Boutique pet store sells rescued puppies

The doggies in the windows at a Hollywood pet store aren't purebreds with papers. They're puppies rescued from pounds and no-kill shelters. KPCC's Patricia Nazario stopped by OrangeBone on Melrose, the first pet store in Los Angeles that specializes in selling mutts from the pound. Clark DuVal bought the pet store last August. He changed its mission to selling only rescue dogs, instead of expensive pure breeds most likely from puppy mills.

Patricia Nazario: On the trendy side of Melrose Avenue, nestled between boutiques that sell new and used clothes, is a big white storefront with a gigantic orange bone. In fact, that's the name of it, "OrangeBone." Below that is the slogan, "Where Rescues Rule."

Clark DuVal: This is rescues, 100 percent rescues, seven days a week. That's all we do.

Nazario: That's store owner Clark DuVal. He used to be in the music business, but he bought this place six months ago. In its previous life, it was called The Puppy Store.

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DuVal says that after he took it over, animal rescuers began to educate him about where puppies come from. That's when he started to question his suppliers about their breeding practices and facilities.

DuVal: Well, they pretty much denied it – said, "No, that's not the way we do business." Then when I tried to make arrangements to go visit a lot of the facilities, they wouldn't let me go see them. That was the turning point.

Nazario: The Oprah Winfrey Show focused on that point last spring. YouTube carries the program's three-part investigation into puppy mills.

Oprah Winfrey: I warn you, this is painful to watch if you're an animal lover. But I'm asking you, who are animal lovers and who just are humane people, not to turn away.

Nazario: Reporter Lisa Lee took undercover cameras into several Pennsylvania-based breeding facilities.

Lisa Lee: At the next farm, the breeder takes us inside a small shed. We see between 30 and 40 dogs in rabbit cages stacked to the ceiling. They're standing on chicken wire barking wildly for attention. The room reeks of urine and feces.

Chris DeRose: It's a numbers game. They breed them and breed them and breed them.

Nazario: That's Chris DeRose from the L.A. based nonprofit Last Chance for Animals. He estimates that about a dozen puppy mills operate in the outskirts of Los Angeles County. DeRose said the Humane Society puts the nationwide number close to 10,000.

DeRose: The animals that are stronger will survive, the others they shoot. They'll kill. For every puppy mill dog that gets into someone's good home, two to three others had to die.

Nazario: DeRose's organization helped to educate Clark DuVal – and to steer the focus of his business from purebred pets worth $4,000 each – to rescue dogs. DuVal says he sells pound pups for 300 to 500 dollars. OrangeBone sold 40 last month.

DuVal: We've seen people actually get choked up. I mean, get emotional and say, "This is unbelievable, this is historical. We've never seen anything like this before. You're gonna make history." And I say, "Well, we're just trying to help out a little bit here."

Nazario: DuVal believes his business investment will eventually pay off. OrangeBone has enough cages for about 30 puppies. It also sells fancy accessories – doggy t-shirts with hip slogans, cushy pet beds, and gourmet treats.

DuVal hopes that as more people learn about puppy mills, more animal lovers will look to outlets like his to reduce the number of neglected or abandoned pets.