One person at a time

It was another great day at the protest. Sure are lots of horns honking
in support lately, and we were pleasantly surprised by a visit from the
Norwalk Hour newspaper who covered our group with a front page article last month.

He’s doing a follow up. We look forward to the story and thank him for his interest in our cause.

We also enjoy when people come out to speak with us as we always learn something. A woman came out to berate us because her puppies (she bought 5!) are all healthy and happy. Once again, the customers are absolutely missing the point! Why are these people refusing to acknowledge that their puppies’ parents are most likely none too happy or healthy. Dogs that are baby making machines from their first heat cycle to the day they can no longer reproduce. People can totally ignore that aspect, but as dogs have become part of our families, why is it so easy to forget about the plight of the puppies’ families? Out of sight, out of mind perhaps?

This woman went on and on and we tried to educate her - not sure we got through - but it helps us fine tune our message and figure out how best to target our efforts... She claimed it was sad we were out there trying to destroy someone’s business, while the truth is we’re sad that puppy mills are supplying these businesses, and those dogs are kept in conditions our community would absolutely not tolerate if they were seen first-hand. We’re just sad there is an outlet for the puppy mill industry right here in Westport as well as Norwalk, Danbury and everywhere else.

There’s plenty of room in the $43 billion pet industry to make money - businesses can and are prospering without inflicting cruelty on our beloved canine friends. We only wish all stores were more truthful about the sources of the live animals they sell. No doubt, there will always be people who buy pet store puppies anyway regardless of where the pups came from because in the end it seems instant gratification is the name of the game. The suffering behind the scenes seems to be acceptable to alot of people, the cost of doing business.. But why do puppy moms have to pay the price? They will NEVER have the opportunity to live inside someone’s loving home.