I’m not talking so much about why people would buy a puppy from a backyard breeder as that’s a discussion in its own right, but why anyone would log on to their local gumtree, look up the pets for sale adverts, and call the owner and arrange to go and collect a living breathing animal without having first met the “breeder” the dogs or had anything to do with them before jumping in the car and coming home with said puppy, usually at vast expense.
Looking at my local gumtree there are puppies for sale for as much as £2000, 
and even one for £1700 which is described at being available at “the bargain price of.....” . A bargain? For a living animal? 
.
Why?
On some level I can sort of see how someone might know someone locally with puppies and end up taking one. I wouldn’t but I can see how it happens. But answering an advert on a buying/selling website and collecting an animal from a complete stranger after handing over often upwards of a grand for what might even be a mongrel masquerading as a genuine breed (i.e. cockerpoo/cavachon/labradoodle and I even saw one described as a pomchi the other day, just why would anyone do that?
AIBU?
To wonder why anyone would buy a puppy through gumtree or the like?
SummerGems · 28/10/2018 15:15
Hamster in a bucket shock angry
There was a guinea-pig rescue that took some piggies in that were kept in a bucket. The owner got overwhelmed (males can breed at 4 weeks and aren;t that fussy , they;ll mate with their own mum)
He put the boars in to seperate - adult and baby boars- from the sows .
Oh no 70.
I think smaller pets (especially bunnies) often get an even rawer deal than cats and dogs. Bought often for kids who have neither the inclination or the knowledge to care for them. Stuck in tiny hutches and no room to bounce and leap like bunnies should.
I’m afraid I have a nasty suspicious mind when it comes to breeding and dogs. I have always rescued cats in the past from proper rescues. I wouldn’t buy a dog from anyone I didn’t know and trust. It’s too big a risk. Not just because I could end up with a sick or aggressive dog but for the poor parents too. I would love another one. But I won’t breed. I really don’t know nearly enough to make a good job of it. And I will wait. I’m really hoping that one particular breeder may have a pup available for me at some point next year. But they may not. I’ll wait.
Oh and I still feel guilty about buying a pedigree. Volunteer weekly at a local shelter. My dog also regularly wins food in shows. We donate that to the shelter too.
I’m trying to make a difference. But in a world of one click and buy the pup you like the look of? It feels a bit hopeless sometimes.
I think it’s somewhat disingenuous to say that breeders don’t make money, however I also think that the rescues need to do something, because I am actualy of the belief that many rescues do hoard dogs as more dogs make for more donations.
the reality is that it’s a mix - as much as there are owners who aren’t suitable to rescue, so there are rescue dogs which aren’t suitable for rehoming, and in those instances I do think that sometimes the kindest thing is to pts. E.g. those rescues who state that they “never put a healthy dog down,” let’s be honest, if a dog is so traumatised that it can never be rehomed then it’s not a healthy dog, and is definitely not going to benefit from spending the rest of its life in kennels. Put the poor thing out of its misery in that case.
My personal view is that it should be made illegal to profit from the sale of live animals. If you did that you’d shut down the puppy farm trade over night. There is literally no reason why this shouldn’t be supported by anyone who is a genuine animal lover. There is no reason what so ever why anyone should need to make money from live animals. Those who are in it for the love of the breed would still be there, surely? And anyone else would have nothing to gain by breeding.
A family member of mine answered an ad from gumtree and went to see a small breed dog available at that very moment. Turns out there were nine puppies, there’s no way they were all from the same bitch, if the one with them was even the mother of any of them, and the “breeders” wanted cash - £1000. and they left with a puppy. I was horrified but had no knowledge of this until several days later when my mum pointed it out. They haven’t had any problems with their dog, but they so easily could have done.
Equally though a work colleague of my mum’s bought a dog from a so-called reputable breeder, waited months for her puppy, and it turned out the puppy came from a puppy farm and had parvo when it arrived. The RSPCA and police became involved, and after thousands and thousands in vet bills the pup did pull through,, but it’s a good indication that so called reputable breeders aren’t a sure thing either. But just because there are dodgy KC breeders out there doesn’t mean that buying a dog from the internet is a lesser risk.
My personal view is that there is absolutely no reason why anyone should end up with unwanted litters of animals of any description. If you don’t want the responsibility of baby animals then get the bloody adult ones neutered or keep them separated if they’re not of a breed which can be neutered e.g. rats/gerbils and so on.
I would only ever rescue cats, and the lack of decent breeders who aren’t just in it to chern out cute baby animals means I wouldn’t be ever likely to get a puppy.
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