Buying puppies online--
buyer beware
buyer beware
Pet Store
Hall of Shame, part 1
Pet Store Hall of Shame, part 2
USDA Violations by Petland Breeders
USDA Records on Various Breeders
How to find out more
about your puppy's breeder
Do Petland puppies really come from LICENSED breeders?
Hunte Corp.
Puppy Mill Links
14-Day Heartache Guarantee
Protesting
for Beginners
Find a group near you
Shelters
Adoption info and links to rescue groups
Poems, etc.
Former pet store employees speak out
Buying puppies online--buyer beware
Pet Stores and Puppy Mills in the News
Animal sellers in Washington DC area
Pet supply stores that DON'T sell animals--the good guys:)
Puppy mill survivor stories
Shop
Donate
1) Puppy mills. Many of the same puppy millers that are selling to pet stores are now also selling puppies off the Internet, either through their own website or someone else's. Do they show a nice picture of their farmhouse? Great. That's where THEY live, not their dogs. Do they show you a picture of a puppy on a patch of grass? Maybe they just plucked him out of a cage and stuck him there to take the picture. You cannot tell anything about how the dogs are treated from a website!
Often an online seller will be located in your state but is receiving puppies from out-of-state puppy mills, just as pet stores do. It is not safe to buy puppies from a newspaper ad, either. Many of them are also buying out-of-state puppy mill puppies and reselling them.
Obviously, not everyone selling puppies online is a puppy mill. People who breed small numbers of dogs and treat their dogs kindly have websites, too, and we don't intend to list every one of these here. However, if you love dogs and are ready to take one into your home, we encourage you to adopt from a shelter or rescue group, rather than buying from a breeder. That way, you are not just making yourself, your dog, and the breeder happy; you are saving an animal who desperately needs a home and, in the big picture, helping to end the homeless animal crisis which results in the killing of millions of innocent dogs, cats, and other animals each and every year.
2) Shipping puppies is bad for their health. A cage in a truck or plane is not a good environment for a very young puppy. Puppies born in puppy mills can be sickly even before they get shipped. Then, between the fear, lack of exercise, motion sickness, temperature variations, having to lie in their own filth, being bounced around in a hard cage, and lack of fresh air, it's no surprise that many arrive at their destination sick. When you discover this, you have a decision to make. Do you take the puppy to the vet for treatment, or do you decide your product is "defective" and send him back to try to get a refund? Do you have the heart to put a sick puppy back in a cage for another long trip, knowing that he might not survive? Probably not, and then you have the problem of trying to keep your sick puppy alive and trying to get some help with...
3) Vet bills.
If you order a puppy online, the breeder is hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles away and feels pretty sure you won't be dropping by to cause any trouble. He or she is probably just a regular person trying to make some extra money, not a huge company with a reputation to maintain. If the breeder is not cooperative about returning either all or part of your money, it's hard to sue somebody in another state, as you would generally need to hire a lawyer. Hiring a lawyer could cost you more than you could collect, assuming you would win. So as hard as it is to get any money out of a pet store located in your area, it's probably even harder to get it from a breeder shipping to you from another state. Remember that when you buy an appliance from somebody's website, pretty much the most you can lose is the value of the appliance. When you buy a sick puppy, you can end up with thousands of dollars in vet bills within the first few weeks, and even a full refund of your purchase price wouldn't help you very much. It won't help you deal with having to watch your puppy suffer, either.
Why are some of these breeders charging $2,000 for puppies? Because the puppies are so healthy? No, they are charging that much for the same reason that pet stores do--because people are willing to pay it. Paying a lot of money does not mean you are getting a healthy puppy.
