The “Orange Bone” Puppy Store Concept: Tidbit, or Seriously Good Bone? Your Comments Welcome!

My American Eskimo neighbor, Cottie, recently overheard her Significant Humans praising a store in California called “Orange Bone”, where one of her Family’s daughters recently adopted a Chihuahua.  Apparently the owners of this store hope to make it a new model for Re-Homing animals in need of Forever Homes, perhaps nationwide. Orange Bone gets all their Dogs from Rescue Shelters, provides the Dogs with top quality food and  veterinary care, spaying or neutering, then promotes them in their stylish Melrose Ave. (Los Angeles) store to their well-heeled Human clients. They charge the customers less to take these Dogs home than what it costs the store to maintain them, hoping to make their profit instead on the “best Doggie fashion” lines they carry such as Bowhaus, Chromebones, Coach, Ed Hardy, Hip Doggie, Juicy Couture, OrangeBone, Poochie of Beverly Hills and Susan Lanci.  In their YouTube plea narrated by famous stars such as Katherine Heigl and Kim Kardashian, Heigl says their goal is to “make every Puppy store in the world a shelter rescue Puppy store”.  Orange Bone is associated with Last Chance for Animals, www.LCAnimal.org .  (Warning: This site contains graphic pictures of abused and neglected animals. WoofTracks includes the URL only as a reference – you can work for this cause without any need to see these heartrending photos.)  The message from the store: “We believe that we can save 1,000 dogs a year at Orange Bone!”.

I pricked up my ears about Orange Bone: This concept has Woof Tracks all over it!  Could this new concept replace today’s Puppy stores, helping to shut down the horribly neglectful and abusive Puppy mills that supply many of today’s Puppy stores?  Would scattering Orange Bones across the country seriously reduce the number of homeless and Death Row dogs?  We at WoofTracks debated this issue.  Orange Bone only takes Dogs from Puppyhood to age two, so the concept would only be of value in re-homing young, healthy and attractive Dogs, not older Dogs or Dogs with serious medical problems.  Still, if every Orange Bone could truly save 1000 lives a year, even 50 Orange Bone stores could save the lives of significant numbers of lovable and loving Dogs.  After reading the Welcome on the Orange Bone website, (“Welcome... ...to The Puppy Store, the most modern Puppy store to open doors up to date. We are located on Melrose Avenue ((between Fairfax and La Brea Avenue)) in Los Angeles, the Mecca capital for fashion, fun and celebrities.”), we wonder how necessary a posh location would be to the success of additional OB stores: Does it take “star power” to attract customers, and would customers of average means shop at Orange Bone?  Animal Rescue centers normally require applications, in order to try to make sure their animals go to loving homes with knowledgeable caregivers.  If no applications or background checks are required at OB, are new adoptees in danger of being neglected or mistreated?

WoofTracks requests Readers’ comments on this important issue.  The need for Rescue of our fellow Dogs, so many of whom are shamefully unwanted and undeservedly abandoned when their loving ways could be bringing families together instead, has never been greater than during this economic downturn.  Perhaps your ideas will improve this tragic situation: Please chew on the Orange Bone concept and comment to WebWoof@WoofTracks.com .