Pet shop helps rescue?

To operate their business Oak Tree Kennels were granted by their local Council a pet shop licence, this enables them to buy in and resell puppies. As a condition of their licence they are inspected once a year, but like many Councils that licence pet shops they use just the standard conditions which are basic and relate to the premises and the conditions under which the puppies are sold and accomodated whilst waiting to be sold. The pet shop licence, unless the Council has placed 'extra conditions' on the licence places no restrictions on the owner of the premises to purchase their puppies from reputable sources. Taking into account that responsible, ethical breeders do not sell puppies to pet shops and dealers the only doors open to those that operate under their pet shop licence is to purchase puppies from commercial breeders/battery dog farmers/puppy farmers usually supplied though a dealer.

The purchaser is usually asked to sign a puppy agreement and offered four weeks free insurance, but a pedigree certificate is not always offered or registration document, however the puppies they say are front lined and wormed and health checked, however why they are health checked is unknown as the purchaser does not always receive a vaccination card to verify the puppy is vaccinated.

Anyone purchasing a puppy under these circumstances will not be able to verify where the puppy was bred and by whom. The puppy maybe advertised as a pedigree puppy by the name of the pedigree breed but without authentic paperwork how can the purchaser be certain of the breed of puppy, where it was bred and under what circumstances if sold without any history or more to the point the purchaser is unable to speak to the breeder.

This is a high price to pay (in cash) for a puppy of an unknown quality, even worse when a puppy is found to be sick within 48hours of purchase and the owner is faced with veterinary bills. To see a puppy with diarrhoea with blood and mucus is alarming at any time but even more so when the puppy is so young. To have to take it back and forth to the vets for tests and samples, to be told the puppy has coccidia, compylabactor, possible kennel cough, (one of which is a zoonosis, the other conditions infect other puppies/dogs) seeing the puppy becomming lethargic then admitted to a veterinary hospital, all within a few days of purchase is very disconcerting and upsetting.

This situation should occur but it does, there is no excuse if pet shops obtained their puppies from reputable ethical breeders but of course an reputable, ethical breeder would not sell litters of puppies to dealers and pet shops as explained earlier. If pet shops and dealers were proud of the puppies they sold why not be honest with the consumer and offer the full details of the puppies breeder, something they should be doing if the breeder complied with their own dog breeding licensing conditions when selling to a licensed pet shop. However, due to the shady operating practices of pet shops licence holders some do not disclose their source of supply of puppies even to the purchaser.

The general public must be more aware of the way puppy traders operate and not be duped into a false sense of security by listening to sales talk. This pet shop states the 'puppy is being homed to help fund the rescue work of Oaktree Kennels! That should not be a reason to buy a puppy so more can be bred to end up in rescue, what a nonsense.