3) No federal oversight. People who have more than 3 breeding females and sell their puppies to PET STORES are supposed to be USDA-licensed and inspected (although many are not). However, there is no requirement that breeding facilities that sell puppies directly to the public EVER be inspected by the USDA, even if these breeders are selling large numbers of puppies. From the USDA website: "Direct Sales--Anyone who sells domestic pets directly to pet owners is exempt [from being required to have a license], regardless of sales volume. Such sales can be made in person or by mail." (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/awlicreg/awlicreg.html)
The Humane Society of the U.S. is promoting a bill called PAWS to close this loophole, but it has not yet succeeded. You can read about PAWS at
http://www.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/109_PAWS_100605.pdf
So unless you visit these places in person, it is practically impossible to find out any information about the conditions the breeding dogs are being kept in.
4) Some things are best done in person. Do you really want to take an animal into your home who you have never met personally? This is going to be your companion for possibly 15 years or even longer. Why order a puppy from hundreds of miles away when you can drop by a shelter or a rescue group and fall in love with one right down the street?
Some scammers even use the Internet to steal your money rather than send you a puppy. In a way, you're probably better off--at least you don't end up spending thousands on a sick puppy. Here's an article on that:
May 2007:
http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=58173
November 2007:
http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=65697
******************************************
Did you buy a sick puppy from someone advertising online? Please warn others!
If you want to make an ANONYMOUS complaint about a SPECIFIC breeder, you can do this quickly and easily at www.complaints.com, www.ripoffreport.com, and www.consumeraffairs.com, which accept consumer complaints and responses from businesses without taking sides. ConsumerAffairs.com requires your first name to appear.
If you want to post an ANONYMOUS complaint about online seller on our site, we will be happy to do so, but the seller will also remain anonymous. We may post the general area where the seller is located.
If you are willing to provide us with your FIRST AND LAST NAME and have it appear with your post on this website, and you will also send us...
1) your address & phone number (this won't appear on the site)
2) a copy of some of the relevant vet records (e.g. a diagnosis of pneumonia)
3) a copy of the part of the purchase papers showing the name of the breeder you bought the puppy from...
we will be happy to share your story and mention the seller's name. Note that you are legally responsible for what you say, so make sure it's all true. You can scan these papers and send them by e-mail to all4theanimals@yahoo.com or send by regular mail to
PetStoreCruelty
P.O. Box 2036
Fairfax, VA 22031
Please let us know by e-mail if you're sending something to the P.O. box.
*****************************************
Here are some online puppy sellers that we have been notified about. We expect this list to grow. When a large variety of purebred puppies are available from one breeder, that is an indication that it could be a puppy mill or obtaining puppies from puppy mills. In light of our nation's ongoing homeless animal crisis, the pumping of large numbers of puppies into the population is unethical, no matter what the conditions are at the breeding facility.
********************************
We, and many others, have been repeatedly getting this e-mail from someone calling herself Angelina Martins. Apparently these emails are coming from overseas and this is a SCAM, just like the ones telling you that you have just won the lottery. If you get ONE e-mail like this about a homeless animal, it might be legit, but don't even THINK about pursuing it unless the person and the animals are LOCAL. See...
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_lifestyle_animal/nigerian_puppy_scam/index.html
angelina1@inmail24.com
Hello.. I am a nurse and my late grandma was a bulldog breeder, she died about 3 months ago and left behind a male and a female english bulldog ( Sire & Dam) , the female bulldog recently had a litter of 8 puppies, they are so adorable, my job as a nurse cannot allow me to take of these puppies. I want to find them loving homes, if you interested in having them, please contact me immediately. Have a nice day. Angelina.
****************************
affordablepup.com & Mose Yoder
My boyfriend and I purchased a yorkie from the web. It was our first major purchase together, we were very excited we found a website that shipped right to us. I guess from inexperience and the excitement we didn't do the proper research. We actually never heard the term puppy mill. We received our puppy, took him to the vet. He's adorable and healthy. However a few days later I was thinking to myself, what kind of person that loves their dog will ship them to someone they don't even know? So I decided to do some research on www.affordablepup.com; I asked where they got their pups because they were acting as brokers. When I received the AKC paperwork I saw there was a name as the breeder. I also searched his name and I was devastated. I am not giving up my new puppy because I will care of it regardless what happens. However, I need to share the info I found because we need to put a stop to this. I searched the company on the Business Better Bureau and they have three complaints. When I searched for the breeder, whose name is Mose Yoder out of Ohio, this is what I found:
http://www.caps-web.org/view_investigation_report.php?id=90.
