PLANO TX— On a cold afternoon in January, Dr. John Pippin stood with more than 100 people outside a veterinarian’s office in Plano being sprayed with water while protesting the alleged sale of puppy milled dogs by the Petland Corporation.
Said veterinarian, who certifies animals for Petland stores in the area so they can be sold, decided to turn the lawn sprinklers on the crowd of protesters standing in the cold wind.
"There’s something seriously wrong with you if you don’t hate puppy mills," Pippin says.
A puppy mill is a large-scale breeding operation that produces large numbers of puppies for profit. Many are considered filthy and inhumane. A November report by the Humane Society of the United States found that nearly all of the dogs sold by Petland were shipped from puppy mills in the Midwest.
Pippin helps lead a group called Texans Exposing Petland, devoted to the cessation of Petland’s alleged use of puppies bred in puppy mills.
In the 1980’s, Pippin worked at a cardiovascular research facility that employed the creation of heart disease in dogs in order to find remedies for the disease in humans.
"I learned by doing that, and by looking at others around that were doing that and by reading the medical literature of yet other people that were doing that, that it wasn’t scientifically valid," he says.
In September 2008, he and five others formed Texans Exposing Petland. The group demonstrates at the Plano Petland store located at the intersection of Coit and Maple Shade Roads every Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. The group's makeup runs the gamut -- "from school kids to retirees," he says.
They hope to end the sale of puppy mill puppies by Petland by convincing the store to stop selling puppies by turning off their customer base. "We don’t want the store to close, we just want them to stop selling puppies," he said.
They also want to show Petland Corporation that the same could happen to its other four stores in the area unless they implement a plan to adopt out rescued animals instead.
"We’re coming to see them next," he said.
A press release issued by Pippin's current employer, the organization Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, describes Pippin as a "board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular diseases, and nuclear cardiology. He has been on several medical school faculties, including Harvard Medical School and the Medical College of Virginia, where he was chosen Cardiology Professor of the Year three times. He has held many clinical, research, and administrative leadership positions, and was the director of cardiovascular medicine and medical imaging at Cooper Clinic in Dallas."
In 2004 he left his position at the Clinic so he could pursue animal activism full time.
"The clinic wanted to put restrictions on things I could do on my own time to work against the use of animals, such as participating in demonstrations," he said.
He is currently the Senior Medical and Research Advisor for PCRM, where he manages campaigns that deal with the use of animals in medical research, medical education, and drug and product testing.
He was drawn to the organization because it had the capability to find alternatives to using animals for such things as biology class dissections and cosmetic and chemical testing.
Pippin owns eight dogs of his own.
"I walk the walk," he said.
To find out more about Texans Exposing Petland, go here.
Orignally posted at Pegasus News