Pet Store Gets Humane Facelift

by Stephanie Feldstein · 2010-03-31 11:00:00 UTC
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In an upscale Los Angeles shopping center, Woof Worx offers a full service pet spa, boutique items, and gourmet dog treats. You might expect them to also sell puppy mill bred designer dogs along with all that couture ... But you'd be wrong.

Woof Worx participates in the Best Friends Animal Society "Puppies Aren't Products" Campaign, taking a stand against puppy mill cruelty and overbreeding. All of their dogs come from shelters in the Los Angeles area, and once they arrive at the store, they're spoiled with vet care, toys, beds, cage-free play areas, and lots of human attention.

This storefront wasn't always a happy place for puppies and animal activists. The spot used to belong to Pets of Bel Air, which was notorious for selling puppy mill dogs to celebrities like Britney Spears and Denise Richards.

In late 2007, Pets of Bel Air became a target of a Humane Society of the United States investigation, which resulted in the store being shut down by L.A. Animal Services for not having proper permits or vet records. The store's troubles didn't end there. Pets of Bel Air was fined $4.8 million dollars for selling dogs obtained from puppy mills when they specifically claimed that their dogs were all from private breeders. (Although I'm happy with the judgment, as I've said before, any breeder who sells their dogs through a pet store is breeding for profit and is therefore a puppy mill by definition.)

Pets of Bel Air permanently closed its doors and, in a bit of karmic retribution, Woof Worx took its place. The story gets even better. As L.A. Unleashed reported last week, the owner of Woof Worx is the former manager of Pets of Bel Air, fully converted from puppy mill peddler to adoption advocate.

Jamie Katz was frustrated by the condition of the dogs that the Bel Air store was selling. "They often got sick in transit. They would put hundreds of puppies on a semi, and if one got sick, they all got sick. I tried to fix the problems, but it's hard when you are the only one trying." But once the store grabbed the attention of the national animal welfare organizations, Katz was no longer alone in protesting the store's support of cruel breeding factories.

She finally got the chance to give the store a humane facelift, and it's been a huge success. In one year, she's found homes for 200 shelter dogs. "People up here can absolutely afford an expensive dog, but it's about doing what's right," Katz said. "People are falling in love with the rescues we are saving."

Photo credit: FreeWine

Stephanie Feldstein is a Change.org Editor who has been part of the animal welfare and rescue community for over a decade, and most recently worked for an environmental organization.
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