A little pet shopof horrors

His name was Murphy and he was just seven weeks old when he died. My roommate found him early one Friday morning dead on a chair in a pool of his own urine and with his claws imbedded into the upholstery of the chair. The kitten was bought less than a week before at a pet store.

According to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a common problem in the pet shop industry is the selling of sick and injured animals to the public. My friends and I unfortunately experienced this problem fust hand. From the day be was brought home from the Family Pet Center in the Plaza of the King of Prussia mall, there just was something not right with Murphy.

Although he was actually my friends' kitten, Murphy ended up living in our apartment because of unforeseen circumstances (people in the other apartment were allergic to cats). Initially, Murphy did the typical kitten things. He chased his own tail-even though there were 20 different toys for him to play with-be jumped on our faces everyday at 6 a.m., and he purred every time someone came near him. After a few days, though, all the activity stopped. Murphy became listless. He would not eat or drink, he slept all day and night, and he threw up way more than fur balls. We called the veterinarian and she told us to bring the cat in the next day. Well, Murphy did not make it to the next day. Needless to say, my friends and I were outraged.

How can a· supposedly "Veterinarian Approved" kitten from the Family Pet Center die within a week of its purchase? Something had to be done.

With our speeches prepared and the deceased kitten nestled in a shoe box, myself and two other

Karin Letcher

friends went to the pet store. Luckily, the store was somewhat crowded and the sight of a dead kitten in a shoe box affected some of the customers. One woman, who was thinking of buying a kitten, began to cry when she heard our story and left the store and the cat behind.

Unfortunately, seeing the dead cat in the box did not have any impact upon the employees. The way they reacted to the situation was as if they had dealt with it many many times before. The manager simply handed us a form to fill out and gave us our money back. There were no apologies or explanations offered and there was no opportunity given for us to express our feelings. Well, here is my opportunity.

Although I had heard of pet shop cruelty before-the breeding, the puppy mills, the unsanitary conditions, etc.-1 never had any statistics to back up the stories. After doing some research on the Internet, I found some horrifying facts. According to PETA, 350,000 to 500,000 dogs sold to pet shops come from puppy mills each year. Puppy mills, located primarily in the Midwest, breed dogs and raise them in cramped and filthy conditions. Pet shops also receive a lot of their animals from animal dealers. These dealers acquire approximately two million of these animals by stealing them right out of pet owners' backyards. In addition, although there are various anti-cruelty codes they must obey, many pet stores do not. They keep their animals in dirty cages, not large enough for comfortable living. Do not buy animals from pet stores, especially not the Family Pet Center in the King of Prussia mall. There are so many overcrowded animal shelters out there who have an abundance of animals who need someone to love and house them. The next time you even consider purchasing a pet, think about how that cuddly puppy's parents could have been a brother and sister forced to fornicate or bow before the cute kitten came to the pet store he was in a cramped cage with a sick or even dead cat. Please just walk by the pet store and head to the nearest shelter.