Aibu to be massively panicking about a pup I bought yesterday? European passport

[Ohforgodsake000]

Very stupidly bought a dog yesterday who came with a pet passport issued in Latvia.
All vaccines were stamped in the book and micro chipping also in there.
Thought nothing Of it until I mentioned to a police friend who said this is one of the biggest scams going and he probably doesn't have any vaccines including rabies and threadworm which he could now transfer to my kids.
I feel sick with worry.
What a stupid idiot I am.
No vets will see him as he's not yet registered and its now emergencies only.

How did the vets go?

@JigglyTuff Every breeder I know of in my area has a website. They state the pairings and potential litters. They they then update on the litters through their website.

This is still online advertising and frankly, in some cases the scale of the breeding is borderline ethically dubious.

Of course they advertise somehow. Not all breeders can make the money they want by word of mouth. Let's face it they're in it for the money, not just the love of it. Which IMO is the borderline with farming of puppies.

Latvia isn’t some developing dodgy Eastern European country. The likelihood of it being a fake passport is the same as if you bought a dog here, seriously. Stop panicking!

SilentlyScreaming - I'm not a cat behaviourist, so you are right that a rescue would have more expertise than I. But they are after all a charity and I consider my pets my responsibility so if I could find a decent home myself, as I did (in fact am still in contact with new owners now and all very happy all round) then I would prefer to rather than adding to a charity who already have many pets in need of homes.

Jiggly, I do understand the concept. But all breeders start somewhere, some responsible breeders will only have the odd litter nowadays etc so may not be well known. It's not irresponsible to breed if you know their will be a market; we reserved our's but their were a couple of pups from the same litter advertised (I presume online) and sold very quickly. We also found out about the breeder online but he only breeds every few years. It's unreasonable to think that nobody ever advertises in the real world.

We're all on the same page here that it's important to be responsible about pet ownership and buy from a reputable breeder, and rehome responsibly if ever necessary (or if you breed.) Shouldn't we focus on that rather than criminalising one specific means of advertising (more or less the only advertising nowadays!)? If accepted blindly the internet might contribute to the problem but is only a small part of a bigger picture.

I'd rather we focused on that then slung insults at each other!

There not their!

Why on earth would the op come back to be subjected to another torrent of spiteful abuse. She was looking for help and advice and was treated shamefully for doing her best to give a puppy a loving home.

I hope your dog is okay OP.

I hate to say it but I agree with Alexa. If this dog had gone to the vet and got the all clear then I bet we would have heard. Hoping the OP is trying to sort a bank loan or zero interest credit card rather than facing the loss of the dog.
Reputable breeders rarely have litters for sale and don't advertise online.
It IS irresponsible to breed because there's a "market" if you don't have a clue what you are doing. Health tests and choosing a mate and caring for young puppies and socialising and vetting homes.

I agree wolfiefan but I'm talking about experienced people who do know what they are doing, don't necessarily have a year long waiting list because they don't breed often and might not be that well known but are confident that their puppies will sell.

Op feels stupid about how she came to get her dog don't think majority of these posts helps her feel any better
People being very harsh!!

Hi op
Hope that all is ok

I've always understood you should see a puppy or kitten with its mother but I've never quite understood why. That wouldn't rule out puppy farms would it? Obvs you could check the mother looked healthy etc but I'm not sure how else it would help?

I have a genuine question - I want to learn, so am prepared to be told off. When DH and I wanted a cat (which was one of our first priorities on becoming homeowners) we first went to our local rescue, who told us that they never re-home to our postcode because we're too near a big road. We thought that was that but after a few months living there and seeing it was full of happy cats we decided this was a little overcautious. So we found online an adult (he was two) cat, 'free to a good home', whose (devastated) owner had to give him up because she was moving to rented. She came to see our house before giving him to us, and we sent her text updates for about a month. It's now two years later and this handsome boy (yes, this is also an excuse to show him off!) is, as you can see, keeping me company on the bed as I type. We were aware of some of the issues of getting a pet online but hoped that by getting an adult not a kitten, by not paying for him, and by getting a moggie we'd avoid a lot of the issues around breeding/stolen pets/etc. Is this fair? Or was what we did still irresponsible?

Why would OP come back? She's been called all sorts of things and one poster even suggested jail or asking local youths to throw cabbages at her?! For making a mistake OP was genuinely unaware of at first. One poster said that what they'd like to say was so unpleasant they'd be banned.

I've just been called a fucking idiot and thick myself, even though I agree with other posters that it is important to be responsible about pet ownership and check out homes you are buying from/selling to first.

