Unhealthy Pet Shop Puppies from Mills
"Dogs separated early and purchased from a pet shop showed much greater tendency toward toy possessiveness, fearfulness on walks, attention-seeking, stranger aversion, excessive barking, destructiveness and play biting. Dogs from pet shops not separated early from their litters had fewer of the same behavior issues, which leads to one to conclude early separation combined with temporary housing at pet stores is particularly inhibiting to a puppy's social development." A study done in Italy and just reported in Veterinary Record, the official journal of the British Veterinary Association provides yet more evidence puppies should not be separated from their mother and littermates too early.
A harrowing account by an unsuspecting customer of a pet shop realised her new Shetland Sheepdog had kennel cough the day she brought it back from the pet shop. Within six months, it was also discovered that her dog had hip dysplasia in both hips. Very much a child, her puppy would not be able to run, jump and play with other dogs for the rest of her life. Surgery would be costly (hipdysplasia costs around ~$10, 000 per hip) and painful. There was no help forthcoming from the pet shop. In fact, while in the shop viewing the puppies, a member of staff had posed as a customer, claiming he had bought 3 good puppies from that shop.
As if that wasn't scary enough - comments soon flooded in showing that many had had the same painful experiences.
In another 2017 case, a pet store was found to have sold an underage puppy infected with Parvovirus¹. Parvovirus is a highly contagious viral disease of dogs that commonly causes acute gastrointestinal illness in puppies. The disease most often strikes in pups between six and 20 weeks old, but older animals are sometimes also affected. Parvovirus has an incubation period of seven to 14 days before symptoms show; and is spread through direct contact with contaminated dog faeces. Puppies do not always respond to vaccinations for parvovirus and should be protected from it by ensuring that they do not come into contact with unvaccinated dogs and their fecal matter.
Not only did the store fraudulently sell an underage puppy by deliberately misinforming the purchasers about its birth date, they also advised them not to bring the puppy to the vet when it started to exhibit obvious signs of the virus (diarrhoea). The pet store took the puppy back stating that they would care for it but refused to give any further information to the purchaser.
https://www.facebook.com/vinnyeo/posts/10155858923874056
Other similar complaints were made against the same store from other pet owners who claimed that they too received puppies with Parvo Virus and benign tumours.²
^ The owner of the store, 31-year-old Aw Ying Liang, was fined S$31,000 and disqualified from operating any animal-related business for only two months despite having been found to breach 7 pet shop licensing conditions related to vaccination and traceability and failing to comply with AVA’s written notice to be present for investigation
A 3-month old puppy purchased from Ericsson Pet Farm died 8 days later from parvovirus. The business refused to be held responsible, citing the sales agreement signed upon purchase. The purchaser took the farm to court after intensive research about parvovirus. She won the case, receiving $2500 which was the cost of the puppy. It was not persecuted by any governing body and did not receive any fines or disqualification from operating.³
