Posted: 21 Aug 2009 11:34 AM PDT
Puppy Mill Bred Chihuahua

Puppy Mill Bred Chihuahua

It’s inevitable: the ads pop up whenever you search for anything dog-related online: “Puppies for Sale!”
The Internet is a new and burgeoning market for puppy sales, and unfortunately a new way for sick puppies to be sold to unknowing customers. While the Internet has been used to the great advantage of finding homes for shelter animals through Petfinder and other adoption sites, dog breeders—including puppy mills have taken advantage of the vast customer base on the Internet.

The picture above is of a Chihuahua bought online throught a “breeder”. The owner, because of the puppy’s physical state, took the dog to the vet and after his first look at the puppy’s stagger, the vet sent the puppy for x-rays. “When he looked at the x-rays, he said right away that there was nothing he could do but put my puppy down. Because of a genetic defect, her spinal cord was not attached to her skull. Only muscle held her head anywhere near where it would normally be attached to the spine. As she had gotten bigger, she suffered excruciating pain and became less and less able to hold her head up or to walk.

Buying a puppy online is probably the worst thing you can do when looking for a new pet. While we completely understand how adorable puppies’ photos are on the Internet, we caution people never to go this route. Breeders selling online are often not regulated by anyone depending on what state they’re in, and it’s a way for breeders to cater to customers who will never see the conditions they keep their dogs in. Many thousands of puppies are sold over the Internet each year. Approximately 20 percent of the sick puppy complaints that the Humane Society of the United States received last year involved Internet transactions. In these cases, people either ordered their puppy over the Internet or dealt with a seller whose ad they found on the Internet. Of all the sick puppy complaints received (Internet, pet store and otherwise), about 20 percent involved pups who died.

Although grieving, the owner of the Chihuahua contacted the breeder to inform her of the death of the dog and to see if she could get a refund of the $3,500 fee. Despite having the x-rays, a statement from the vet and the video of the puppy, the owner was told that she wouldn’t get a refund and that she had broken the sales contract by having the dog put down. She is still trying to get her money back from her puppy’s breeder, but there is little legal recourse for cases such as these.

Puppy sales on the Internet are not regulated. Customers don’t have the same protections with online sales as they do even buying from a pet store, and we know that those protections, lemon laws and such, aren’t enough to ensure the best for puppies or customers. An important fact to remember for people who want only a purebred dog is that approximately 25% of dogs in shelters are purebreds. If the owner had looked for a purebred Chihuahua on Petfinder.com, for example, she would have found 9,055 Chihuahuas looking for homes. There are hundreds of thousands of wonderful dogs in shelters, waiting for homes. Before you buy a dog, please consider opening your heart and home to a shelter dog. Besides finding a friend for life, you will know that your dog adoption will help decrease demand for puppy mill dogs and help to end the terrible suffering of dogs kept in puppy mills.

(an excerpt cut and pasted from Best Friends Animal Society) www.bestfriends.org