Woodlands pet store faces online uproar over puppy's illness

This puppy become the center of a social media firestorm on Feb. 12 after a customer at Pet Fair in The Woodlands Mall claimed it was sick. Store officials said the dog was sick and had been treated by a local veterinarian. less This puppy become the center of a social media firestorm on Feb. 12 after a customer at Pet Fair in The Woodlands Mall claimed it was sick. Store officials said the dog was sick and had been treated by a local ... more Image 1 of / 51 Caption Close Woodlands pet store faces online uproar over puppy's illness 1 / 51 Back to Gallery

A sick puppy at the Pet Fair store in The Woodlands is causing an uproar in social media, but the store's manager and local veterinarians say the young dog is OK.

Several area residents used Facebook to air their claims the store sells sick and injured puppies, reigniting an effort to have the business shut down that began several years ago.

The store-Pet Fair- is located inside The Woodlands Mall and sells a range of pets, including cats, dogs and lizards.

The store's manager, Natalie Hijazi, insisted the business would never intentionally sell a sick pet. Hijazi also provided the Villager a letter from a veterinarian stating the dog in question should recover.

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Montgomery County animal control officials said no violations were found in response to recent complaints about the store.

The latest brouhaha over the store broke out in early February after pictures of what appeared to be an ill and sickly dog offered for sale at the store were posted on Facebook, with the person who made the posting-a woman named Heather Ford-claiming when she saw the puppy that she, "Knew something wasn't right."

"He was extremely skinny, only had enough energy to stand for maybe 30 seconds at most and then collapsed...very lethargic, green discharge from her eyes and nose, labored breathing and was salivating a ton," Ford wrote in her posting Monday, Feb. 12. "In my opinion she didn't look like she was going to make it. I could be exaggerating, but it was terrible."

Ford did not respond to multiple requests through Facebook messages for additional comment about her posting. Attempts to reach Ford by phone were unsuccessful.

But Ford's depiction of the dog's apparent distress wasn't echoed by a description provided by VCA Woodlands Animal Hospital veterinarian Mike Nicolosi. In a letter dated Feb. 15, Nicolosi wrote that the dog, a Labrador Retriever about 10 weeks old, had "signs of nasal discharge and was coughing," but that the dog was "well hydrated, bright and alert."

FACEBOOK POSTING PROMPTS NEW CALLS FOR STORE'S CLOSURE

Despite the letter from the veterinarian and no violations discovered by county animal control officials, the Facebook posting about the dog resonated throughout the community, sparking a litany of outraged responses on Facebook, while also giving new life to an ongoing move to have the store shut down.

Stacy Elizabeth, who is the originator of an online change.org petition against the store and also the founder of The Paw Protection League, said "I really want to go after Pet Fair."

The Paw Protection League is a local group described as an organization that stands up for animal rights and is a voice for animals. The local Pet Fair store, according to Elizabeth, is what she termed "in direct opposition of the values of the community."

"It's incredibly tiny, there is no green space," Elizabeth said of the store, while describing the puppies for sale at the store as living in cramped conditions in "glass aquarium cages with shredded paper" on the bottom.

"There's one little play area in the middle of the store. These are young pets, or kittens," Elizabeth said, adding that the young dogs and cats were susceptible to the spread of diseases while living in such conditions.

"You can't take proper care for young pets in this way," she added.

A visit to the store by a reporter Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 14, found a dozen or so dogs for sale paired up in glass enclosures about the size of a military foot locker. Most were playing with their enclosure mates and seemed relatively active, although two dogs were asleep in a bottom enclosure. None of the dogs in the store appeared to be ill or suffering from health problems or injuries.

Hijazi was not present at the time of the visit by The Villager, but a store supervisor said all the pets for sale were properly cared for. The supervisor, who did not want to be identified, said the dog that sparked the most recent controversy was being cared for by a veterinarian and was getting better.

STORE MANAGER DENIES SELLING SICK DOGS

In an interview late Wednesday, Feb. 14, Hijazi also said the dog in question was recovering from a respiratory problem and she denied claims that the store sold sick dogs.

"Anybody can claim anything," she said.

In an email statement sent Thursday, Feb. 15, Hijazi said the puppy was still being treated by a veterinarian, but was otherwise healthy.

"Our puppy has an upper respiratory tract infection causing symptoms equivalent to the common cold in humans. She is otherwise healthy," Hijazi said in the statement. "Puppies can contract an URI even while they are healthy, just as a healthy human can catch a cold. Your child catching a cold and having a runny nose isn't anymore indicative of poor parenting, than a puppy with an URI reflects neglect. The picture was taken at a moment the puppy was coughing, making the puppy appear underweight, which she is not (we all know that pausing your TV at the wrong time can make the beautiful anchorwoman look distorted!). The puppy's weight is fully within range for her age. As for her "cold", she was already being treated, and still is, by one of our veterinarians, as she should be."

The Villager contacted local Veterinarian Mark Moore, with the Village Vet in The Woodlands, and asked him to review an updated photo of the dog posted online Wednesday, as well as the two earlier photos from Monday's Facebook posting.

