Makes my blood boil!!

Some of you know I work at home so I like to get out of the house on the weekends. We sometimes will take Chopper with us to the Flea Market. Well I love to always look at all the pets in there. All the dogs there are usually purebred have been started on shots and of course come with a health certificate, and even though they are probaby BYBs to they seem to be knowledgable on the dogs they have. But yesterday we came across a new booth that had a sign up in the entrace "looking to add a puppy to your home, we make them affordable, starting at $200.00" Well of course I could not pass up a look-see. All were absoluately adorable and my heart went out to them all in hopes that they find a forver loving home, but....

they were all intentional mixes by BYB :mad: Not some of the known ones that have names such as labradoodles and puggles but some chihuahua mix(could not see for people standing in front of cage). There were two different kinds of bichon mixes, two pups were mixed with doxie, the other I don't remember. Then there were maltese mixes but they did not say what they were mixed with. I am so sick of people "creatining" their own breeds and trying to get rich off them!!

They looked dirty, esecially the dogs that were suppose to be white like the bichon. You could not tell they were mixed at a glance, cute as a button but dirty!! I would not even pet any of them for fear of bringing something home to my own dogs, even though you could see sadness in most of their eyes. The only ones who even seemed to be "puppy happy" were the chi mixed ones. A lot of the other pups sat cowered in the back of the cages crying or just staring with sad sad eyes.

Needless to say I just walked out shaking my head looking at the people who owned the booth...it just makes me sick that people use such sweet innocent babies to make that quick buck.

Ugh! I am in tears just reading about it. I just can't stand seeing things like this.

I wish there were some recourse, someone we could contact to help those pups!

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Originally Posted by Freedom

Ugh! I am in tears just reading about it. I just can't stand seeing things like this.

I wish there were some recourse, someone we could contact to help those pups!

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Me too!

There must be someone who can help these little guys

Report them.

If it upsets you report them, nothing is going to be done if people dont speak up sadly :(.

I would love to report them but how do you report someone if there is no information on them? There was no business name, they were just BYBs in a flea market. It wasn't like I went to their home and saw nasty conditions There is no way for me to know who there were or even where they were from(the flea market isn't even in the same county that I live in so they could be from anywhere). The flea market isn't going to give out their information either as they are only interested in the money they are making from someone renting the booth and of course it is private.

I am going to keep an eye out for them every time I go, maybe once they have been there a few times they will post some kind of flyer information that I can pick up with contact information on it so I would know who they are and then try reporting them, especially if it gives a phone number then I can find out what county they are from to have their home inspected. I could contact the animal control in the county of the flea market except they are closed on the weekends.

Maybe I will just go next time as the nosey shopper and ask all kinds of information and see if I can get them to write down their name and number and try reporting it that way.

I think Animal Control or someone in a position or authority could easily get that information from the flea market! Especially if the market is going to get a BAD name and lose business.

How do you KNOW the flea market people just want to make money?

Google "Humane Society in __________" (name of county). Then email them.

What is the name of the flea market? I can likely find those 'breeders'.

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Originally Posted by Catty1

I think Animal Control or someone in a position or authority could easily get that information from the flea market! Especially if the market is going to get a BAD name and lose business.

How do you KNOW the flea market people just want to make money?

Google "Humane Society in __________" (name of county). Then email them.

What is the name of the flea market? I can likely find those 'breeders'.

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I have contacted animal control in that county...there are going to look into it. The thing is the flea market is only open one week day which is Friday so I will have to keep on them because by the time Friday comes around it may get forgotten. Thanks I did not think to have them contact the flea market.

That makes me sick. From how you discribed the puppies they didn't seem socailized at all. Poor pups. Bred for the simple purpose of making money. Poor dogs. I honestly hope nobody buys them so the "breeders" will quit breeding them. Unfortinatly, that is not what happends most of the time. For some stupid reason that I cannot understand puppy buyers want something origonal or with a cute name.

I don't understand it at all. :(

Another option (if you hadn't contacted Animal Control... though i think that's the smarter option...) would to be to contact the flea market directly. Let them know that you've been going there a while. That although you personally don't particularly like BYB, that the ones at the market all have clean happy pups for sale and therefore you seen no legitimate reason to complain to the market. (Most of the flea markets i have been to have sectioned with painted numbers on the ground. See if you can locate the booth number for these newcomers.) Then proceed to tell them however that this past weekend there was a new vendor with very dirty, neglected pups, that obviously have had very little personal care given to them. Tell them you find it very disturbing and have lost some amount of respect for that market in allowing those people to sell the pups there and you don't want to see them back there.

In finding a market that formally only had BYBers selling fairly well cared for pups you found a rarity. If AC does nothing, and the market doesn't value your money's opinion, perhaps you could contact a local newspaper.

lute - I know, it just is so annoying that people cannot adopt the mixes from shelters, because that is all these "designer dogs" are is a mix.

crow_noir - I may try and go back this weekend and see about the numbers for the booths, I think ours are above the door. I guess I was just so disturbed that I did not think to look on Sunday. I will give AC a little bit of time(they are so slow here in this state, I contacted them about dogs running loose for weeks and knew exactly where they lived, one day I drove by and one was dead right in front of its home in the street. AC said, well too late now :confused: I said it wasn't the first dozen times I called you). Maybe that county will be a little better than my own. If I cannot get any action out of AC I will definitely try to FM to see if I can get them to do something. Our flea market is usually suprisingly good about this stuff, I don't know what happened. I have never seen pups that turned me off by their care, or should I say lack thereof.

Yeah, up here from what i've heard each AC has their own positives and negatives. Both from the perspective of residents and rescues. I'd say it all depends on who's managing and the attitude of the workers. (in other cases it surprisingly turns out to be just a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of what is most important from the community's p.o.v. ...thus why involvement why writing letters and such can be so important.)

Good luck!!!

Obviously things vary greatly state to state, but here are a few avenues I would look into.

First, check to see what the laws are in your area concerning breeders, kennel licenses, inspections, sales of animals, etc. In NY, for example, that is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture and Markets. If they don’t have some sort of license, they might be violating the law in that way. A complaint to the state attorney general or the department that governs livestock itself might do the trick. If they are selling puppies at a flea market, my guess is that they do not have any license – and if they have to submit to an inspection – it might deter them from doing it. Also all animals are supposed to have a health certificate from a vet when they are sold – if they do not, they could be violating other laws as well. Are they charging taxes? Are they claiming the income to the IRS? Most reputable breeders lose money, so once they factor in expenses it doesn’t show as income. Puppymills on the other hand do not have many expenses (no vet visits, no grooming, no enrichment supplies) and would have to claim a major portion of their sales as income

Second, different areas have different laws regarding animal cruelty complaints. In my area, animal control does not investigate animal cruelty. The county has a contract with the SPCA of Erie County. So even in the city of Buffalo, the SPCA would be the one to investigate. Find out who is actually in charge of cruelty complaints and make the appropriate phone calls.

Third, be proactive - Print some anti-puppymill flyers and distribute them. Or if you feel uncomfortable doing that – just start talking to people at the flea market about how unhealthy these puppies look (we all know how fast bad news circulates). Write a letter to the editor about how these puppies look sickly and dirty – kind of a “buyer beware” campaign.

There was a pet store in this area several years ago that was selling puppies from puppy mills. The animals were in terrible shape and many got sick soon after purchase. Once word spread about their practices, people stopped buying puppies from them and they eventually went out of business. Sometimes it take time and effort – but in the long run, it will make a difference.

Hope this helps and Good Luck.