AHHHH! Vacation over
Vacations are the best and when you get to spend them in one of your all time favorite spots, they are even better.
I fell in love with Key West long before it became the tourist mecca it is today. They have a tolerance for everyone, even the strange and weird folks you may see walking the streets and almost all the people who live there own a pet. Whether a cat or dog, pets are very accepted in Key West and most people take very good care of them. All the cats I saw out wandering were neutered and there were not piles of poop laying around where people didn't pick up after their dogs.
I saw two cute pit mixes with some young women and an obnoxious black lab who needed to be neutered. (which I advised his owner when the dog lunged at me, not viciously, but a lunge just the same). The prerequisite foo foo dogs were being carried around in purses or having dinner served to them at many of the outdoor eating establishments. I read in the paper every day a public service announcement with combined shelters and their dogs asking people to adopt and to spay and neuter and just when I thought how wonderful it all was, I passed a new store on Duval Street.
Dogs on Duval is a pet store where you can BUY puppies. In the window playing were an English Bulldog, a Boston Terrier, a Yorkie, a Pomeranian, a Springer Spaniel and several others. All purebred and all from puppy mills I am sure. Now the store also carried all things for dogs, but the draw was the puppies. When I got home I checked out their website, which does not say they sell puppies, but rather all the other things available. I know the puppies are the draw to get people into the store, but c'mon, they could use mutt puppies, which are just as cute. There are many shelters in the Keys which have mutts.
So, check out www.dogsonduval.com and then drop them a note and let them know you are disgusted they are selling puppies. Tourists spend loads of money in Key West and many of those tourists are animal lovers. Ask them to use shelter dogs and not puppy mill puppies. I did.
I fell in love with Key West long before it became the tourist mecca it is today. They have a tolerance for everyone, even the strange and weird folks you may see walking the streets and almost all the people who live there own a pet. Whether a cat or dog, pets are very accepted in Key West and most people take very good care of them. All the cats I saw out wandering were neutered and there were not piles of poop laying around where people didn't pick up after their dogs.
I saw two cute pit mixes with some young women and an obnoxious black lab who needed to be neutered. (which I advised his owner when the dog lunged at me, not viciously, but a lunge just the same). The prerequisite foo foo dogs were being carried around in purses or having dinner served to them at many of the outdoor eating establishments. I read in the paper every day a public service announcement with combined shelters and their dogs asking people to adopt and to spay and neuter and just when I thought how wonderful it all was, I passed a new store on Duval Street.
Dogs on Duval is a pet store where you can BUY puppies. In the window playing were an English Bulldog, a Boston Terrier, a Yorkie, a Pomeranian, a Springer Spaniel and several others. All purebred and all from puppy mills I am sure. Now the store also carried all things for dogs, but the draw was the puppies. When I got home I checked out their website, which does not say they sell puppies, but rather all the other things available. I know the puppies are the draw to get people into the store, but c'mon, they could use mutt puppies, which are just as cute. There are many shelters in the Keys which have mutts.
So, check out www.dogsonduval.com and then drop them a note and let them know you are disgusted they are selling puppies. Tourists spend loads of money in Key West and many of those tourists are animal lovers. Ask them to use shelter dogs and not puppy mill puppies. I did.
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