Karen Clayton and her team of 16 volunteers have spent every weekend for the past year and a half at the Westfield Plaza Bonita Mall in National City protesting the Puppy Patch store.
The Puppy Patch sells puppies of all shapes and sizes from $2,000 to $5,000 and even offers their customers financing opportunities.
Clayton, a cofounder of the nonprofit Southern California Companion Animal Defenders has successfully encouraged eight cities throughout the county to implement an ordinance banning retail pet stores who source their puppies from puppy mills.
The Southern California Companion Animal Defenders has taken their fight to National City where last year the city council voted to allow the operation of retail pet shops. Clayton wants National City leaders to reconsider their stance and enforce a ban allowing retail pet stores in National City.
“I would like National City to put an ordinance in place—just like the rest of the cities—that if they’re going to be in business they must source their dogs from shelter or rescues rather than having them trucked in from the Midwest,” she said. “Reputable breeders don’t sell to pet stores.”
Clayton and her team split three-hour shifts on the weekends holding signs that read: “Never buy a puppy from a pet store,” “Google Puppy Mills,” “ and “Where is the mother of that pet store puppy?” Clayton’s group has collected nearly 11,000 signatures from patrons of Plaza Bonita Mall voicing their displeasure of the mall allowing a retail pet store to open. Clayton estimates that of those gathered signatures, about 10 percent of them come from National City residents.
Clayton said currently there are four pet stores in the county of San Diego, two of them in North County and the other two in National City.
Clayton said she is against pet stores that sell puppies sourced from puppy mills because of the horrible living conditions the animals are put through. Clayton said the mother’s of the puppies are only used to birth puppies and are left for dead when they can no longer produce. She also said the dogs are locked in a cage that is no more than six inches bigger than their body and suffer through the summer heat and cold winters.
The government regulates the multi-million dollar puppy mill industry but Clayton said that is misleading.
“They come from commercial breeding facilities that are regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture, which to the novice person sounds reputable,” Clayton said. “People that don’t know this issue that makes it sounds like a good thing, and it actually is not a good thing. The USDA considers these dogs as livestock because the USDA, they takes care of cows, chickens and pigs and farm animals…”
Clayton said the government regulation is very sparse.
For Southern California Companion Animal Defenders to protest peacefully at Plaza Bonita they must get permission from the mall. Clayton said as part of the protest her group is not allowed to walk around the mall or hand out flyers.
Clayton said as mall patrons approach her to ask about her protest most are upset that the city would allow this business, some are surprised to hear about puppy mills and very few tell her off.
“We are educating hundreds of people every weekend, hundreds,” she said.
National City Councilman Albert Mendivil said he respects Clayton’s right to protest and is researching puppy mills for himself. He said he does not support puppy mills but originally voted against the ban of retail pet stores because he has not found proof that puppies from these stores actually come from puppy mills.
“I 100 percent support not having stores that sell puppies from puppy mills,” he said. “The question is do they in fact sell puppies from puppy mills?”
The owner of Puppy Patch could not be reached for comment.
