Barkworks Slanders Animal Welfare Activists and Shelter Dogs

My mom saw a sign outside of Barkworks in the Westside Pavilion today that was full of lies. Barkworks, or FARTworks, as I like to call it, is a puppy mill front. BarkJerks is just a place that sells puppies whose moms and dads are in horrible pet factories for life. I hope people go to the shelter instead or to PetFinder to find a really cool dog like me.

Hey look at Lamby! The Barkjerk jerks want you to think that shelter dogs are all abused, old, crippled, deeply psychotic and have wildly infected anal glands. Lamby is a an example of all that, isn't he? (LA shelter dog, yup, yes-sir-eeeeee) Heckova job, BarkJERKS! Stop being so creepy, will ya?

My mom's letter:

Hey Barkworks!

I was in the Westside Pavilion today and read your sign outside the store. Your interpretation of what activists think is faulty. We in the animal protection movement know exactly what a puppy mill is. It's not a small backyard breeder or a hobby breeder or a show breeder. It's a commercial breeding facility where the dogs are kept in cages for their entire lives, used as breeding machines for profit. You know what they are; you buy your stock from them. So stop trying to sugar coat the practice of buying from commercial breeding facilities by lying to your customers, making the commercial breeders sound like sweet little old ladies breeding one bitch every once in a while. It's bullshit.

You intimate in your sign that activists think it's wrong for people to breed their own pups. Newsflash! For your information, it is illegal to "breed your pup" in Los Angeles. There is a spay/neuter law. In your own sign, you prove your utter disregard for the law.

To top it off, you actually stoop low enough to attempt to deter passersby from going to the local shelter. It is unconscionable of you to actually hurt dogs' chances in our shelter system by lying to the public that the dogs are all "old" and are likely to be "abused" or have "behavioral issues." Right now, times are hard for people--thousands can no longer keep their homes and they are being forced to abandon pets in record numbers. For you to put a big sign outside your door telling people, in so many words, to NOT go to the shelter because the dogs are no good is mean-spirited.

Contrary to what you wrote, there are many purebred, young dogs who have simply been abandoned. They need homes and you shouldn't need to make them look bad in order to sell your dogs. Sadly, and you know this, if you actually had a sign about where the dogs are from, with pictures, no one would buy your dogs. What I'm saying is quite clear, plain and true: if you told the truth, customers wouldn't buy from you. Even your employees don't know what to say when asked the questions. None of them have been where the investigators go. If they went and saw, they'd quit.

In your attempt to counter-attack the educational pro-adoption movement against you by the Best Friends Animal Society, you have made yourselves look defensive. It is obvious that you do not yet know enough about the power of the animal welfare movement and how it will change your business. You might have noticed a few puppy mill fronts going out of business in Los Angeles. Maybe it's Oprah's influence, maybe it is the fact that every major national animal protection org is after the puppy mill biz, maybe it's all the USDA and AKC whistle blowers talking about the substandard conditions in the commercial breeding facilities, I don't know. One thing is for sure though: people are beginning to know the truth and pet stores will go the way of film development stores. There is nothing you can do about it. Consumers are evolving and we will continue to educate them about your crappy store and other stores like it.

I look forward to the day when you realize that there are more ethical ways to make money than from the suffering of breeding dogs. That day is coming. Times are hard, like I said, and consumers have shut their wallets this season. Have a very lousy Christmas. Everyone else is, especially the mothers of the puppies in your stores. --



Love the part where it says that individuals deserve the right to not have their information distorted. Ha! Who's distorting the truth here? Like you can't "train, develop, love, or build a life-long bond" with a dog from the pound.

Losers.