Bear

We responded to an advert we found on the pets4home website advertising a litter of 8 cocker spaniels from the breeders family bitch.

 We visited the property to view the litter. I was aware of the risk of puppy farms, so knew some of the signs to look out for. As the litter was with the mother and they seemed to be kept inside the family home, we weren’t initially alarmed. However, we were slightly concerned that the sire seemed very tired and underweight. The breeder highlighted this fact herself and said that feeding the litter of 8 had taken it out of her. The puppies were kept in a separate room and there were a lot of mucky puppy pads lying around. Although we thought this was quite normal, on reflection we think that this should have been a red flag.

 At the time we weren’t aware that she needed a licence to breed dogs, I had naively assumed that as a family hobby breeder, I would not need to check this, I have since learnt that I should have.

 We selected our puppy and paid the required £500 deposit (by bank transfer), the balance of £2000 was be due on collection. The breeder explained that she would regularly send photos and videos, particularly as during the lockdown period, visits would be not be possible. However, during our 3 week wait, obtaining these was very difficult and it seemed that she did not live in the property where we had seen the puppies (although she did not say this).

 We collected our puppy on the 5th January (the puppy was only 7 weeks old, I now understand she should not have allowed this).

Due to coronavirus, we were only able to collect the puppy on the doorstep, so we were not able to inspect his health, we were simply handed him in a blanket.

 Before we arrived, the breeder text me to ask for the balance to be paid in cash, as she was currently furloughed and didn’t want this amount of cash shown in her account. This was quite alarming for us and we weren’t comfortable to agree to it. We said that we could pay some minimal cash, however we were more comfortable paying the majority by bank transfer. She replied, attempting to push me on this, explaining again that she didn’t want the cash in her bank. On collection day we paid 50% cash, 50% bank transfer. She emailed me a receipt to confirm this.

 The breeder explained that the puppy had been flea and worm treated. She gave me a health check card to confirm his vaccines and health check. I have since tried to contact the vet she used and have been unable to make contact. So I’m not sure on whether it was a genuine vet

 We have had our puppy 4 weeks and he has been very poorly with worms and nasty case of mites. We have had 2 different vets question where we got him from because he is in such poor health. We have made contact with the breeder and initially she was responding, concerned about the puppy’s health, however communication has now ceased after we described the issues we were having with him and the concern our vet had and so challenged her on this.

 I have been able to locate another puppy owner from the same litter and she has unfortunately experienced more severe health issues with her puppy. We have been in touch with pets4home who have told us that the breeder is currently being investigated due to another complaint from a puppy buyer and they advised us to contact you and the RSPCA. Although they can’t share the details with us, they said they are happy to share the details with the authorities if necessary.

It has been the worst start for our pup and stressful for us as a family. Fortunately he is doing much better now. But we are concerned about his future health, so we have paid out for a genetic test to see if there’s anything we need to capture early.

My husband and I are not usually scammed easily. We are wise to all the ways fraudsters get you, but this totally got us. We totally fell for the breeders charm. We now feel that she may have been an in between person, maybe acting on behalf of a puppy farm owner.

You are doing great work. I too want to share my story and make sure no one else invests their money into this awful trade.