April 24, 2008Comments are closed.pet shops/puppy farming
Dear the PIAA,
You should change your policies and get live pets out of your stores.
Not because there aren’t statistics that make you look less accountable. Or because of any new laws that might be brought in to force you to stop.
But because the key to the PIAA’s success lies in being an organisation that the public feel they can trust, and the truth about commercial puppy breeding is very, very dodgy.
Realise the only thing you need to care about is how your customers feel about you and Oprah says pets in stores come from puppy mills.
Many of the dogs born in puppy mills end up in pet stores or sold on the Internet.
Oprah 2008
Once a person learns about dog farms, puppies in pet shop windows will make them feel sad. And people don’t spend money at places that make them feel anything but really, really good. It will become uncool to be seen with you – and that’s bad. And you’ll be in trouble if someone else presents an alternative.
Some of the biggest successes in the world at the moment are previously ‘unclean’ businesses becoming more community minded, or being overtaken completely by new, more ethical initiatives. Because that’s what consumers now demand.
Completely re-write what it means to be a pet store. Have the edge on your old-fashioned competitors by launching a publicity campaign that piggy-backs on the media frenzy generated by the Clover Moore bill and support it. Generate goodwill in the community by making ethics what sets you apart; your live pet-free policy means you in no way support puppy milling or breeders careless enough to sell to stores.
Change your story to customer focussed, progressive and one of the good guys. Rather than just trying to distance yourselves from the evils of retail pet sales.
As Seth Godin put so succinctly;
We’re responsible for what we sell and how we sell it. We’re responsible for the effects (and the side effects) of our actions. It is our decision.
You have the opportunity to be so far ahead in this new world, that when the tide turns and the pet industry is finally forced to evolve, that your competition never catch up to you. And you can sleep well at night, knowing you’re not condemning thousands of dogs to short or miserable lives.
Or you can fight alongside the profit motivated sellers and puppy millers to keep things the same.
It’s the opportunity of a lifetime – what will you do?
