Here’s a good story to start off the week, a chain of pet stores selling puppy mill dogs has finally been shutdown.
Scamps Pet Stores, a chain of five stores located in the Oregon area and known for selling sick dogs filed for bankruptcy and will not be reopening.
In Defense of Animals Northwest office is celebrating fantastic news – the recent bankruptcy and closure of Scamps Pet Stores, a chain of five puppy peddling pet stores in Oregon and Washington. For nearly a decade, IDA and other animal advocates in Portland, Oregon have been educating the public about Scamps’ scandalous business practices of selling puppy mill puppies. Using information from employee whistle blowers and former Scamps customers, IDA detailed Scamps’ reputation of selling sick and genetically “defective” puppy mill puppies, and then lying about it. IDA had an ongoing outreach campaign where advocates demonstrated outside Scamps stores.
Many news stories over the years have chronicled Scamps’ unethical practices, like Channel 8, KGW’s Ann Yeager who did an investigation late last year into Scamps knowingly selling sick puppies, educating the public to adopt companion animals from shelters rather than buy from Scamps.
All this hard work and outreach has finally paid off and consumers have sent a clear message, similar to a slogan that was printed on an early IDA t-shirt: “Scamps Pet Stores, I’m Not Buying It!” Scamps demo
News of the stores closure is spreading fast and local news outlets KOIN 6 and KGW Channel 8 have both done stories highlighting IDA’s victory. They also reported IDA’s Matt Rossell’s wrongful arrest last February while peacefully educating shoppers about puppy mills outside the Lloyd Center Mall Scamps Pet Store.
There are still many disreputable pet stores in business but at least we can subtract five from this number. And that is very good news.