Please be aware some of the images are very disturbing. I really don't know what else to do, but I felt that I had to put what I found out there.
-Vanda Esposito
CC Pets L.L.C.--PENNSYLVANIA--PEACH BOTTOM
See the April 19, 2007 article (there have been many others):
Couple Sue Pa. Dog Breeder Under N.J. law
Philadelphia Inquirer
http://tinyurl.com/38ejww
******
DEZINER BULLDOGZ--MINNESOTA--MOUNTAIN IRON
2007: My daughter recently bought a puppy from Paulette Valento of DeZiner Bulldogz.
http://www.miniaturebulldogz.com/id10.html
Our puppy came with giardia and coccidia. Our vet documented this and said that coccidia is caused by sitting in feces. Our puppy was also covered in fleas.
***********
Fairview Kennels, North Benton, Ohio (fairviewmaltese.com; fairviewyorkies.com)
Fairview Maltese/Yorkies advertises weekly in the newspaper puppies for sale & online. I bought a Maltese from them. She had 3 for me to look at all in individual cages. The dogs were clean and well groomed for me to see. This probably sells the puppies as she was a previous groomer. I was told the puppy I purchased was never outside or on the ground until I purchased it. The dogs came from a kennel not attached to the house. She would not let me go in there to see the parents. The dog was so excited to get away from there she couldn't eat for a few days and lost 2 pounds. She was scared to death of all noises inside the house and outside, which would be understandable with a dog that had been kept in a cage. She ran continually as she had been set free. If I accidentally step on her toe or tail she wants to attack me. I have had many dogs as a child and adult and never had a dog with this kind of behavior. I believe the dog was caged until I got her and this is why her behavior is like it is. She is coming along nicely and so far seems to be healthy. I believe Fairview Maltese/Yorkies is a puppy mill because of my dog's behavior.
2007: Also Fairview Kennels--letter from customer
Terri-
We picked up Coco at the airport on Friday night and needless to say, we were very surprised. You know as well as we do that the puppy you sent was not the puppy pictured on your site which we agreed to. Unfortunately for me, I trusted you and only later did I see a lot of negative feedback about you and your kennel. But I was hoping what I read would not happen to me.
First off, as soon as we looked in her mouth we knew she had too many teeth to possibly be 12 weeks old. She looks nothing like the puppy pictured on the website, and with all our communications back and forth, or should I say non-communication on your part, I did start to worry, and obviously rightly so.
I brought her for her vet check on Sunday (my vet is open on Sunday), and the first thing he said when he looked in her mouth is that there is no way this puppy is the age that the breeder says. She is very big now, to be either 8 or 12 weeks old, as you promised she would only end up to be 4.5 pounds at the max. SHE IS ALREADY 4.7 POUNDS UPON ARRIVAL TO ME, AS IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW. The vet says she will end up to be about 9 pounds...that is not what you represented on your site. She also has a big vein in one of her eyes that must be treated with medication.
If I wanted a 9-10 pound yorkie, I could have bought one here without shipping her for about $700. YOU ROYALLY RIPPED ME OFF.
In talking to people who have dealt with you in the past, and I will not reveal my sources, I understand that the pictures on your website have not changed in forever. So the puppies you are showing are not what people are getting, and I don't understand how you can state who the parents of these puppies are, and lie about it. It also was strange that you told me that I would have to wait maybe another week or so before I got the puppy, and as soon as I told you I would like to drive to you, the story changed, and all of a sudden all flight reservations had been made many days before she was coming, when you originally told me that you cannot make reservations for puppies more than 48 hours in advance. You have continually changed your story throughout our communications.
