Animal House Prepares To Close

A local business that's recently been the centre of attention following accusations and vandalism in Okotoks will be closing its doors.

The Animal House was the target of an act of vandalism involving spray paint where the words "puppy mill" were painted across the store front and the eyes of the animals on the building were crossed out with x's.

Ty Marshall, owner of Animal House, says the puppy mill allegations against his store began in spring 2015 when his store began selling puppies and says the puppies come from breeders that he sees as being "up to par" and meet his standards.

"I want the healthiest puppies because I'm attaching a guarantee to those puppies, a health guarantee, so if I can't stand behind the puppies that I'm getting then I would have no interest in dealing with those breeders."

He adds he tries to work with the breeders so if there's something he doesn't agree with they'll change it and says there hasn't been any major issues with them in terms of the housing or care of the dogs. Any recommendations he's made to them he says have been minor like suggesting different types of dog food.

Wanda Terry, member of the group Albertans Against Puppy Mills and representative of the Facebook group Boycott Animal House Okotoks, says she's had several customers of the Animal House contact the group saying they've purchased ill animals from the business, and have been stuck with outrageous vet bills, brought puppies home that have been extremely sick, or they've been in the store and don't like what they've seen in regards to the health and welfare of the animals.

She says reputable breeders do not sell to pet stores.

"Reputable breeders do health checks, lineage checks, they have contracts you have to sign in order to even get one of their pups. You don't just walk in and out with a credit card so these are our concerns."

Marshall says the SPCA responds to every complaint they receive and have been in his store consistently every couple of weeks.

"There's never been any problems, they've had some recommendations and, throughout the history of me owning the store, we've never had a problem as far as following through with any recommendations so at this point there has been no issues with them."

According to Roland Lines, Communications Manager for the Alberta SPCA, the Animal House has never been formally charged.

Marshall says staff begin their day at Animal House early in the morning by checking and cleaning the puppies, and feeding, watering, and exercising them before the store opens.

He adds his staff have gone through a great deal of harassment.

"They've been scared to come to work. Some of the staff have had their boyfriends hanging out at the store during their entire shift just to feel more comfortable, they've been threatened that they're going to get beat up, people were saying they were going to meet in the parking lot and come in and steal all the puppies, they were going to bring baseball bats, then steady phone calls, just nasty phone calls coming through to them."

In regards to the vandalism and bullying to the store's staff, Terry says she was shocked as the group has never condemned or supported those types of actions or abuse towards staff and assures residents it wasn't a member of the Facebook group.

She says the group hasn't asked Marshall to close the store but rather to adopt different practices and discontinue the retail selling of puppies and kittens.

"There's no reason why he cannot still have a thriving business, open his doors to a rescue group and have adopt-a-thons on weekends and that still draws the public and brings business in, and you're not bringing in 57 puppies and having them crammed in wire crates and sleeping in not so sanitary looking conditions at times."

There's currently no set closing date for Animal House but Marshall says the store will officially close once all the animals have found homes and employees have found new jobs.