Victim warns of devastating impact of buying from illegal puppy dealers
A woman who's dog died just 48 hours after she bought it is warning others of the risk of accidentally buying animals from illegal puppy farms - as the Scottish SPCA warn offences are on the up
Last updated 5th Oct 2022
The Scottish SPCA say the sale of dogs from illegal breeders is rising in Scotland.
Many of the Pups come from in "massive puppy farms" in Southern Ireland according to the charity.
The dogs are then brought to Scotland to be sold, but some of them are developing illnesses, which are then easily passed on to other dogs that come into contact with them.
We're hearing today (October 6th) from a woman who got her dog from what she believed with a reputable breeder, only for it to die 48 hours later - costing her more than £1,000 in total.
She's from Edinburgh but bought her dog from a dealer based in Irvine, North Ayrshire. We're keeping her anonymous.
She found the listing for the Puppy on a popular buying and trading website, and said the breeder had a 'VIP membership' meaning they'd had mostly positive reviews and had made many sales.
She'd been sent photos of the Dog and given a microchip number for the animal, and had then picked up the shih Tzu poodle mix from the breeder in a supermarket car park in Livingston.
"It's impossible for me to describe how big the pain has been"
"The puppy was completely quiet, like sleeping, which was quite normal from a puppy." She told us.
"However, after a couple of hours, I was noticing the puppy to be far too quiet, which can be normal from a puppy, but at the same time, it's kind of not normal, because puppies are always ready to play.
"And I also have a cat and I have noticed that when the puppy saw the cat, he didn't really react or did anything at all."
Our interviewee had planned to take the dog to the vet the day after collecting him to register the animal and have him checked over to be on the safe side, but things took a turn for the worse over night.
She told us: "The morning I woke up very early because I had to go to work and the puppy had slept all night without crying, without doing anything or trying to get out his bed.
"When I woke up is when you know I said that there is something wrong. I found the puppy in his bed covered in vomit and all around my living room a lot of diarrhoea."
The vet visit that followed led to our interviewee being told there was at most a 10-percent chance her puppy would survive - the dog continued to vomit and have diarrhoea despite not eating, and the vet determined it's weight was far too low for a 10 week old.
Emergency medication over the next few hours didn't make a difference, and 24 hours later the vet recommended the puppy would have to be put down.
Our interviewee said: "It's impossible for me to describe how big the pain has been, it is completely impossible to describe and I really don't want anyone in their life to go through such a bad thing.
"We will never get our money back. We will never get our puppy back. But I really want people to be aware that despite going on a website and everything seems to be completely perfect, they still need to be very, very careful and cautious about what they are doing."
The breeder who sold the dog began to completely ignore the owner after repeated attempts to get in touch.
The combined cost of both the dog and the vet bills means our interviewee paid well over £1,000 for an animal that was already very ill when handed over.
Scottish SPCA
Mike Flynn is the Scottish SPCA's Chief Superintendent, he says:
"Puppy farming and puppy dealing has always been an issue, but it's been far greater since COVID came in.
"A lot of people get mixed up between puppy farms and puppy dealers. The majority of the problems we get in Scotland are from puppy dealers
"The ones that we have trouble with are normally pups that come in from Southern Ireland, you've got massive puppy farms over there, up to 1000 bitches in one place being bred in massive cattle sheds - like aircraft hangers."
Mr Flynn explains that dealers from Scotland are able to purchase the dogs in Ireland for far cheaper than they could here - they'll then bring them back over to sell for a profit.
This means tens of dogs being transported in the same van, and with none of them vaccinated, it then becomes easy for diseases to spread.
The most common is parvo virus - a highly infectious disease which can be fatal, especially so when not treated immediately.
Mr Flynn continued: "You buy the pup in a car park on the Friday night and it only came out the farm that morning or the Thursday night it will look perfectly healthy.
"It'll be the Monday, Tuesday the next week and he'll stop eating or have chronic diarrhoea or be collapsing. If it's parvo virus by the time you get it to a vet, quite often, it's far too late for them to do anything"
What's the advice from the SSPCA?
Mr Flynn recommends that you do your research before buying a puppy. Make sure you can see the Pup and it's mother in advance of buying, ideally a few weeks before you take the dog home.
You should also be able to obtain proof from the breeder that they've had the animal vaccinated.
Don’t buy online or from someone where it’s impossible to verify where the dog is actually coming from.
If you have any information about puppy farming or concerns about a dog you’ve purchased, call their animal helpline in confidence on 03000 999 999.