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Buying dogs from pet stores: What questions should you ask?

NORTH READING, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- If you're thinking about buying a puppy from a store instead of straight from a local breeder, there are some questions you need to ask first. And it all ties in to a battle going on between animal activists and store owners that will end up on Beacon Hill.

Before grooming dogs Nonie Horton sold them, and says she just didn't want to do it anymore.

"It's a product, it's a product," she said.

She worked in a local pet store for almost three decades, and says anyone who works in a shop like that loves animals and tries to take care of them, "but at the end of the day they're coming out of puppy mills."

You might not realize many pet stores use puppy distributors, who buy from large commercial breeders out of state. And local activists say some of those breeders violate animal welfare standards.

The Mass. Coalition to end puppy mills comes armed with US Department of Agriculture inspections reports.

Courtney Derochea of Rockland said, "This was a formal citation from the USDA and you have gone to the next step of saying stores here have bought from this breeder, and still do."

But many customers don't think to check the paperwork, unless there's a problem.

North Reading resident Lianna McDougal has purchased two new puppies in a matter of months. Their last suffered liver failure 12 days after McDougal picked her up.

"We noticed the dog was throwing up, lethargic," she said.

Vets did not pinpoint the cause, but the family now wonders if it had anything to do with where the puppy came from.

"For the heck of it, googling worst puppy mills in the US and where our dog is from is supposedly one of the worst," she said.

We found the ASPCA lists that breeder online as having numerous USDA violations for keeping dogs in unsanitary conditions back in 2012.

Robert Mellace, owner of Pet Express said the breeder's name didn't "ring a bell."

The family who owns the store where they bought the dog says they check the breeders used by their distributor every week for any USDA violations, and make sure they aren't on the humane society's list of bad breeders either.

"We don't, at this time, buy from anybody on that list. Not to say that in the future or past if that breeder was in compliance we didn't buy from them," Mellace said.

In recent years, cities and towns in at least 20 states have passed some type of legislation either banning the sale of puppies in pet stores, or setting standards and there's now a bill on Beacon Hill pushing for tighter provisions.

Rep. Bruce Ayers of Quincy said, "How that would work is they would require the pet stores to have a USDA tag, the breeder, the broker and more information on the animal, and reimbursements they could be paid back from vet bills."

Mellace says his store already does that.

"If it's about puppy mills you wanna take down I'll stand in the picket line with you," Mellace said. "If you wanna abolish pet stores and they're the only regulated option I'm going to fight you and do everything to educate consumers and protect them."

Pet stores argue if they're put out of business these breeders will turn to selling puppies online, making it even harder to regulate. The bottom line is, you should always ask for the USDA reports on any dog you buy to make sure the breeder is following standards. Or just adopt.