When Stephanie Gonzalez purchased a puppy from Petland Webster, a Houston area store that is part of the infamous chain of puppy mill outlets, she expected to bring a happy new family member into her home. She says she was “told that her dog Tyler came from the top 2% of breeders, that he was perfectly healthy and had just been seen by a veterinarian in the store.” She says she was “also told that his warranty would cover any needed veterinary care.”
Things started going wrong as soon as Tyler came home, according to a lawsuit against Petland; Tyler showed signs of being sick immediately after purchase and was diagnosed with giardia. "You expect a child's first experience of a pet to be a wonderful experience,” Gonzalez said. “Petland did not make that happen for us."
As it happened, Tyler had come from not a top breeder but from Blue Ribbon Puppies, a massive puppy mill broker in Indiana linked to antibiotic-resistant disease outbreaks that have sickened both animals and people.
Gonzalez wasn’t alone. Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the store reported similar experiences: Store representatives claimed the dogs were in perfect health and came from the top breeders in the country, according to the complaint, which alleged that all these statements were false. Their puppies too showed signs of sickness immediately after purchase, with conditions including parvovirus, pneumonia and giardia. Some had to be hospitalized, and one required surgery.
All these families expected to bring joy into their homes, but instead found themselves caring for their sick puppies, handling multiple veterinary appointments, and in some cases being saddled with large veterinary care bills. Courtney Abrahams had to administer five drugs to her puppy multiple times a day and use a nebulizer on the puppy three times a day.
In November 2022, attorneys with Humane World for Animals, along with Texas law firm Sico Hoelscher Harris LLP, filed this lawsuit on behalf of consumers who purchased sick dogs from Petland Webster, and the parties have just reached a confidential settlement.
With the conclusion of the lawsuit and a settlement approved by these suffering families, those impacted can start to move on. This case is part of our larger effort to support people around the country who were deceived into purchasing sick puppies they allegedly were told were healthy and from top breeders. We have worked with over a dozen plaintiffs in lawsuits against Petland across multiple states, including a lawsuit against another Petland store in Texas. Last summer we settled a case against Petland Woodlands, also in the Houston area, which involved similar claims.
We are also pursuing legislative advocacy against puppy-selling practices, so that this doesn’t happen to other families. Texas has long been a focal point for our Stop Puppy Mills campaign because it is home to more than 30 puppy-selling pet stores (only Florida has more) and is one of the states from which we have received the most puppy buyer complaints. That’s why we are putting our full support behind the Ethical Pet Sales Bills (SB 1652/HB 3458), which would ban the sale of dogs and cats in pet shops and which was recently introduced in both chambers in the Texas Legislature, with strong bipartisan support.
Public records paint a truly horrifying picture of the puppy mill cruelty that Texas puppy stores support. So often, animal welfare concerns are discarded for the sake of store profit and it is common for employees to tell customers they only source from the best breeders when nothing could be further from the truth. Some documented Texas puppy store suppliers, many with hundreds of dogs, have been cited for a long list of state and/or federal animal welfare violations, including filthy conditions, dead puppies in enclosures with live ones, cockroaches in dogs’ food, adult dogs killing puppies, dogs with severe injuries, emaciated dogs, dogs with eye or ear issues, dogs exposed to extreme heat or cold, and dogs kept in unsafe enclosures.
With the animal welfare and consumer protection concerns mentioned above, it’s no surprise that banning the sale of puppies in pet shops is a popular policy. In fact, a 2024 Remington Research Group statewide poll found that “voters overwhelmingly line up against the actions of Petland and would support a law to stop them from selling puppies in Texas.” About three quarters of those surveyed voiced support of the policy, and notably, Republican voters in particular expressed “staunch opposition to the sale of puppy mill-bred puppies in pet stores.”
The biggest pushback to the Ethical Pet Sales Bills is the perceived impact on local businesses, but there is overwhelming evidence that no pet shop needs to sell puppies to be profitable, and this legislation gives pet shops ample time to transition to more humane business models. Petland’s eight stores in Texas don’t even need to look outside the company to see that this is true; 12 Petland stores throughout the nation do not sell puppies, focusing instead on products and services along with the sale of other small animals.
The number of Texas pet stores that endorse the Ethical Pet Sales Bills far outnumber those still clinging to an outdated model of selling puppy mill puppies. The 50-plus Texas pet stores that have signed on in support of this legislation, and hundreds more that also do not sell puppies, show that the business-friendly vote on this legislation is the one that rids the industry of the puppy mill stain.
Texas residents can urge their state lawmakers to support the Ethical Pet Sales Bills. And everyone can demand that Petland stop selling puppies.
