cats/dogs at pet stores

During my recent hunt for cats to adopt, I noticed that pet stores no longer seem to sell cats and dogs. Any ones that do have cats and dogs are only displaying them for a local shelter.

Do cats and dogs not get sold at pet stores any more? I know they used to, years ago. Have pet stores stopped doing that? Does anybody know if any laws were passed preventing it, or perhaps the pet stores did it voluntarily in response to public outcry about puppy and kitten mills?

Anybody know the history?

some pet stores like pet city, moondoggies and smaller scale ones do. but most of them have stopped because of the public.

Two years ago, when I adopted, I was also surprised not to see pets for sale - just goes to show how long I was out of the market. I do believe chains like Petco & Petsmart support adoptions very much now - not only with in-store sponsorship of various shelters, but with financial and in-kind donations locally and nationally. I've seen news reports where truckloads of materials were sent out in emergencies, such as the California fires last year, from both companies.

I suspect the trend came in response to public revulsion to puppy mills as well as just being good business and being seen as a good corporate citizen. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of the executives actually do have their hearts in the right place, as well as doing what's right for business. Just call me Pollyanna!

There is a "pet store" near me in my rural area that sells cats/dogs/puppies/kittens. He himself is nothing more than a puppy & kitten mill.

You know, honestly, I admire the Pedigree dog food company for running those commercials the last few years (pity they don't do cat commercials). I think that alone really increased awareneness of the wonderful animals available at various shelters and breed rescue groups for the majority of people. I think there are lots of people who would avail themselves of shelters, or seek out quality breeders, but simply don't realize there's a difference between a good breeder and a back-yard breeder, or what goes on at the mills. It would be great to somehow educate the public in general more, although I think there's more of that going on in the last few years.

There are still places around here that sell animals, poor little 4 week old kittens and puppies.

I think it's illegal in one state, they only do shelter adoptions. I hope they make that nation wide.

I don't shop in stores that sell animals and encourage others not to either.

There is an independent pet food / feed store where I live (it's just down the street actually, well 1 of their 2 stores is) that sells puppies and kittens. I'm not sure where the kittens come from (accidental litters maybe?) but the puppies come from backyard breeders at best and puppy mills at worst.

Another grooming place / small pet store here that advertises teacup puppies, toy puppies, etc. and then "purebred" and domestic kittens too. The puppies are of course adorable but I could not live with myself buying a puppy in that way and from that type of place. There are many that do not understand why that is not the best choice. If you had asked me 2 years ago if I thought there was anything wrong with it, I probably wouldn't have thought so. I was just quite uneducated about the whole thing.

As for as legislation goes, I don't know of any where I live

We had some friends who bought a franchise from a pet store chain over 15 years ago. They were very nice persons who cared about animals. Every animal there was well-cared for and loved.
The chain ran into trouble because other franchise owners were not so great. To be honest. our friends had to keep the animals in cages the size of which was dictated by corporate even though they didn't want to do so.
I don't really know any pet store around here now that sells dogs or cats. If you want a purebred, there are breeders. The other pets around here were either adopted from a shelter or your yard or given to you by a neighbor.

I just know that for maybe the last 10 years I've only gotten 2 cats from the pet store, one ultimately ran away and another one is a persian/scottish fold mix that had pretty bad ring worm and a bit of an eye infection when she came home with us. She is now almost 10 years old and as fit as a fiddle but she isn't very personable and hasn't bonded with me much at all.

We also bought a sheltie from the same store around the same time and he and my persian mix were left in the store from maybe 6 weeks to 12 weeks.. before we got them so I think its left a bit of an imprint. He is a pretty nervous dog.

Yes, there are still many pet stores which sell dogs and cats. The majority of Petland stores (a chain) do sell puppies and some sell kittens as well. There is one in my area and they always have a lot of poorly bred puppies for sale for exorbitant prices. I also know of two other "puppy stores" in my area, one is called Puppy Lovers and they pretty much sell nothing but puppies. Another is a very large store called Happiness is Pets and they have 3 walls of puppy cages.

There are still ones that do, there is one in a local mall, just disgusting to me. It is always full too when I have seen it. I refuse to go in and hate that it exists. I know in another town I lived in there was a big pet supply store that sold puppies, I hate it!