It makes it very difficult to have a sensible conversation and no doubt puts people off asking advice which is a real shame as beneath all the mud throwing I'm sure some other posters have helpful info to impart.

Beautiful cat Margaret Cavendish!

I think you sound very responsible.

Sorry - just read previous post and I wasn't called a fucking idiot, PP was referring to something else

Here's the thing, Marmite, most people don't get up and think 'I'll abuse an animal today'. Like you, they are have bad judgement, are too arrogant to think that professional rescue organisations know more than them, can't be arsed to wait for the right animal to come along or think that the odd 'bait' dog is just collateral damage in the grand scheme of things.

I'm sure the OP didn't think she'd hand over the best part of £2k for a dog most likely to spend the rest of its life in pain. She's pointed out in her last post that the dog is very unlikely to have rabies and she's right, however, the only acceptable risk of rabies is nil. Like the risk of dogs being baited.

If one person is shamed out of doing what the OP has done I'll be delighted. If you were to pause before you collected your next animals from gumtree, I'll be delighted but I think there is considerably more likelyhood of the former than the latter.

I don't know if you're a fucking idiot but I think your behaviour and your defence of your behaviour has been fucking idiotic.

Shame and guilt aren’t terribly good motivating forces unfortunately.

I hope the OP’s puppy has been to the vets today and is ok.

He looks like a pug? People really should stop buying flat-faced dogs that have been bred this way for aesthetic reasons and can't breathe properly.
Dogs need noses!

@Str4ngedaysindeed A pedigree dog is not just bred for its looks—its temperament and energy level can also be chosen to suit the family.
Cockapoos are particularly popular because they are friendly, trustworthy, good with kids, they don't shed, intelligent and easy to train. Oh yes and they are pretty damn cute too!
They also don't have huge exercise requirements so are good for city dwellers.

Shelter dogs usually come from an uncertain background; many have behavioural problems and very few come with the 'good with children' guarantee.

Retract my previous question about pugs—I see from previous posts that he's a bulldog.

Fucking hell

Op how did it go

SilentlyScreaming, you aren't reading my posts! I am not too arrogant to think a rescue knows more than me, in fact I said that they do have more expertise than me.

Nor have I defended anything about the situation in question, all I have said is there is a bigger picture here than internet advertising, and also that it might be helpful to give useful advice rather than suggesting corporal punishment.

Why is my behaviour "fucking idiotic"? I've had happy animals most of my life, I've rehomed one animal who is very happy in a new home. I've said I'd be happy to use a charity but if I could find a home first why wouldn't I?

I'm also not sure why you think or how you know I have bad judgement and I think it's a shame to be called names. Nor did I say a bit of dog baiting was collateral, you've deliberately misinterpreted my words, I'm saying that there are genuine people who advertise (just like anything else) but the buyer must check out who they are buying from. I know there are a lot breeders with waiting lists, there are some genuine people who don't and I've explained why. Advertising isn't criminal and doesn't make them puppy farmers!

It seems the only thing we are disagreeing with is that the internet can ever be used as an advertisinf medium, that's all.

Is for example the breeder we bought our lovely dog from, automatically irresponsible because he advertised the last two pups of the litter? I don't know where he advertised but I guess online as where else?

The puppies are well bred from his own healthy, checked, registered working bitch, who had I think only been bred from once or twice before, by a known, registered health checked working etc dog. He only bred her occasionally but had bred others in the past and was an experienced owner of working dogs.

I heard about the breeder on Kennel Club website, reserved a puppy, but he lives fairly remotely and wasn't well known so there were two unreserved puppies left which he knew would sell quickly and he was right. I'm Facebook friends with all the other people who have puppies from the same litter and all look great and very much part of the family.

Please explain to me what is wrong with this? The kitten we heard about online (not bought online, obviously we'd go and meet them first and see what home was like before buying) was in a similar set up, lovely sensible people breeding occasionally from healthy animals. Also still Facebook friends with breeder and speak occasionally, no other litters since. I'm not sure why that isn't waiting for the right animal? He's perfect to us!

I stand corrected about cockerpoos. Apologies if I sounded rude.

The thing is a hundred of us could come on here and say i used the internet to get an animal and it was fine it worked out i know what i'm doing only an idiot would not check out the new home/the breeder ect.

The problem is that there are thousands more idiots people out there who have unwittingly sent their dog/cat/rabbit off to be bait or have done what the OP has done because it was easy. Because you can buy an animal online. And it will continue one and on while you can buy animals online.

IMO there's a grey area and debate to be had about the difference between a long established and reputable breeders website and a classified ad selling ''puppies''.

While there are a significant number of people using the internet to buy animals irresponsibly or for intentional harm then that luxury should be withdrawn.