Before I was feeling uncomfortable with you, a friend of mine was looking for a Yorkie for his sister, and I told him where I was getting mine. He had no idea which one on your site was mine. Coincidentally, he fell in love with the same one, and contacted you about it, and what do you know! You offered the same puppy to him and offered to ship her to him in 2 days! He sent you her photo and the exact description on your website (copy and pasted). There was no mistaking which puppy he meant. The two of us were shocked and infuriated and that's when I figured it all out. You are scamming people who are trusting you that you are sending the puppies pictured and then you send whatever you want, with the excuse that they are a little older, and that they look a little different. I don't know how you can look at yourself in the mirror.
I understand that the leukemia you told me you just found out about, which was your excuse as to why you weren't answering my phone calls and emails, was told to other people months ago, as your excuse for treating them the same way. There has to be a reason why you don't want anyone to visit your kennel. What are you afraid of? It seems like all you are in it for is the money, as you told my friend you could not tell him your address until you got his deposit, and why you only accept certified checks. When I read your contract I was very surprised to read a clause in it about litigation. You obviously have been sued before.
Well, you have picked the wrong person to scam this time. Not only am I reporting you to the proper authorities, but anyone who looks on the web for a Yorkie or a Maltese and checks before they buy from you, will definitely stay far away from your kennel after they read about my experience, which I will shout from the rooftops! I will be contacting Consumer Affairs, the Attorney General's Office, and I have friends in the police department. And hopefully you will be shut down.
2008--additional note: Terri sent me an 'application for papers' although our contract states I would receive papers as part of the purchase price of the dog. In addition, the papers state NOTHING for the birthday (she must not know!) and a different pair of parents than originally stated. How can I ever get proper papers if the MILL doesn't know anything about my dog?
People who have problems with Terri Wylie should call Monica Gregory at the Ohio Attorney General's office: 216-787-3030.
Dana Catania dcatania1215@aol.com
*****************
Laughlin Kennels--www.laughlinkennel.com--Massachusetts--Oxford
Their website says they have access to about 34 breeds of dog.
*******************
McCarty, Patti and Ian--Keystone Kennel--Georgia--Canton
We received a complaint about this breeder in November 2007 and were directed to this website for additional information: www.ittybittydachshunds.com.
A related site about Georgia breeders: www.nomorecruelty.bravehost.com
Next Day Pets--www.Nextdaypets.com
This site allows advertising by a huge number of breeders but takes no responsibility for problems that you may have with the puppies. From the site: "Next Day Pets accepts no responsibilty (sic) for the dog breeders said commitments, guarantees, reputation or quality of service."
Note: nextdaypets.com also advertises some rescue groups, which is a good thing. If you are unfamiliar with the term rescue group, please see our FAQ, question 10.
********************
Pet Central, San Antonio--Texas http://www.petcentralsanantonio.com/
We received a complaint about this no kill-facility which states on its website, "We Specialize in Animal Rescue, Care, and Breeding!" While we cannot support or refute claims about conditions there (local residents--please check it out) and we fully support animal rescue and care, we believe that a rescue group should not deliberately breed animals. San Antonio has one of the worst homeless animal problems in the country, so we can understand that a rescue group might quickly become overwhelmed. However, rescue groups are responsible for keeping animals in clean conditions, giving them enough exercise, giving them healthful food and water, treating illnesses, and informing prospective adoptive families of any problems they have reason to believe the animal might have--BEFORE the family brings the animal home.
Pik-A-Pup--www.pikapup.com--Massachusetts--Holliston
A kennel that carries over 30 breeds.
Disclaimer: To the best of our knowledge, all the information above is true; however, petstorecruelty.org is not responsible for any unintentional errors that may occur when we receive information from outside sources. We can neither support nor refute statements made by people other than ourselves. If you care about animals and come across one of the breeders mentioned, we urge you to visit the facility and decide for yourself.