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My boyfriend and I bought a puppy from what we thought was a private breeder back in late August. We specifically asked them if their puppies came from a puppy mill, and they replied no and that they were the breeders. In fact, the business card they gave us says "home bred" on it. About 3 days after owning our English bulldog, he developed cherry eye. I was very upset about this and called the breeders immediately. They told me it wasn't a problem and that they would take care of it at their expense; all we had to do was drop him off. Apparently they cut the cherry eye out of his eye (which they told me was the best way to keep it from occuring again). Since then, our puppy has had eye issues consistantly every 3 weeks and now it is to the point where we took him to an optomologist and have found out that he has an ulcer in the eye that he had cherry eye in and now needs surgery. In addition, the third eyelid was removed from both eyes and we were never informed about this. Not to mention, when we received his registation papers from the AKC the breeder name is "Just Puppies" - which is a puppy mill in Maryland! We feel completely duped because we were told that our puppy was home bred and also because they mistreated his eye and it has cost us about $1000 already and we still need to get surgery (which is $2400). Could we sue the breeder or the puppy mill? Does anyone have any experience with this? Do you know a good lawyer in NYC? Thank you so much.. any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!
I have never been through anything like that myself, but I can only imagine how upset you are about all of this. I don't really know too much about what all you could do, legally, but I would think you could take them to court and hopefully have them pay the vet bills. Especially if they did something to worsen his condition. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I am sorry you are going through this and good luck!
I'd certainly try, I'd also talk to the local breed club, the local police, the local better business bureau ect. Find out as much as you can about these people they could be part of a fraud thing going on. The puppy is obviously not as advertised...do you have a contract? I wish you luck
I'm sure you want to keep your puppy and not let those awful people get hold of him again! You can sue in small claims court pretty easily, if the people you bought him from are in your state.
I have to be honest: EVERYONE needs to know that puppymillers will NOT tell the truth. Even if asked outright. No matter what you ask, they will lie.
Good breeders:
1) Ask YOU as many questions as you ask them. They only want the BEST homes for their puppies.
2) Will take back a pup at ANY TIME during the dog's life. For ANY reason.
3) Will ask you to complete an adoption form.
4) Will not have more than one litter every other year from each female dog.
5) Do not breed 'for the market' but because they love the dogs
AKC certification is MEANINGLESS. All it means is that SOMEWHERE along the way, there were two AKC registered dogs that were bred and the puppymiller got certificates for the litter. There is NO guarantee of quality with an AKC and, worse, a UKC, registration.
Bulldogs (and, by the way, the OFFICIAL AKC breed name is 'Bulldog' and not 'English Bulldog') are very popular right now - as are Frenchies. As a result, millers have souped up their operations.
With any popular breed, and especially with ANY breed that has as many medical problems as bulldogs do (and they always have TONS - my upstairs neighbor breeds and shows them), you should go to dog shows, talk to the handlers (AFTER the class, of course), ask about litters and ask to be put on the waiting list. Good things are worth waiting for.
Puppymillers capitalize on the impatience of buyers and their unwillingness to wait for a puppy from a truly good breeder who breeds to improve the breed, and not to make money.
I'm confused here: the the breeders themselves treat the cherry eye, or did their vet do it? if it was their vet, this is something that needs to be taken up w/ him/her, not necessarily w/ the breeders.
as for the home bred thing, well, that truly means SQUAT. people get these images that puppy mills and BYBs=massive factory like places w/ hundreds of dogs in cages. will this is often true of puppy mills, truth of the matter is that a BYB and small scale puppy mill can operate out of a good sized back yard (hence the term "backyard breeder" or BYB). home bred doesn't assure quality in any way, especially since a lot of "home bred" dogs actually spend most of their lives in outside kennels. not sure if you can sue for misrepresentation about being "home bred"; the words "home bred" could be twisted to mean a couple of things that. they could say the parents were literally bred, ie, mated, in their home, but are puppymill dogs, or one of the parents, like the male, could be on loan from the puppy mill, etc.
