CICERO, N.Y. -- Demonstrators take to the streets outside of a Petland store to speak out against puppy mills. The protest stems from a report released by the Humane Society of the United States that claims the majority of puppies from Petland stores come from puppy mills.

Petland has denied the allegations, and says they do not support substandard breeding facilities. Activists from the Syracuse Animal Rights Organization held signs in front of the franchise's Cicero store to urge passers by to adopt animals from shelters rather than buying them from stores.

"There's often sub-standard conditions, animals are living in small, filthy cages, once they can't produce anymore puppies they are killed because they aren't profitable anymore, and all this just to produce cute puppies to be in a pet store,” said demonstrator Amber Coon.

"We readily admit that there is a problem in America with sub-standard breeder facilities. What we do is we have brokers that we purchase our puppies through that do a lot of the police work if you will in terms of inspecting breeders, making sure that they're not sub-standard facilities, making sure that they're doing the most important thing which is breeding properly,” said Jeff Frankel, owner of the Cicero Petland.

Frankel says he can not speak for what is going on in other franchised Petland stores, but he says he has put his heart and soul into his store and requires his employees take special care of every animal.