Furry Babies Sued for Selling Puppy Mill Dogs

Written by Karen Sorensen

Furry Babies, which operates stores at the Aurora Fox Valley Store, Louis Joliet Mall and elsewhere in Illinois, has been sued for violating state consumer protection laws by allegedly selling sick dogs obtained from puppy mills.

The lawsuit was filed this week in LaSalle County Circuit Court by a group of consumers working in conjunction with the Animal Legal Defense Fund and The Humane Society of the United State. The case was researched for two years by The Puppy Mill Project.

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The nonprofit Puppy Mill Project group, based in Illinois, alleges Furry Babies misrepresents where it gets the dogs it sells by claiming their animals are “hand-picked” and “nursery-raised” by reputable breeders, according to a news release about the lawsuit. 

The lawsuit charges that, in reality, the chain often acquires its animals from "inhumane breeding facilities" known as puppy mills. As a result of overbreeding and confinement in small, unsanitary conditions, the puppies can have illnesses and other problems, the suit said.

“This slick network of puppy abusers is deceiving consumers and profiting from the extreme mistreatment and neglect of helpless animals,” Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal League Defense Fund, said in the release. “Furry Babies’ corporate greed for ‘puppy’ profits has led them to break the law.”

The plaintiffs claim that promotional materials produced by Furry Babies do not show that the puppies are frequently "born, raised, and transported in filthy conditions, deprived of social contact, and shipped at younger ages than permitted by animal welfare laws," the release said. 

After one inspection, the USDA cited a Furry Babies supplier for failing to tend to dogs with excessively matted fur and overgrown nails, causing deformity, lameness, and severe discomfort. Other citations issued to Furry Babies suppliers point to dogs living in waste-filled conditions hospitable to vermin, dogs without bedding in sub-zero temperatures, and dogs with obvious but untreated diseases, the release said.

In fall 2012, the Humane Society conducted an investigation of several Chicago-area pet stores and found that Furry Babies routinely obtains puppies from puppy mills, and violates the Illinois laws requiring disclosure of puppy origins, the release said.