sadly, bulldogs are one of those sickly, overbred breeds that BYBs and puppy millers love to pimp out. not sure what type of health guarantee you got, hopefully it was for a full year and covers conditions like cherry eye. hopefully you'll be able to get compensation for the botched eye surgery, but not sure anything can be done about the "home bred" deception (which is truly quite common). then again, I'm not a lawyer, so if you're really thinking about suing, it may help to seek on out, or at least some sort of legal consul even if it is for small claims
It's always a good idea to see the premises, the parents and ask what health tests have been done on the parents and get references on the breeder. Unfortunately as you're finding out, bulldogs have many health issues including hip problems (check out www.offa.org ), eyes and breathing. Reputable breeders can also have these problems occasionally but they stand behind their puppies. If the puppy lemon law doesn't pan out, you can always try Jacoby & Meyers for a free consultation (I have no connection to them) or court tv but if you have nothing in writing, it may be an uphill battle, buyer beware. Good luck.
As previously mentioned, a reputable breeder will have at least the mother on site for you to observe. The breeder we purchased our girl from provided us a packet with copies of both the parents health certifications, recommendations on food, vac's that had already been provided as well as the ones due, we had to fill out an extensive application and had a telephone interview that probably lasted 30 min. Breeders should be experienced in the conformation ring at a minimum. Since we have a sporting breed (golden retriever) the father also has hunting titles. Our girl is now 3 and we still get messages from the breeder regarding food or safety issues. We had a bad experience with our first GR from a "backyard breeder" - she ended up being epileptic and after years of trying to control her seizures we had to euthanize her. When we decided to get another GR, we made sure to go to a reputable breeder. It was more expensive at the outset but the $ I have saved in vet bills is huge (so far - I realize there are no guarantees).
Oh, boy. A bulldog is a breed that you HAVE to get from a reputable breeder if you have any hope of having a reasonably healthy dog that will live more than 6 years.
The thing is, this breed has problems with its eyes, usually cherry eye or entropian eyelids that can cause ulcers. The people you bought the puppy from apparently tried to make good by taking care of his eye problems. It sounds like the vet they used botched it and that's whom you need to address. (I'm not saying these folks are good people or reputable but they DID respond to the problem and didn't leave you high and dry.) Or maybe the vet didn't botch it.
Here's the problem -- bulldogs are prone to a whole bunch of health issues. You will have to prove that the eye problems were caused by the vet and not simply a problem the breed has. You may not win that one. The opposing lawyer will point to all of the warnings about how medical care for all of the bulldog's potential issues is costly and everyone knows it. Rescue groups warn about it.
I'm really, really sorry you're going through this as it's sometimes a sad part of owning a bulldog. I adopted from bulldog rescue in the past and it's sad to see how many bulldogs wind up there because the owners just can't keep up with their medical needs. I LOVE the breed to bits -- they're wonderful pals -- but if I ever get a pup in the future, it would only be with the careful advice and guidance from the state Bulldog Club.
I have a four year old female bully. She had cherry eye when she was a pup, it was removed, had uclers on the eye and surgery to remove the lower eye lashes as they were growing into the eye. She still gets an ucler once in awhile in that same eye, we have eye cream that we use that helps clear it up. She also has had surgery to remove excess fat around her private area as it was catching some urine and she would get infected. She has had both knees blow out and had surgery for that. Her latest surgery was to remove bladder stones. These are just some of the things that can happen with a bulldog.
Bulldogs are one the unhealthiest I believe of all the breeds. We had a male who lived to age 12, who came from a not so good breeder in my eyes. He wanted all puppies gone at six weeks, Rugby, our male had no health proplems, some skin issues once in awhile, but other then that, nothing. Rita came from a good breeder, as far as I could tell and has been one big mess since day one.
Sometimes these things happen even with the best of breeders. When getting a bulldog people need to make sure they are aware that there is a change, a very good chance that they are going to have a lot of visits to the vet.
I don't know if you can sue, but I wish you luck with your bully. Even after all that we have been through with Rita, I'm still happy we got her. They bring such love and laughter into our lives. They are a remarkable dog that certainly doesn't deserve all the crap that some of them have to endure.
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I don't really know too much about what all you could do, legally, but I would think you could take them to court and hopefully have them pay the vet bills. Especially if they did something to worsen his condition. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I am sorry you are going through this and good luck!
