Protest At Park Pet Shop Planned For Saturday

CHICAGO, IL — Leaders of The Puppy Mill Project and other animal rights activists will be in Mt. Greenwood this weekend to protest a local pet store they say sells puppies from puppy mills and is in violation of a two-year-old law in the city of Chicago banning the practice. But Jim Sparks Jr., owner of Park Pet Shop at 10429 S. Kedzie Ave., says his store has never been associated with puppy mills since opening in the late 1950s.

"Their premise that the dogs sourced here come from mills is false," Sparks Jr. said. "What the Puppy Mill Project determines as a puppy mill and what we do are two different things."

"Our loyal customers actually have a petition going against puppy mills... I almost want to go out there (to the protest) and picket with them against puppy mills."

But Cari Meyers, founder of The Puppy Mill Project, says the peaceful protest planned to start at noon outside the shop on Saturday, Oct. 14 comes years after the owner was offered a chance to work with Meyers on finding rescue dogs to "sell" at his business.

"Nothing he says is true," Meyers said.

The protest is planned "because he is breaking the law by ignoring the city of Chicago pet store ordinance," she said.

"He is still selling puppy mill puppies for thousands of dollars and saying they are rescue dogs. Anyone who has ever rescued a dog or gotten one knows this is absurd."

Sparks Jr., however, notes that his store is in compliance with the ordinance and that it has passed several inspections since it was enacted two years ago.

To help show her notion that the dogs sold at the longtime Mt. Greenwood business are not rescue dogs, Meyers stated that the store has 9-week-old puppies whose exact birth dates are known.

"There are hundreds of rescues that get puppies and none of them happen to look exactly like the ones he has," Meyers said.

Sparks Jr. says the ordinance the city enacted two years ago banning the sale of dogs from puppy mills and promoting shelters "throws the baby out with the bathwater" in punishing local stores like his. Benefits of purchasing a dog from Park Pet Shop he says are that the dogs are microchipped for life, vaccinated and have a one-year congenital health guarantee.

As of Tuesday night, the Facebook event promoting the Saturday protest had a half-dozen who confirmed they would take part and another 100 or so interested.

"We want him to stop selling mill dogs and obey the law," Meyers said.

Photo via Google Maps screenshot