PMFR Press Releases

The special meeting has been called to address the recent Grand Jury indictments handed down to the husband and wife team at the only puppy store left in Reno, Puppies Plus on Neil Rd. and S. Virginia, charging the duo with felonious animal abuse, practicing veterinary medicine without a license and withholding medical attention from animals including causing the death of a puppy.

Puppy Mill Free Reno has long called for the closing of such stores. In 2013, the Reno City Council passed a 6 month moratorium on issuing new puppy store licenses, but it expired with no action, frustrating council members and the public alike when staff informed the City they couldn't pass a ban on such stores due to the "Interlocal Agreement" of 2005 wherein Reno ceded all animal ordinances to the County. Puppy Mill Free Reno had hoped the now-common ban would have been placed in business licensing, but City of Reno and County staff pushed back with the City saying they can't do it and the County saying they don't have jurisdiction over businesses in the City of Reno.

Mounting public pressure in 2015, organized by Puppy Mill Free Reno, precipitated the closing of the puppy store in Meadowood Mall. The owner switched to a pet adoption store and eventually closed down completely.

Throughout the world, 351 such bans have been enacted including the entire country of England. In the US, 329 bans have passed including the entire states of California and Maryland. Five other states have the ban up for vote in the Fall or early next year: Arizona, Oregon, New York, Pennsylvania and New York. North Las Vegas and Mesquite, Nevada, have also passed bans in the state, according to Puppy Mill Free Reno's sister site, Puppy Mill Free US, puppymillfree.us.

The issue of whether to keep these pet shop open or close them down will be debated by the Council members.

County staff have pushed a basket of new regulations they hope to regulate the stores with.

"Those regulations were proposed to us back in 2013-14 and they are only now coming online, 5-6 years later?" said Billy Howard, lead organizer for Puppy Mill Free Reno.

"Our 20,000 signatures amassed in the summer of 2013-14 clearly show the public doesn't want anymore regulations. We don't want another block of language stuffed into the municipal code. We don't want more loopholes for these Little Pet Shops of Horror to jump through. What the clear majority of the public wants is these stores closed down once-and-for-all and permanently."

"Reno has a duel identity of being rough and tough, a tumbledown city with an old west mentality. 'Nobody's going to tell us what to do.' Yet when I arrived on a flight from Las Vegas recently, the mayor greeted us on a video recording touting Reno as a progressive city. So which will it be when the Council votes? Save the pups and kittens like the entire progressive state of California has done, or "By God, nobody's going to tell us what to do! Puppy stores can remain, tortured, sick and dead puppies be damned!"

Recent Grand Jury indictments were handed down to the husband and wife team at the only puppy store left in Reno, Puppies Plus on Neil Rd. and S. Virginia.

The couple are accused of animal torture and negligence resulting in the death of a puppy in their care who did not receive proper veterinary care before his death. Indictments also accuse the pair of telling their employees to inject dogs with liquids and other medical treatments that require a veterinary license to perform which neither possess.

Puppy Mill Free Reno begs anyone who cares about this issue to come to the meeting, fill out a Public Comment form and stand up and speak out for those that do not have a voice. You may speak for as many as 3 minutes or simply just say, "I'm in favor of closing these stores permanently."

"The bigger the crowd, the bigger the celebration when we finally get what we've been asking for since 2013!" says Howard.

If community members are not able to attend the meeting, PuppyMillFreeReno.com will link to an online public comments form that will be submitted on the record at the meeting. The link will go up as soon as the agenda is posted.

— # # # —

And here we are, yet again, with Reno in the national spotlight for torturing puppies and kittens.

From 2013-2016 we stood before you with our 20,000 mostly local signatures verified by your Clerk, with a parade of local business people asking to end the sale of dogs and cats in retail stores as they are all sourced from the reprehensible puppy mill business model that is the way each and every one of these stores work.

I speak for the vast majority of our community when we say:

No more new regulations.
No more new language stuffed into muni code.
No more loopholes for these Little Pet Shops of Horror to jump through.
No more taxpayer money thrown at a problem that is never going away.

Because the worst issue in this whole hot mess is not that monsters take it upon themselves to inject little dogs and cats with "liquid" under their skin and leave them to die unaided in their suffering.

The county regulations don't address the fact that all of these animals are supplied from a puppy mill industry where thousands of animals languish in a life of suffering:

• no exercise
• no fresh air
• little to no veterinary care
• never a kind word
• not a single fond caress or pat on the head

As they are machines incarcerated for one purpose only:

To make a few bucks off of each and every of their offspring which they are required to create at every possible breeding cycle until they die and are tossed aside living in wire cages that the USDA does not require to be any more than 6 inches from the ends of their noses.

This travesty and blot on Reno's reputation did not need to happen.

Please end the suffering in these Little Pet Shops of Horror.

Once and for all.

Revoke the license of these cold hearted-monsters in our midst now.

End the sale of puppies and kittens in retail stores like 326 other cities and counties across the country have, including the entire state of California and the entire country of England.

• From the appalling conditions our country's USDA regulations find acceptable to raise and keep these dogs, cats, rabbits and other pet store provider animals in.

• From the retail stores making tremendous profit off the backs of these suffering animals along with the usurious financing pushed on families, couples and singles who just want a companion.

• To the documented illnesses, bad behavior and short-lives many of these factory-farm-produced animals additionally cost their families.

Puppy Mill Free Reno says, CLOSE THESE STORES DOWN!

The local puppy stores have a long history of bad business, as witnessed by the Better Business Bureau long-standing rating of "F," the lowest possible score. BBB ratings are not social "likes." These are documented cases where the BBB interacts with customers and gets a response from the business. Their ratings are based on facts. And "F" is the fact here.

Our elected officials have been slow to make the needed change, even as a puppy store in Meadowood Mall was closed due to mounting public pressure. Even as Puppy Mill Free Reno amassed 20,000 mostly local signatures and garnered much local business support TO CLOSE THESE STORES DOWN!

How?

Sadly, the City of Sparks welcomed "with open arms" the Schneider's store when it looked like Reno was poised to pass a ban on such nefarious businesses. Perhaps now some of those City Council activists who pushed these ne'er-do-wells on their city will have a change of heart and join so many other cities in the country who have PUT A STOP to these despicable practices once-and-for-all.

Puppy Mill Free Reno now DEMANDS the cities of Reno and especially Sparks, join the rest of the 350 progressive cities, counties, states and even 1 country around the world (327 in the US, according to our sister site Puppy Mill Free.us) that have said NO TO PUPPY STORES!

We are tired of the wait. We are tired of the heartbreak. SHUT DOWN THESE STORES NOW!

To add your name to our petitions to Reno and Sparks City Councils to pass a ban on the retail sales of dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets, long-lived birds and large reptiles go to

PuppyMillFreeReno.com

— # # # —