bad dog breeder

[englishchic2001]

good afternoon. i was hoping to get some advice on a small claims item that i have recently filed. let me start by saying i already know there is no puppy lemon law in the state of idaho, and i had no contract. i purchased a puppy from the 'sweet old lady down the road'. she assured me that he was AKC registered and completely healthy. i was told that she had called the AKC that day, and requested the registration papers. i became increasingly aware that the puppy ( a male shih tzu) , drank water excessively and almost immediately urinated (the urine was always clear, not yellow. after about 2 weeks of watching this, i called the breeder and alerted her of my concerns. she immediately became defensive, and told me to take it to a vet if i thought it was sick. i have know this person for a long time, and always thought she was a very sweet person. i also noticed the puppy hardly ate, but he didn't seem to have a problem with his bowels. the following day, after i had discussed it with my husband, and after i did a huge amount of research online about common shih tzu diseases, i returned the puppy to the breeder. she became angry, and took the puppy from me. when asked for a refund, she stated 'i don't have your damned money, why do you think i had the puppies'. later the same day, she came to my office , dumped the puppy on the floor, and proceeded to scream at me in front of my children. she stated that her lawyer told her that i had to take the puppy back or she would sue me. the following week, i took the puppy to the vet, and she diagnosed the puppy with congenital kidney failure. she stated that in order for the puppy to survive, he would need to have a $12,000 kidney transplant. she also stated that his quality of life would only go down hill from this point on, and that if i decided to have him put to sleep, she would have no problem with that. within a few days, the puppy became sicker, and i made the heartbreaking decision to have him put down. the following week, the breeder started harassing my vet with phone calls demanding the puppys' health records. the vet informed me that i did not have to give her anything, as it seemed that the breeder was on a fact finding mission hoping to discredit my treatment of the puppy in some way. it came to my attention had breed previous litters and several had died. she was told (i am told) that the females she was breeding were incompatible to the male, yet she continues to breed them. i filed a small claims citing misrepresentation (of the product). the puppy was born this way, it is nothing i have done to him, or anything he has picked up. in the breeders response to the small claims filed against her, she has insinuated that i fed the puppy contaminated dog food and/or anti-freeze. i am asking for the amount of money i paid for the puppy and the vet bills (plus court costs). in addition to the puppy being sick, there were no requests for AKC papers, from the breeder, until right before the puppy died. I checked with the AKC at least 4 times, and each time i was told that she had made no such request. i did finally get papers...the day after he died. do i have a case? michelle

 

[seniorjudge]

Bad puppy cases are not favorites of judges in small claims cases.

But, hey, file your case and take your chances.

 

[englishchic2001]

that's it?! that's all the legal advice you can give? i guess i get what i paid for....right?....nothing for nothing!

 

[shadagee]

The tone of your response gives a clue that there may be another side to this. Well, I'll stick out my neck anyway and see if it gets cut off.

I am a dog breeder. I cannot advise you about the legalities of the issue, especially in your state, but I can certainly tell you the red flags you need to pay attention to the next time you buy a puppy. They are not the things on the nice "pet" websites. It requires some insight into what breeders are doing and why they breed.

They always tell you to demand to see the sire and dam. Well, if they can show you both, on their premises, that's a big red flag. Good breeders search the whole country, sometimes the whole world for a compatible, health tested dog. If the breeder does own them both, it doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong, but you need to find out if the sire and dam are littermates - or if they have been bred together multiple times. The first tells you two things. You have a backyard breeder who does no health clearances, does not study pedigrees and has no clue what she is doing. Sometimes these are pet owners who thing that Mitzi is just so nice that she should have babies. Find the closest AKC registered male, even better if it's your own because you save the stud fee, then be baffled if there are health problems. For the second, if the sire and dam have been used together for more than one litter, you have an amateur puppy mill. This kind of person is strictly breeding the pups to sell them and make money. I know a few of them, they are a scary bunch. The bitch becomes a puppy factory, bred on every season. The worst case - when this last type has had a litter with congenital or genetic problems, and STILL repeats the breeding. That is NOT what a responsible breeder does - Dear God.

Good breeders have litters to improve the breed, not to make money. Good Lord, I have NEVER made money on a litter of dogs - that is the vast 2 litters I've whelped over the last 15 years. If you are doing the correct testing and vetting, you are lucky if you recoup your expenses. And I've never even done that. And a responsible breeder should state in their contract that THE DOG COMES BACK TO THEM if for any reason you can't keep it. The financial details of that can vary. The idea of that is - if we are presumptuous enough to add to the dog population on this earth, we are responsible for them for life. Not always easy to live up to with zoning codes, and financial situations. But no good breeder's dogs get dumped into the shelter system, and if they let that happen and do nothing, they are going to be ostracized.

And a warning about just what AKC papers mean - only that your pup is in a book of register, and they can trace his parentage back and make sure he's purebred. That's IT. And there are ways to fake those up too, if you had an OOPS breeding with the mutt next door, but the pups look a LOT like mama..... The papers do show ownership, but any court is likely to take the owner as listed on the dog license in the municipality over the AKC paperwork.

Finally, dogs are considered property, with a monetary value. Dealing with these issues in court are tough if not impossible. Lately, the system has seen a more pet friendly turn, but it's not always positive for the animals.

Do your homework, be educated before you fall in love with a pup. Sometimes you really DO get what you pay for - we always say, you buy a breeder, not a dog.

 

[seniorjudge]

that's it?! that's all the legal advice you can give? i guess i get what i paid for....right?....nothing for nothing!

I have been behind the bench on several bad puppy cases.

They rank right up there with "common law divorce".

As I said, file your case; take your chances.:angel

 

[englishchic2001]

re:- bad dog breeder

okay, first an apology for my curt reply last week. it has been a very stressful situation, and i apologise for my rudeness. shadagee, you had some good points, that i would like to address. the main reason i am taking the breeder to court is, in my eyes, misrepresentation. i bought the puppy as AKC registered and healthy. Of course I find out, after the fact, that he was neither.The breeder doezs not have both parents on the premises, but she does have a mother and daughter, that she breeds to the same male. As far as I know, she has had 2 litters, all of which died at birth, apart from my puppy and 1 other.She has also been told NOT to breed the parents anymore as they are incompatible. Of course I can't prove this, as it was hearsay (even though I have heard the same story from 3 different people). In the breeders' response to my small claim, she states that she is not a breeder, just someone that has had 2 or 3 litters. I looked up the definition of breeder, and it states a breeder is a person that breeds animals or plants! this is the kind of crazy situation I am dealing with. I had no intentions of breeding this puppy, he would have been a family member, not a stud. I just wanted the AKC papers that I was promised, and after numberous calls to the AKC, the breeder finally got them to me....the day after the puppy died! I am just trying to get as much information as I can about where I stand legally. I am not trying to intentionally ruffle any feathers, so please accept my apology for my earlier comment. Thanks, Michelle