Imagine spending thousands of dollars for a puppy and seeing the delight in your children’s eyes as they cuddle their new family member, only to find yourself in a veterinary emergency room days later, with your puppy on an IV, struggling to live. Worse, imagine that beloved animal dying just over three weeks later.
A true story where a former employee spoke about the alleged animal abuse.
When you see something that isn’t right – you should speak up. Just like what Katelyn Cerciello did.
Katelyn had only worked at the Robinson Petland in Robinson Township, Pennsylvania for one month when she saw that the owner did not take good care of the sick puppies.
Instead, the puppies were sent to be euthanized. In addition, the owner would charge hundreds of dollars to sell puppies from puppy mills to the general public.
She approached the owner, but he refused to change his ways.
“You could tell they were sick,” she recalled, “9-week-old puppies should be bouncing and playing, but they’d be lying on the floor.”
“I kept telling him something needs to be done, and he wouldn’t do anything,” she added.
And because she “couldn’t watch the owner, refuse vet care for sick puppies anymore, ship them back to the Hunte Corporation to be euthanized, or in general sell puppy-mill puppies for thousands of dollars to the unknowing public.”
So, Katelyn took to Facebook. She wrote a long post describing the horrors she saw every day at the store. Katelyn also included pictures to prove her complaints.
Cerciello has documented her own experiences at Petland on her blog and her Facebook page.
She began on Facebook saying, “I ended my job at Petland in Robinson, after only a month, and let me show everyone why.”
Katelyn said she would go home in tears, with a heavy heart, many times behind what she witnessed.
“I came home in tears, more than a few times because my heart was so heavy for these poor animals. Everything negative that has been heard about this pet store is true I’m sure, if not even worse.”
The ex-employee makes no claims of being an “extreme activist for animal rights” but said it is a wonder the chain is still in business. She stated: “I have been involved in animal husbandry and breeding for many years, and have never seen a set-up like Petland. Hopefully the public will soon start to understand the cruelty that goes on at this store and refuse to buy from them. This store needs to be shut down as soon as possible.”
During her brief employment with Petland, Katelyn captured a number of photos, which she later published in a post that quickly went viral. One of the pictures showed a mouse-filled cage. A dead mouse lay in the corner, and several others had skin that had been bloodied and bitten raw. The woman said that 65 mice—20 infants and 45 adults—were housed in a single 20-gallon tank. Cerciello also said: “Rather than separating the mice by sex, the owner allows them to breed and puts the babies in a plastic bag, in the freezer alive, to sell as snake food.”
Another image the woman shared showed a Maltese dog from a breeder who has received unsatisfactory USDA inspections. Nonetheless, they maintain that the franchise is not a puppy mill. When describing the canines’ abuse, Cerciello stated that one of the employees advised her to run around with the dog because a sick-looking Petlanddog would not sell.
The ex-employee stated that the dog required veterinary care, but instead received an I.V. Prior to her resignation, the woman claimed that the store received an order of puppies that were three dogs short because the puppies died in transit.
The viral post also included a picture of a hamster with a cut paw. Cerciello asserts that she administered antibiotic ointment to the hamster herself after the staff allegedly neglected the animal’s wound. After taking a day off, the woman went back to the shop and discovered the hamster’s cage was empty and that nobody knew what had happened to it.
When reached for comment Jeff Koury, the proprietor of the Robinson Township Petland, claimed that the images were all fake. However, numerous pet owners have come forward with comparable claims regarding animals bought from the business since the abuse post went viral. According to Koury, the shop is current with both the American Kennel Club and the dog warden. The viral post alleging Petland of animal maltreatment is creating a media frenzy across the board. To permanently stop the chain, a petition has been started.
“I just want people to know what actually happens there, what they’re spending thousands of dollars on.” Katelyn Cerciello said, standing up her ground when she was called a liar.
Watch the video below:
Sources: Taphaps, Opposingviews, Thedodo
Leave a Comment