Panama

Panama provides another sad but excellent example why no one should ever buy a dog from a store that sells puppies, like Petland and others.  Those stores are just funnels for puppy mill puppies.  It may be hard to imagine that there are still people who haven't heard the message about Internet puppy sales and petstore puppies, but there are a lot of people who don't know.  You, or a friend or family member, might be one of them.

Panama was purchased at a petstore as a Mother's Day gift.  He was sickly and grew thinner and thinner.  By the time he was surrendered to us he was deep in the throes of parvo.

Responsible breeders understand that very young puppies are less likely to receive the benefit of parvo virus vaccine--ironically, this is thanks to the mother's antibodies the puppies receive in the first day of nursing.  But rather than keep a puppy until it's likely that his vaccine has "taken" (12-18 weeks is best), the miller sends his puppy out at 5 or 6 weeks, when there's a 75% chance that any vaccine the puppy has had for parvo will be ineffective.   Every day a puppy spends in the miller's cage is a day he's not bringing in profits.  And who knows if the miller vaccinates their puppies at all?  Vaccines cost money.  Vaccines bite into profits.

Two vets agreed, after looking at Panama's test results and his condition, that the likelihood that he'd survive was very slim indeed.  The board of directors agreed to allow him to cross the bridge rather than prolong his suffering.

Panama was only 10 weeks old. 

Remember Panama, and his unseen but suffering mother, when you are tempted to buy a puppy from a petstore.  All puppies in petstores, with very few exceptions, are the products of puppy mills.  Don't support the puppy mill industry.  Don't support the petstores that serve as the puppy mills' outlets.

Remember Panama.

With sadness,
The Frog Princess