Dogs

I hear talk all of the time about puppy mills and kitten mills and how they supply pet stores with their puppies and kittens. However, the town I live in now doesn’t have any live puppies or kittens in their stores (just birds, fish, reptiles, and rodents more or less). The town I used to live in the one store that had live kittens & dogs for sale shut down, and the only cats & dogs at the chain stores around here (i.e. Petsmart, Petco) only have shelter/rescue animals available for adoption from the local human societies/animal rescue groups.

Are there "reputable breeders" for these other pets as well?
Do you think that the negative press around puppy/kitten mills is why chain stores such as Petsmart and Petco don’t sell cats & dogs?

It depends on where you live, you will find petstores in certain areas. I live in the pacific northwest, and there aren’t many actual petstores that sell live kittens and puppies from mills. But I heard in Texas and other places in the south, that they are quite numerous. I think petsmart and petco do not sell kittens and puppies from mills because they are national chains who do not want boycotts or bad press. But yes, there are breeders for other pets like hamsters and ferrets.