Live Pet stores

A pet store at Westfield Carindale in Queensland has been shamed into action because of a photograph that appeared on social media. The photograph was of a puppy for sale by one of their retailers that was injured and clearly in need of care and should not have been on display in a glass box.

You can see the terrible photo here. Westfield released a statement that said, “We have raised this with the retailer and they have advised us that the dog has been inspected by a vet and was removed from the store this evening.”

But where did this puppy come from and what does 'removed' mean? And why would a large corporate global shopping centre chain want people to impulse purchase pets in their centres in any case?

This is 2014. We know too much about the cruel practises of puppy farming to just stand by and turn a blind eye to pet stores and breeders profiting from selling small creatures. Puppy factories are condemned by the RSPCA as being nothing more than "breeding machines used for profit" - where hundreds of animals are kept in tiny, filthy cages and not allowed to play freely.

The decision to take on a pet should not be made while watching a 8 week old puppy behind some glass for 10 minutes.

If Westfield Australia takes a stand on this issue and no longer lets their tenants sell any live animals in their shopping centres, they will be saying that they care about ending the uncertainty for so many animals and they don't support puppy farming and they do support responsible pet ownership.

Perhaps Westfield could have partnerships with rescue groups to educate their customers on adopting a pet and the huge responsibility that comes with it.