I did go to Petland on Saturday October 23, 1999, and the picture was enough to cause me to shed tears more than once. One of the "counselors" bragged to me that they had 70 puppies available for sale. This same "counselor" gave me a recommendation that I purchase a Min Pin when I had explained that I wanted a "medium size, very laid-back dog". So much for their expert help and knowledge.....

I attempted to hand out literature on puppy/kitten mills and was screamed at by the manager. This man is irrational and a liar. You will all be happy to know that Petland doesn't sell puppy mill puppies/kittens, they come from individual breeders! But of course he wouldn't furnish any names so that I could check out these so-called "breeders" with breed clubs!

He also told me that I had to leave the parking lot because his lease stipulated that the parking area in front of the store (all the way to the Sonic) belonged to Petland. This was another lie, as verified by 2 Lewisville Police Officers (more on that later!). In short this is a man who is not going to allow anyone or any amount of animal suffering to interfere with his profits.

After his yelling and screaming in my face as I tried to pass out literature, I left and went to Wal-Mart in Lewisville, where I purchased a poster sized "foam board" and some 4" red letters. I went back to Petland and quickly made a sign that read "STOP PUPPY MILLS -- DON'T BUY HERE". While there I spoke with Joyce, Shelley & Ronda from HART, who had had much the same experiences earlier in the day. After they left, I proceeded to a parking space in front of the building where I held the sign aloft and handed out materials on puppy/kitten mills to those who asked. Enter the store manager, once again screaming "You were warned once", and telling me to get out, that I was ignorant, and did I even have a college degree? My answer to that was "Yes, an MBA with a 4.0, what have you got besides a tendency to exploit animals for profit?" A customer leaving the store then approached him and asked his name and name of the Petland district manager so that she could report him for his rudeness to me, she explained that she had been a Petland customer for years in Florida before moving to Texas and that this was America and I had a right to free speech. He began screaming at her "IT'S ME, IT'S ME, I'm the district manager". She then asked who he reported to and he screamed at her "The President of the company and you haven't been a customer or you'd know that what she says isn't true." With this kind of public relations, this jerk should put himself out of business soon!

Now for the police part, when I refused to leave the second time he began screaming at me that he would call the police & I would go to jail. I told him that the police department had all ready responded that they could not force someone who was breaking no laws to leave public property. He left and called the police. Officer JT Carey #351 and Officer T. Barrett #346 of the Lewisville Police Department responded. Officer Carey came and spoke with me, he explained that he and the other officer were currently checking the "parking lot lease" story and would return to let me know the "parameters" of Petland's property. I continued to hold the sign aloft and passed out 2 more sets of my puppy/kitten mill literature. Officer Carey returned and said that Petland in fact has no claim to the parking lot, and that he could not tell me to leave.

Officer Carey also told me that the manager had accused me of "screaming and yelling" at his customers. I responded that no such thing had happened, I had only given information to those that had asked. Both police officers took a copy of my puppy/kitten mill literature and asked that I not go into the store. They stayed and observed for about 15 minutes, when they left, so did I. ~Wanda Brawner savapaw@ix.netcom.com

We would love to see them hold AAP's and support rescue and hopefully they are intelligent enough to see they error of what they are doing and will have a change of heart. As it stands, it appears all they are interested in is the almighty dollar.

As of August 13,00, Robert Payne, manager, has not upheld his promises to the media to start holding AAP's or inviting area rescue to have AAP's at his store.

Petland employee, Bobby Carper sent an email to me last week saying "I LOVE SELLING DOGS!!!!!!!!!!!!" In my opinion this speaks volumes of truth......what do you think?