Many people have walked past the Heartland Pet Store in the Millcreek Mall and seen dogs sitting in cages waiting to be adopted.

While this may seem like a normal pet store, others have argued that the store itself doesn't treat animals properly and also claims the pet store has gotten dogs from unethical breeders. In the past, this has prompted GoFundMe pages looking to get the store shut down.

Now on Saturday, a planned protest is scheduled outside of the mall hoping to get real action in trying to get the store shut down for good. One nonprofit locally, Erie Puppy Mill Awareness, wants to see not only the Heartland Pet Store in the mall shut down, but all puppy mills in the country shut down for good.

"We are not hosting that, it was a bunch of community members actually which bravo to them, they saw what was going on, and put it together on their own. Just to make people aware. You will always get people who say well I got a puppy from there and it was fine, well you're one of the lucky ones," says Sherry Beliveau, the Secretary at Erie Puppy Mill Awareness.

The planned protest is at the Millcreek Mall at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

"We have multiple of the worst puppy mills in the country," says Beliveau. 

Erie Puppy Mill Awareness for almost a decade has been trying to shed light on the problem of puppy mills. There are over ten thousand puppy mills in the United States, according the puppymillproject.org. Beliveau wants people to know the horrors of what goes on at these places.

"They are in wire cages, they get multiple infections and injuries they are not treated by vets, they are often dunked in chemicals for fleas," says Beliveau.

Erie Puppy Mill Awareness is so passionate about their mission the group helped spearhead a house bill right here in Pennsylvania. It's called Victoria's Law, all in efforts to try and stop the unethical backyard breeding that happens all over the country.

"If you stop the money, you'll stop the mills. To get our senators and representatives to pass laws such as Victoria's Law which we wrote the original draft of that and presented it and it's been in congress waiting to be passed for a good couple of years," says Beliveau. 

A statement issued by Heartland Pet Store on Saturday said:

"Heartland Pets has been a member of this community for 28 years. When you look around your neighborhood, you will see many of our pets. They are healthy and enriching families across northwest Pennsylvania and the tri-state area.

Our puppy suppliers must be licensed and inspected by both the State and Federal government. We do not buy from any breeder that does not have both licenses. Heartland Pets is also inspected by the state of Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. We have perfect inspection scores for every single year that we have been open.

Heartland pets is proud of the job our breeders do. We are proud of our associates for all the work they do in providing the healthiest and cleanest environment for puppies and all our animals. We are proud to be members of this community.

We always work hard to earn your trust. We welcome stricter government standards across the board for all who breed animals. We believe that by continuing to raise the standards for breeders, the future of pet ownership can only improve for everyone, especially the pets themselves."