Animals Aren’t Products is a project consisting of high profile public education campaigns against pet stores that sell animals. We are always looking for volunteers to participate in peaceful educational outreach/demonstrations or to start new campaigns. Please email animalsarentproducts@gmail.com for more information.
Animal Mills
Never buy a companion animal from a pet shop. The vast majority of animals sold in pet shops are raised in horrendous animal mills. There the parents of the animals sold in stores spend their lives in tiny cages where the females are bred over and over again until they die, are sold to laboratories or brutally killed. The mothers and their litters often suffer from exposure, malnutrition, disease, and lack of veterinary care.
Young animals, often too young to be pulled from their mothers, are shipped from mill to broker to pet shop in pickup trucks, tractor trailers and sometimes planes, packed in crates with inadequate food. One operator stated that if an animal arrives dead, the pet shop proprietor simply cuts off the ear, mails it back to the mill breeder and a new puppy or kitten is shipped out. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is the “Puppy Mill Capital of the East Coast”.
More information on animal mills can be found by searching online for the name of the species paired with the world "mill", for example, "bird mill", "ferret mill", "puppy mill".
When You Buy a Shelter Animal Dies!
By selling animals, pet stores and breeders contribute to the ever growing homeless animal crisis. Each year, millions of dogs, cats and other animals are killed in shelters because there are not enough good homes. Right here in the Philadelphia area, our shelters kill countless dogs each year. Area shelters and rescues have healthy, temperament - tested, animals ready for adoption.
Almost every companion animal species has a rescue group. Most breeds of dogs and cats have their own rescue groups. On the internet, you can find these groups simply by searching online and typing in the animal or breed and the words “rescue group”. A comprehensive list of adoption resources is available from Petfinder.com.
You will even find rescue groups for other animal species such as the Pennsylvania Ferret Rescue Association , Wings of Hope Bird Rescue and Sanctuary, Rat Chick Rat Rescue and Pig Placement Network.
Please note that we are neither a shelter or rescue organization.