Moore said he had no firsthand knowledge of the situation and he had not examined the dog. Based on his observations of the earlier photos, Moore said the puppy looked, "A little bit undernourished, like it needs a meal."

Moore also said in the initial photographs, the dog also appeared to be suffering from either poor hair growth or hair loss. That could be caused, he noted, from being kept in conditions that were not clean, or from poor nutrition.

"I would probably shy away from this puppy," Moore said. "Because it doesn't look to be the perfect picture of health."

After seeing the updated photo, Moore noted the puppy appeared to be in better health.

"The face on this puppy though looks more bright, alert, responsive," Moore said. "It's not hanging his head down. So, he probably is feeling better. I don't see any discharge from his nose or eyes."

As for county authorities, Aaron Johnson, the director of the Montgomery County Animal Shelter, said animal control officials responding to complaints went to the Pet Fair store on Monday, Feb. 12, and Tuesday, Feb. 13, to check on the animals, but found only a "couple" that were ill.

"It wasn't anything that was like they were severely ill, or dying or anything like that," Johnson said.

PET FAIR CRITICS POINT TO STORE'S PAST

The animal control findings and veterinarian reports did not satisfy critics of Pet Fair, who pointed to the store's history and alleged bad reputation among animal lovers.

Elizabeth, who started her online petition seeking the closure of the store in January 2015, initially gathered some 2,500 signatures. But when word of the sick puppy spread online this week, the petition gained new life, with more than 1,000 people signing electronically in less than 24 hours. As of Friday, Feb. 16, more than 5,200 people had signed the petition.

Monday's original Facebook posting unleashed a new wave of criticism about the store, including from some past customers.

Austin resident Bonnie Morris described a chaotic scene at the store when she and her family stopped inside in 2017. Morris said in a telephone interview Thursday, Feb. 15, that after walking inside the "packed" store in April of 2017 she heard a Yorkshire Terrier, being squeezed and shaken by two young girls, crying in what she viewed as apparent pain and fear.

Meanwhile, Morris claimed she saw two large dogs inside a play area attacking two smaller dogs with no employees intervening on behalf of any of the smaller dogs.

The Yorkshire Terrier, according to Morris, reportedly had mucus running out of its nose and eyes and was straining to breathe.

Morris said she and her family left the store, but returned the next day to buy the dog, paying $2,400 for it. After getting the puppy home, Morris said she took it to an Austin-area veterinarian who determined the dog had kennel cough, was underweight, suffered from malnutrition, was dehydrated and had an untreated ear infection.

"I think she would probably have died if she had stayed (at Pet Fair)," Morris alleged.

Another customer, Amber Gallegos, said in a telephone interview that she bought a Great Pyrenees dog from the store for $750 in October of 2015, only to reportedly find out the dog had pneumonia and canine herpes.

"She was so sick," Gallegos said. "Her eyes were red, and they told me she just had a cold."

Gallegos said her dog has since recovered from the pneumonia, but will never be able to have puppies because of the herpes. Gallegos said the store eventually issued a refund, although she had to pay about $1,000 in veterinary bills.

In an April 23, 2016, article in The Courier of Montgomery County, Pet Fair customer Rachel Burns told the newspaper she saw a boxer puppy at the store with an apparent broken leg that was for sale for about $1,000.

"When I asked how the puppy's leg was broken, I was told a child dropped the dog. Another woman asked the same question and was told by the manager that the puppy was stepped on or tripped over and a few other people got different answers as well," Burns said. "That same day, I asked about a black pig in one of the open enclosures in the front of the store. She was unresponsive, heavy breathing and I tried to pet her, poke at her, push her gently to see if she would get to her feet, nothing."

HUMANE SOCIETY PROBE

In November 2013, the Humane Society of the United States published the results of their five-month investigation into 16 pet stores in Texas, including Pet Fair. The effort was to determine where the stores get puppies and to check the health conditions of the puppies in the stores.

That investigation found that a number of pet stores in Texas get their puppies from out-of-state puppy mills. The dogs, according to critics of the industry, are shipped by truck, often being taken from their mothers when they are only a few weeks old.

According to the 2013 Humane Society report, when its inspector went into the Pet fair store in the summer of 2013, he found an "obviously sick, constantly coughing, black and white male cocker spaniel puppy."

Although Pet Fair officials denied claims the store sells sick or unhealthy pets, Elizabeth said she is pledging to keep up her efforts to have the store shut down. With the online petition accumulating new signatures, Elizabeth says she'll be seeking a meeting with mall management asking them to force the store to close.

"I feel like the community is speaking up more than ever," Elizabeth said. "And the number (of signatures on the petition) is growing."

PUPPY IN QUESTION RECOVERING

As for the sick puppy that sparked the most recent furor, the letter from the veterinarian caring for the dog said she was improving.

"She is bright and alert today and has a good appetite," Nicolosi wrote in his letter. "Prognosis is good for full recovery from upper respiratory symptoms."