[UPDATED with Expo Response:] Dog Magazine Reports Ruff Treatment at Pet Expo

UPDATE, APRIL 18, 3:16 P.M.: America's Family Pet Expo organizers have a different interpretation of events that led to copies of The OC Dog magazine failing to be available at the event in Costa Mesa this past weekend.

Editor/publisher Sheri Grant earlier today claimed the Midway City-based publication was banned because the cover states, “Adopt, Don't Buy,” a message she says she was informed conflicts with exhibitors that sell dogs.
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But here's a statement emailed to the Weekly this afternoon from Liz Murphy of Formula PR, the El Segundo-based company that represents America's Family Pet Expo. It was Formula that expressed to Grant the expo's problems with a particular edition of The OC Dog.

This year America's Family Pet Expo donated booth space to more than 75 adoption agencies to help them find forever homes for the animals in their care. Each year we also donate space to more than 80 breed clubs to educate the public about different breeds, so that people can learn about the types of dogs that best fit their lifestyle and don't get a pet that they later abandon because they cannot properly care for it.

As for The OC Dog magazine, prior to the show we offered to have their magazine available at our information booths. When they delivered the magazine to the show grounds, we felt the headline on the cover of their publication-“buying animals is killing animals”-was not an appropriate message for this event since both breed groups and adoption agencies were on site. We offered The OC Dog the option to place these magazines in the booths of their affiliated rescue organizations, but we did not feel it was appropriate to have the magazines available in our information booths due to this statement. The breeders at the pet expo do not sell pets. They are solely at the show to educate the public about making the proper pet choice for their families.

Since 1996 America's Family Pet Expo has been committed to donating space for adoptions at our shows. We have adopted more than 6,400 animals since 1996 when we started with just four agencies involved. Last year alone we facilitated the adoption of 668 animals.

Speaking of which, here is JC Vera's slideshow from the event.

ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 18, 8:59 A.M.: An Orange County GOP official sending out an email suggesting President Barack Obama came from a family of chimps is relatively minor news compared to this: The OC Dog magazine apparently getting banned from America's Family Pet Expo in Costa Mesa this past weekend.

Besides the obvious first question–there's a magazine called The OC Dog?–local pooch lovers must ask this: What was so doggone wrong with the pub that expo organizers supposedly felt moved to remove it?

Sheri Grant, editor/publisher of the Midway City free magazine, explains in an April 15 news release posted on the K9 Network:

Yesterday morning The OC Dog magazine was set to be placed  at the
pet expo. Late yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from one of
formula pr's people stating that they changed their minds about letting
us place the publication because our cover says, “Adopt, Don't Buy.” They
told me it “conflicts with the sale of dogs.” The Pet Expo is supposed
to be about adopting dogs–not about selling dogs.

This is an outrage and needs to end.

Dozens of supporters agreed with the mag, The OC Dog reports in a Sunday update that claims the Animal Assistance League of Orange County pulled out of the expo at the OC Fair & Events Center because of the slight.

We'll update you if and when we receive a response from the expo organizers, the Monrovia-based World Pet Association.