Justin Bieber Gets A New Puppy, PETA Slams Singer

Justin Bieber has a new puppy. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) aren’t happy about it.

The organization has slammed the fact he bought the new pup from a pet store rather than an animal shelter.

The 19-year-old singer bought the 7-week-old white and tan American bulldog at Ruffin’s Pet Center in Stratford, Ontario, on December 26 during a family break in Canada for Christmas.

E! News reports the store said the puppy came from a breeder and it’s claimed the “Heartbreaker” singer paid $600 for the pooch.

One employee said, “Justin comes in all the time when he’s home,” adding, “The puppies came in yesterday morning.”

The pet store owner adds, “He came in just before closing with his bodyguard and friends. He walked around the store, saw it, held it and liked it. She’s got a little splash of brown on her eye.”

He continued, “Whenever he comes in he buys something. He’s an ethical person when it comes to animals.”

PETA don’t agree and have accused Justin of setting a bad example to his fans.

Daphna Nachminovitch, PETA’s Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations, says:

“Whether or not reports are true that Justin Bieber purchased a puppy from a pet store for $600, PETA wants to remind everyone that when you buy a dog or cat from a pet store or breeder, you sentence an animal in a shelter to death.“ She continued, “Six to eight million homeless animals enter shelters every year, and half of them must be euthanized for lack of a good home, so there is no excuse for buying an animal, no matter who you are.”

The singer announced news of his new pet on his Twitter page on Friday, writing,”Got a new pup.”

His father, Jeremy Bieber – who separated from Justin’s mother, Pattie Mallette years ago – also took to Twitter, posting a snap of the adorable pup and inviting fans to share in the family’s joy. “So were gona let one lucky #belieber name @justinbieber’s new puppy…” he wrote, “Follow and find out how it can be you.”

The puppy has now been named “Karma” after a fan’s submission was chosen.

(Photo: Bieber’s new pet puppy is called ‘Karma.’)

Conversations involving PETA, and Bieber for that matter, are invariably divisive; but lets take a look at both sides’ track records.

The animal rights organization has previously been accused of overstepping boundaries with shock tactic attacks on celebrities: past criticisms of Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, dousing Kim Cattrall in red paint, and Kim Kardashian in flour, a few notable examples.

A Huffington Post report previously accused the group of sexism and misogyny for their use of pictures of bruised naked women in shackles to highlight similar abuse of animals. In 2004, PETA used Holocaust imagery in a campaign, also using images of dead children alongside caged pigs which they defended by saying ‘free speech’ should ‘reign supreme.’ PETA were hit with a storm of protest after one of their adverts claimed feeding children meat was a form of child abuse.

It was widely seen as yet another example of the group’s habitual use of over-the-top, and at times, inaccurate pronouncements just for effect.

This is a view shared by Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals President of the Australian branch of the RSPCA, Dr Hugh Wirth. He believes PETA’s relentless trolling for media attention harms other animal welfare groups and the cause in general.

“You can’t sit down with animal rights people, you just cannot sit down; they’re irrational, they will not discuss anything with you, because they claim to occupy the high moral ground,” says Wirth.

Moving on to Bieber. In 2011, the then 17-year-old and his then girlfriend Selena Gomez adopted a German Shepherd mix dog from a rescue center in Winnipeg, Canada. When the sweethearts spit up, reportedly at the beginning of this year, the actress-singer kept the dog, named Baylor.

Fast forward to December 2012, Justin gave away his pet hamster Pac to a random fan, Tori McLure at the Atlanta Jingle Ball, telling her “You gotta take care of her.” Pac died of natural causes in March while in the care of McLure. The singer also once owned a snake which he named Johnson and later donated to a zoo, and this year took ownership of a cat Tuts who, at last check, is fat and well.

(Photo: The singer and Mally the monkey, before the split.)

Then there was Mally.

The former pet capuchin monkey was seized by airport customs officials in Germany after Bieber failed to provide health and travel documents for it. Mally was eventually rehoused in a German wildlife park after spending months in a shelter. At the time PETA praised the singer for not reclaiming the monkey, instead letting it be resettled with its own kind.

There is no debate over pet shop bought pets and shelter bought pets. The prevailing belief is that obtaining animals from shelters reduces the numbers of abandoned, harmed or neglected pets and in turn less demand for puppy mills. For a variety of reasons, millions of households still buy pets from stores, all of which have different standards for the animals in their care.

However, the Bieber family used a local store well known to them and the puppy reportedly came from a breeder not a mill. In addition, it arrived into the store just one day before Justin chose it and wasn’t languishing for months waiting to be bought.

Writer Nicky Niroca, who has previously bought an animal from a pet shop and adopted dogs from shelters, notes, “No matter where they have come from, all animals should be loved and taken care of.”

It’s not a particularly shocking or dramatic perspective, but we suggest it’s the important one in this instance.