release

PACC911 TAKES UNIFIED STAND AGAINST PUPPY MILLS, PET STORES Pet Store Proclamation Endorsed By 132 Rescues Backing an Adoption Model

Phoenix, AZ: In an impressive show of solidarity and unified commitment to animal welfare, Phoenix Animal Care Coalition (PACC911) and its 132 Rescue Partners and Rescue Friends ratified a proclamation stating that all rescue members under the PACC911 umbrella agree not to partner or do business with, or accept money from, any Arizona commercial pet store operation that sells puppies or kittens.

The Pet Store Proclamation was presented by the PACC911 Board of Directors at its Dec. 12, 2019, meeting. The proclamation received unanimous support from rescue membership.

“As of today, 330 localities and two states nationwide have passed laws that ban the sale of commercial puppies in pet stores,” said Kellye Pinkleton, Arizona Senior State Director for the Humane Society of the United States. “Many puppies and kittens sold in pet stores come from large-scale, commercial breeding facilities where the health and welfare of the animals is disregarded in order to maximize profits. The stand taken by PACC911 and its community of rescues that work so hard rehoming the homeless is a powerful statement of opposition against puppy mill operations including their commercial pet store partners, and a statement of support for an Arizona adoption model.”

Phoenix, Tempe, and Tucson previously passed commercial pet store bans and implemented rescue-only models, only to have the state legislature and Gov. Doug Ducey in 2016 override these ordinances and effectively silence the voice of local government where some of these stores operate.

“PACC911 has spoken out against puppy mills and the misery they breed long before Oprah Winfrey sent her team to Lancaster, PA, and did her exposé,” PACC911 President and Founder Bari Mears reflected. “Reaching back into our past we sponsored such activities as a puppy mill exposé with speakers Theresa Strader of Mill Dog Rescue and Chris DeRose of Last Chance for Animals. We brought in a busload of puppies rescued by Mill Dog Rescue, giving them a new lease on life as they settled in with our partner rescue groups until ready for their new adoptive homes. Many of our partners continue to take puppy mill survivors. We sponsored the independent film Days of Power, a thriller placing humans in the puppy mill environment, clearly depicting the misery they suffered.

“Now we stand with the Humane Society of the United States to unite our partners against those pet stores still acquiring their animals from these inhumane and unacceptable breeding factories,” Mears passionately states. “We must be their voice as a rescue community. No PACC911 partner should affiliate with pet stores that use rescues as the shield they hide behind while they help to perpetuate the misery.”

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Organized, researched, written, and submitted for publication by Don Scott