PETLAND TERMINATES FRANCHISE AGREEMENT FOR FAIRFAX, VA LOCATION

(Chillicothe, OH, April 3, 2019) – Today, Petland Inc. announced that it has completed a thorough in-store investigation by its senior operations team at its franchised-based Fairfax, Virginia store.  Based upon the findings of this investigation, Petland is immediately terminating the franchise agreement with the current store owners.  Effective today, this Fairfax pet store will no longer operate as a Petland store.

While HSUS has a history of exaggerated claims against Petland, Petland takes all claims of animal care at our stores seriously. Although Petland found inaccuracies in HSUS’ latest allegations relating to the Fairfax franchise store, based upon our own review of store operations, Petland made the decision to terminate the store’s franchise agreement.

Petland has offered assistance for the relocation of all of the pets in the store.

Petland Inc.’s national humane standards require a store’s local consulting veterinarian to establish all animal standards protocols.

In Fairfax today, the Petland corporate operations team inspected all animals present in the store, and found all of the pets to be healthy. Petland also interviewed the store owners, the breeder in question, and the store’s staff.

It is strange that this incident – which is more than two months old – coincided with a time period when an undercover representative of HSUS was employed at the store. We are also disappointed that HSUS did not reach out directly to us in January when they claim this incident occurred so that the company could immediately investigate any claims.   HSUS’s John Goodwin, who is quoted in the story, met with Petland’s VP of Animal Welfare two weeks ago and made no mention of any concerns.

Petland puts the health and welfare of its pets first and has zero tolerance for any mistreatment of our pets. Its corporate history demonstrates taking swift action in the rare circumstance that a store violates our culture and policy. The action of this locally-owned store location does not, in any way, represent the culture and dedication to animal care of the thousands of caring Petland employees working across the country every day.

Petland, Inc. is a franchise operation with quality, full service retail pet centers across the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil and El Salvador. For more than 50 years, Petland Pet Counselors have been dedicated to matching the right pet with the right person and meeting the needs of both. To its customers who already have pets, Petland is dedicated to enhancing their knowledge and enjoyment of the human-animal bond. Petland was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in south central Ohio. For more information on Petland, visit www.petland.com.