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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCathleen Powell 9.24.211 Danielle Marshall From:cathleen powell <powecl1@yahoo.com> Sent:Thursday, September 23, 2021 10:47 PM To:Council; Danielle Marshall; Angie Mathias Cc:Jill Servais; Ashly Dale; G. Cari Subject:City Council Meeting Audience Comments Heard 9/13/2021 Hello, This email is intended for members of the Renton Planning Commission as well as the Mayor of Renton, members of the Renton City Council, and all parties involved in hearing why a Humane Pet Sales Ordinance needs to be passed in Renton, please distribute. As stated in emails below and on 09/13/21, the paper trail is undeniable. At the end of this email is 5 pages of documentation from 09/01/21 that shows Puppyland does business with JAKS, a notorious holding facility for puppies sourced from puppy mills all over the United States. Here is our research....This is why Renton residents are clearly saying "Not in Our Backyard." Cathleen Powell 09/13/2021 Good Evening Mr. Mayor and City Council Members, My name is Cathleen Powell. I am a Renton Resident and a 14+ year volunteer with South County Cats, Rescue Chair for the Pacific Crest Keeshond Club, and long-time companion pet advocate. Tonight I would like to talk to you about Puppyland. I know they claim their puppies are not sourced from puppies mills but the paperwork indicates otherwise. Residents began writing to the City Council in January to discourage this type of business in Renton. I count 167 responses to date regarding the approval of a Humane Pet Sales Ordinance. All are in support of this with the exception of the people who own Puppyland, are employees of Puppyland, or their paid lobbyists. I know they claim their puppies are not sourced from puppy mills but the paperwork indicates otherwise. We have to remember that for every cute puppy they sell, and so far this year it is over 700 in Renton, there is a mom and a dad dog left behind. And here is what I know personally. My dog Lewis was rescued from a puppy mill as a young adult. He was not socialized to be a pet and was basically a feral dog. As much as people love dogs, not too many people will take on a dog like this. Our Keeshond community received 150 dogs from this CAUTION: This email originated from outside the City of Renton. Do not click links, reply or open attachments unless you know the content is safe. 2 mill over a 3 year period of time, all dogs going to experienced foster/adoptive homes to give them the best chance possible at a somewhat normal life. The puppies that are not sold in 'their prime' are left to languish at the mill and reproduce as many litters as possible. So unless adult dogs are rescued by a breed club or humane society, they are left there to live in neglect until they die or are euthanized. Oftentimes the euthanasia is not humane and although I have details on that...I won't go into it tonight. I know they claim their puppies are not sourced from puppy mills but many people on this call know otherwise and the paperwork indicates otherwise, and now you know too. We can't pretend we don't know. Council, please enact a Humane Pet Sales Ordinance so that Renton is not THAT community on the Eastside which allows this kind of business to perpetuate inhumane dog breeding through their sales practices. Thank you for your time and attention. Respectfully, Cathleen Powell, Pacific Crest Keeshond Club, Rescue Chair 201 Union Avenue SE, Renton WA, 425-761-0302, powecl1@yahoo.com ***** Date: 09/13/2021 To: City of Renton City Council From: Jill Servais, jillservais@gmail.com My name is Jill Servais and I live in North Renton. Thank you for your dedication to the city of Renton and its residents. I have spoken to the planning commission several times, and I have written emails to all of you in the past about Puppyland. We all know the concept of “not in my backyard”. If ANY of us lived right next door to a puppy mill, we would be outraged and fighting day and night to free those poor dogs. But, because the puppies we see in the Renton store have been all spit polished and cleaned up, it's easy to forget the horrible conditions they were born into, and the parents left behind. We have the paperwork proving that Puppyland buys from many different puppy mills, the largest of which has over a thousand dogs. One of the suppliers even has the dubious distinction of being one of the “Horrible Hundred” which is the list of the worst puppy mills in the nation. This is not a small business: The owners of Puppyland Renton also own stores in Puyallup, Idaho and Texas. In 2020 alone, the Puyallup store imported over 1200 puppies. In the few months the Renton store has been open, they have imported over 700. On the Puppyland website tonight, 116 pups are listed. If you have an extra $5000-8000 laying around, you can be the proud owner of a schnoodle, a springadoodle, a shizapoo or a yuchan. If you don’t have the funds, you have 3 nothing to worry about as they have some really interesting lending options available for you, At an average cost of $5,000 per dog, that means over half a million dollars in inventory exists just between these two stores. I have been one of the Renton residents who has protested outside the store on many occasions. This past Saturday a prospective customer went in the store, then came out and came over and talked with us to get more information about why we were standing there with signs. He told me the “puppy concierge” he worked with told him that the dogs came from local breeders. He was so grateful to learn