Pictured: GRETTA WAS A GOLDEN RETRIEVER who greeted all people with a wag of her tail for 15 years when they visited The Boardman News. She died in 2012, and still let’s everyone know what’s going on with all her pet pals up in heaven, when she sends her ‘Gretta Knows’ column back to earth every few weeks or so. Where Gretta is now, she and all her pals enjoy a ‘pawsitive paradise’ everyday, and cruelty has no place. Their tails are always ‘awaggin.’ Gretta wanted everyone here to know what Elisa Keller and Gia DeAscentis say about a local pet store here in Boardman. “Dogs do speak, but only to those who listen.”
EDITOR:
My name is Gia DeAscentis, and I am writing this letter in order to raise awareness of what is going on behind closed doors at Harbor Pet Center, as well as to hopefully encourage proper action to be taken.
For the past month, the Keller family and I have been privately conducting an investigation regarding Harbor Pet Center (formally known as Petland) in Boardman and it’s owner, Gary Winslow. Our investigation started as a result of not getting answers, or in our opinion, the truthful answers, in connection to the painful and untimely death of the Keller family’s 5-month-old puppy, Sophia, who was purchased at the store.
In our campaign to inform the public of this devastating situation, we have had close to 150 individuals who have recounting personal horror stories regarding Harbor Pet Center.
The stories included describing what it was like working for Mr. Winslow at his Boardman Petland/Harbor Pet location, as well as stories of puppies that were purchased at the store that have dropped dead, or have continued to live with debilitating illnesses for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to use any of their stories in our investigation because, coming only from us, they would be considered ‘second-hand’ account stories.
After hearing all of these stories, we publicly urged individuals who had these first hand experiences to share them publicly, so they could be used as evidence in the investigation. To our surprise, not one person responded publicly. However, we only had a short time to feel discouraged as we started to receive private messages stating that Mr. Winslow requires all his employees to sign a confidentiality agreement, forbidding them to talk about what goes on in the store when they are employed and after they quit or are fired.
I’m not sure if this is a standard requirement of Petland employment, but I feel that it’s a little distressing and definitely sets off a few alarms when a pet store makes you sign a confidentiality waiver forbidding employees to talk about what goes on behind closed doors. In my opinion, if anything, a pet store should take pride in what goes on behind closed doors. They should be urging their past and present employees to talk about the impeccable living conditions and first-rate care their animals are receiving before being sold to new homes, not trying to find a way to conceal everything and anything.
Fortunately, we had more people come forward who wanted to help and provide more information than we could have ever imagined. Thanks to these brave individuals, voices are now being given to those who can’t speak for themselves.
We also started uncovering rather appalling information relating to the owner of the local store. We started to slowly piece together information that we had collected as well as information that was volunteered from the public in order to reach some disturbing conclusions
Gary Winslow and his wife Sharon Winslow had previously owned two Petland franchises, one in Akron, Oh. and one in Boardman, Oh. Gary and his wife opened the Boardman Petland franchise in 2002. From our understanding, Mr. Winslow’s Akron location in the Chapel Hill Mall was closed down in 2009 due to an employee (Liz Carlisle) being charged and convicted of two counts of animal cruelty (she took pictures of herself drowning rabbits in one of the back rooms). When asked why she drowned the rabbits at her sentencing, Carlisle claimed that the animals were injured and she was ordered by her supervisor to drown them. In my opinion, ‘euthanasia by drowning’ is not euthanasia, it is torture. It makes me wonder---‘How did those poor bunnies get so injured that they needed to be put down instead of being treated/seen by a veterinarian, or at least humanely euthanized by a veterinarian?”
When confronted, Gary Winslow claimed the store “doesn’t make a practice of drowning animals.” However, according to one of our informants (who was a previous employee of Mr. Winslow’s Boardman location) inhumane ways of euthanizing a sick or injured small animal were typical. Our informant claimed she was ordered by supervisors to “bag the sick/injured gerbils and bang them against the counter three times” in order to ‘painlessly’ euthanize them. The informant refused to do this, and stormed out of the store. This happened less than two years ago, and she worked there for three hours, but says “it still haunts her to this day..
