ohmidog!

Pet stores that sell live animals purchased from breeders may be looking for a new lease on life — but they won’t be getting one from Macerich, which operates 71 shopping centers in the western U.S.

Under a policy adopted last year, Santa Monica-based Macerich will not renew the leases for any pet stores that sell live animals.

Instead, only adoption centers with rescued animals will be allowed in Macerich-owned malls.

In Arizona, that impact of that change is becoming visible, according to the Arizona Republic, and it’s serving to help out a lot of animal shelters and homeless pets. At many a mall pet  store, animals in need of adoption have replaced those pumped out by breeders.

The change in the company’s policy reflects shifts in public opinion regarding pet buying, and a growing recognition that many of the dogs sold in stores come from puppy mills. A 2011 survey by New Jersey-based Hartz Mountain Corp., a pet-product company, found that, of more than 1,000 pet owners only 4 percent would buy their next pet from a pet store.

“Our focus is now directed to working with local pet-rescue organizations in our communities and pet-accessory retailers to serve the needs of our shoppers,” said Melissa Rupp, assistant marketing manager at Macerich-owned SanTan Village in Gilbert.

The trend toward adoption centers, which had begun in some Arizona retail locations even before Macerich changed its policy, has accelerated, the Republic reports.

Many large retailers already operate adoption programs in with animal-welfare organizations, including and Petco and PetSmart, which reports the adoptions of more than 5 million cats and dogs since 1994.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, 1,700 pet stores across the country have signed its “Pet Friendly Pledge” not to sell puppies in their stores. Fifty-three of those locations are in Arizona.

The Humane Society Petique at the Biltmore Fashion Park opened in November 2009, two years before Macerich’s policy change, and it marked the first time a retail developer partnered with a Valley rescue group. More than 2,000 animals have been adopted out of the rescue storefront.

The venture has helped the local Humane Society, which charges adoption fees of $10 to $160. The money goes to programs for homeless animals such as Second Chance Animal Hospital and daily sheltering needs, Nelson said. The society also runs Petopia at Desert Sky Mall.

Maricopa County Animal Care and Control partners with PetSmart to host adoption events, and it runs the storefront Under One Woof! at Metrocenter Mall, a shopping mall not owned by Macerich.

(Photo: Michael Schennum / The Arizona Republic)

The Los Angeles Times reports that a “surprising number” of stores have quietly opened their doors to dogs — from Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue to Barneys New York.

The rules about shopping with dogs vary from store to door, mall to mall, and sometimes can even differ between a store and the mall that is in, the article points out. While Sears, Target and Staples all flatly deny entrance to dogs that aren’t providing service to the handicapped, others — rightly realizing they don’t have much room to be picky in today’s economy — are letting them in.

The Grove, a Mid-City outdoor mall in L.A., is open to all, the article said.

“Great Dane or poodle. Pure-bred or mutt. It doesn’t matter at the Grove, where any pup that is ‘Well-behaved,’ ‘on a leash’ and  ‘not wanting to bite people’ is invited, said spokeswoman Jennifer Gordon. And if that pup happens to drop a “present” under the mall’s Christmas tree … just clean it up, and all will be forgiven.”

A lot of other stores and shopping centers — in what we at ohmidog! consider blatant discrimination — allow small dogs only, some basing the cutoff point on whether the dog can fit, ala Paris Hilton’s Chihuahua, in a purse.

The news that more stores may be permitting dogs is heartening; reports that many still allow small dogs while banning big dogs are disturbing. Were I ever to encounter a store that allowed small dogs, but not mine, I’d be out the door, never to return, and making all my purchases at a place where dogs are always allowed — online.