about where the puppies actually come from, and thanked us for being there. He left the parking lot with the intention to seek out a responsible, ethical, local breeder or search for a rescue dog that will become a new member of his family. Of course, that is a great experience as a volunteer and it has happened almost every time I have been protesting at the store. But…we can’t be there every day/all day. We just can’t. But the city council can do its part and ensure that we are not condoning and contributing to the puppy mill industry. I thank you very much for your time tonight…and I implore you to please spend some time looking at the documentation you will be receiving via email showing you everything you need to know about this business. Let’s tell Puppyland: NOT IN OUR BACKYARD! ***** DATE: 09/13/2021 TO: City of Renton City Council Good evening and thank you Mayor and City Council Members for this opportunity to voice my opinion. My name is Gina Cari and I am a Renton resident. I am against the sale of puppy mill puppies in our city. I am against people making a profit off the production of pets. Rather than working so hard to come up with regulations for pet sales and then trying to hold them accountable, preferably at all times, regulating and dealing with any and all infractions and going through all this rigmarole for just one store here in Renton, let’s just say no. HB1424 stops any future stores, so let’s process out this one store. Instead, let’s pass an Humane Ordinance. I just don’t know why we would want to spend so much time and effort to regulate one store? Especially since it practices predatory loans, sells puppy mill puppies which so many residents are against and is unpopular politically. Let’s keep it simple, easy, cost-effective and politically correct. Let’s follow the lead of other states and cities and enact an Humane Ordinance. Let’s protect not only the puppies but also eliminate the opportunity for our residents to be sucked into predatory loans and potentially sick puppies. Let’s do the right thing. Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Gina Cari, ginacari@hotmail.com ****** DATE: 09/13/2021 TO: City of Renton City Council 4 My name is Ashly Dale and I am the Director of Operations with Bailing Out Benji, a non- profit that researches the puppy mill industry and more specifically, their connection to pet stores. Thank you very much for allowing me to speak tonight. I have been working very closely with your Renton residents since Puppyland first opened and I can tell you, they do not support this business model. Over 50 Renton residents submitted comments to the Planning Commission in support of a humane pet store ordinance. Not one Renton resident sent in a comment in opposition. The 12 comments submitted in opposition were not from Renton residents and were from individuals who work in the pet industry. The entire council has also received numerous emails in support of humane pet store ordinance. The conditions in the store are not the issue & while the regulations the Planning Department have suggested are well intended, they do not get to the root of the problem. The problem is that Puppyland is importing and selling puppy mill puppies & locking families into high interest loans for puppies that already cost thousands of dollars. One of your very own Renton residents was sold a sixty two hundred dollar puppy and locked into a pet loan that had an APR of 98.98%. This Renton resident was going to pay over $10,000 for a puppy. We have a paper trail that proves Puppyland is importing and selling hundreds of puppy mill puppies to unsuspecting customers. Every single puppy imported by Puppyland in Renton comes from a very large USDA broker in Iowa called JAKS Puppies Inc. Brokers are middlemen between commercial breeders, more commonly known as puppy mills, and pet stores. At their last inspection, JAKS had 254 puppies at their warehouse, waiting to be transported across the country to pet stores in over 24 states. Customers who have reached out to our organization for help have allowed us to connect these puppies to large mills in 6 different Midwest states, known as the puppy mill belt. One of these facilities has over 1200 dogs on site and a history of federal violations. Another one of their suppliers was directly involved in the national puppy laundering scheme started by JAKS. Renton’s proposed regulations address the care of puppies now at the store and require additional reporting, but they do not address the suffering that goes on in puppy mills. We need the city to think about the parent dogs that are left behind and how that cute puppy in the window got there. We need the city to think about the Renton residents who are being sold sick puppies and the families that are locked into high interest loans. 5 There is no humane or ethical way to sell puppies in a pet store, which is why we are asking you to join the eight other jurisdictions in Washington that have already stopped the sale of puppies in existing pet stores. Passing an ordinance that applies to those existing pet stores is within your legal right as a city. The city of Olympia & Kitsap County had existing puppy selling stores and both passed ordinances to cut off the puppy mill pipeline. This is not about shutting down businesses as humane ordinances allow for pet stores to remain open and sell supplies & offer pet related services. This is about protecting your residents and taking a stand against cruelty. Thank you for your time. Ashly Dale, adale@bailingoutbenji.com 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15