Around the same time his Akron Petland franchise was forced to close and Mr. Winslow renamed the Boardman Petland franchise Harbor Pet Center. I have contacted Petland headquarters in Chillicothe, Oh. regarding this matter and am still waiting on an official statement concerning the name change of the local business from Petland’ to ‘Harbor Pet Center.’
It is our opinion, as well as several others who have had to deal with Harbor Pet Center management, that Mr. Winslow has refused to return phone calls of people who have purchased sick dogs from the Harbor Pet Center. It is not just us! We have received several reports from individuals telling stories of Mr. Winslow being confronted with vet bills, vet reports, and even autopsy reports that confirm allegations of treatment/origin of the puppies at his store, and yet he still refuses to acknowledge the facts.
It has been proven that most of these puppies come from Amish puppy mill farms and so-called ‘USDA approved’ breeders and kennels.
For example, check this web site to see a typical example of a dog’s ‘breeder’ listed on the papers that Harbor Pet Center had gives the owners: http://nopetstorepuppies.com/dog-breeder/yoder-roman (This is an actual breeder from an actual dog purchased from Harbor Pet Center... even more disturbingly so, Harbor Pet Center sold the puppy to his new owners after this “breeder’s” USDA license was revoked.
According to a handful of personal stories sent to us, Mr. Winslow has blamed these puppies’ new owners (some who have had them for less than 24 hours) that it is ‘their fault that the puppies are sick…,’ even when it is proven otherwise by licensed professionals.
The following story is an example of one family’s experience---
One family brought their puppy, Lily, back to Harbor Pet Center less than 24 hours after being purchased; desperately looking for answers as to why their puppy was acting so lethargic. According to the source, the manager took the frantic family into the back room to try and calm them down. The manager claimed a vet check wasn’t necessary, stating that the reason the puppy was so lethargic and shivering was because she was “probably cold.” Instead of taking or encouraging proper medical attention, the manager offered the family a free sweater. The family immediately left and went straight to [Dr. Tom] Crago, a credible local veterinarian. The vet soon determined that Lily’s lungs were 90% full of liquid, that was caused by double pneumonia. Not only were Lily’s lungs full of fluid, a rapid infection was rapidly spreading throughout her tiny body and quickly reaching her heart. The deadly infection was caused by the pneumonia and kennel cough, which is a complex and highly contagious respiratory infection in dogs.
The veterinarian told the family that their precious puppy had less than a 50/50 chance of living. The family didn’t care what it would take, they were going to do whatever they could to save their puppy. After less than 24 hours of being with this family, Lily was already a family member. Countless vet trips and tons of medication left Lily no time to be a playful, curious puppy, she had to fight to stay alive. The family has been trying for years to get Harbor Pet Center and Gary Winslow to help with the vet bills. However, Mr. Winslow refused to help pay the vet bills, claiming “the puppy wasn’t sick when she was purchased.” In other words, in her less than 24 hours out of the store Lily was able to contract full blown double pneumonia, have her lungs almost completely fill with fluid, get kennel cough and almost die from a life-threatening blood infection?
The family concluded their letter to us with:
“Thankfully we are still blessed with Lily today, but it took a lot of determination and patience on our end to keep her alive. I hope everyone fighting this uphill battle can get this place shut down once and for all. No dog/cat/rabbit or whatever else deserves to live a short, unhealthy life, or die so suddenly.”
People are paying, at times, an upwards of $3,000 for a dog in which they are guaranteed by contract is healthy and vet checked, when in reality can require an additional couple thousand dollars of vet care just to keep them alive. In some cases, Mr. Winslow has refused to reimburse people for their vet bills and refuses to give anyone their money back in the event their puppy should die (that’s right… “In the even their puppy should die…” because what healthy 5-month-old puppy drops dead?) Instead, he has offered store credit, or a ‘replacement puppy…’
I feel that trying to compare a living, breathing family member to something, such as phone, that can be replaced is disgusting.
We feel that the large number of dogs dying from multiple organ failure and congenital diseases that are purchased from Harbor Pet Center is no coincidence.
It is in the public’s best interest to have this business exposed for what we feel it really is a money making scam with no regard for life. By raising awareness, we can hopefully try and spare any more families from going through the same anguish.
Thank you so much for your time,
Gia DeAscentis
