Hello, I would like to share with you the journey of my puppy mill campaign. My name is Angella Machholz & I have been a local dog groomer here in Victoria B.C for over 18 years & during that time I became increasingly frustrated as to where my clients were acquiring their puppies &/or dogs.
Although I was aware that puppy mills existed, I tried to do my part by educating my clients about puppy mills & how to avoid contributing to their existence. However in spite of my efforts I felt like I was not doing enough, as I continued to hear of pets being bought from unknown sources. I knew that buying from these unknown sources were only increasing the risk of perpetuating the cycle of terror & abuse by allowing puppy mills to flourish. So I knew that I needed an outlet that would enable me to reach & help more people, so in 2007 that is when my first campaign website came to be; www.saynotopetstorepuppies.com . However I soon realized that I was isolating & targeting only one avenue (among many) that puppy millers use to sell their stock (puppies/dogs), so that is when my campaign website evolved into www.shutdownpuppymills.com .
Over a very short period of time “Shut Down Puppy Mills” quickly became a successful known educational/awareness tool exposing the shocking reality of the deplorable puppy mill industry. Most importantly through my campaign I have sparked the interest of city councillors who often refer to “Shut Down Puppy Mills” when moving forward in implementing changes to existing & new laws/bylaws pertaining to the sale of puppies in pet stores both in Victoria & Langley.
I am pleased to announce as of April 28th 2011, I have changed my website domain from .com to www.shutdownpuppymills.ca since I am Canadian based.
All of the puppy mill photo’s on my website are real puppy mill images & have been provided exclusively for my campaign by a dedicated photographer Clay Myers of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary; http://www.bestfriends.org/aboutus/ as well as all of my fundraising event photos were also provided exclusively for my campaign & donated by www.rtistryphotography.com.
** There are no fancy graphics & no images that were bought to add unnecessary content to this website. **
As well as all of the campaign material such as Billboard, bumper stickers, rack cards etc were created by Graphic FX; http://www.graphicfxsignworks.com/
** Please be aware that links to my Shutdownpuppymills.ca website which are found on other websites may or may not represent the views & opinions of www.shutdownpuppymills.ca **