Why oh why do people buy Gumtree puppies?

[Bubble2bubble]

I've just been sent a FB page of a family very local to me who bought a pug puppy from a Gumtree and and she died of parvo three days later.
I am sorry for them, and to have had their new pup die in their arms must have been truly awful.
They are now working with the RSPCA, and police and have been on local radio trying to get attention for the case, having discovered that the same seller was selling multiple breeds from several set-up addresses.
But really, to buy an unvaccinated, un-microchipped puppy from a 'breeder' on Gumtree , and to collect the pup half an hour after you see the ad - how could anyone think that was a good idea? I just don't know how many times the message has to be repeated :(

Make it illegal to profit from the selling of dogs and you will shut down the puppy farming industry overnight.

The reality is that there are very few responsible breeders and they don't need to make money if they're breeding for the good of the breed.

I'm not in the market for a dog but the reality is that rescue is not the answer as most rescues aren't interested in actually rehoming their dogs to decent people the more dogs they have in rescue the more money they raise. As for the "we'll never put a healthy dog down," message some of them put out, it's a load of crap to bring in more cash and by no means in the interests of the dogs who are sometimes so abused they can never be rehomed but because they don't have actual health conditions the rescues trade off this message in order to bring in the £££.

Sometimes putting an animal to sleep is actually in its interests..

And the rescues are full of bull breeds, lurches, greyhounds and dogs which generally aren't that good with children or cats and as such are likely never to be rescued. There certainly aren't rescues full of puppies waiting to be homed to loving families and as such the practice of buying off the internet continues.

The reality is that there are very few responsible breeders and they don't need to make money if they're breeding for the good of the breed.

The actual reality, from someone who has spent 30+ years around pedigree dogs, is that some breeders are crap but very many are fabulous. VERY few of them make any money - at best they may occasionally get a concentrated influx of money for a litter, having spent out many times that money over the past few years in pursuit of what is a very expensive hobby. (And no, I don't breed, haven't for years so am not defending myself.)

The trouble is that the good ones are being outweighed by the crap ones more and more each year, as the public jump on the designer dog bandwagon and pay no heed to where their puppies come from.

The farmers will just move on to whatever makes them a profit next if legislation reduces their money-making ability. The good breeders will be the ones who shut down, and then there will be no quality left. It's not like we can put the healthy dogs of good temperament 'on ice' until the rescue issue is cleared.

Sometimes putting an animal to sleep is actually in its interests.

I agree with this. So many dogs in rescue, so many being put to sleep, and yet rescues still re-home dogs that are never going to have an easy life, or give their owners one. I see one most mornings, turning somersaults and screaming on the end of his lead, with a muzzle on. I feel sorry for the dog, of course, but actually I mostly feel sorry for the owner who could be enjoying dog ownership with a more balanced dog.

I don't under-estimate the impact of that on those who work in rescue though. There really is no easy answer.

I live in an area that has at least two puppy farms. The BBC did an expose type programme on one of them. The local gumtree pages are full of adverts for different breeds of puppies, the telephone numbers are always the same
Unfortunately I've seen first hand the results of this, families buy a cute puppy on a whim and then quickly lose interest and need to rehome. Few months back I was in the vets and saw the most matted dog I've ever set eyes on. Poor thing could barely walk and was being anaesthetised so they could shave her. She was from a puppy farm and had served her purpose. In a way she was lucky to have been given the chance of a new home, most in her position are dispatched. I think a lot of the dogs from NI are shipped to England and Scotland.

loverofcake * most rescues aren't interested in actually rehoming their dogs to decent people the more dogs they have in rescue the more money they raise.*
Apart from being untrue, this comment is actually very offensive to many people in small rescues who put a lot of their own money and time into helping dogs and are constantly struggling for support and funds :(

There certainly aren't rescues full of puppies waiting to be homed to loving families

Um, actually there are....

most rescues aren't interested in actually rehoming their dogs to decent people the more dogs they have in rescue the more money they raise.

How on earth does this logic work? If they were driven by money, they'd be rehoming to anyone who asked, decent or not. The longer a dog sits in kennels, the more it costs, so would be to their benefit to get them out the door ASAP rather than restrict takers.

I do think some rescues are unrealistic about the restrictions they place on some dogs though. Surely for older, staid dogs, it would be more beneficial to have a home with someone who may not be on hand 24 hours, but has made appropriate arrangements for care? So sad to think of dogs that have lived a pet's life growing old in a kennel.

Ditto those who won't rehome an already neutered dog to someone who owns another unneutered dog. Clearly no puppies can result, and there are many good reasons not to neuter dogs.

Agree that some rescues should be more flexible. I heard yesterday of one local to me that had refused to rehome to a middle aged couple who had lost their 17 year old dog, for no reason other than their policy not to rehome within a month of Christmas. I see the logic of not giving out puppies to young, busy families at this time of year, but this case IMO was entirely different.

I saw this story too OP. Idiots.

Why do people do it? Because they want the exact breed they fancy (currently), they want it cheap and they want it ASAP. No doubt the same people would have the thing sleeping outside on freezing concrete by February if it hadn’t died. Pets are disposable, bought on a whim. Easy come, easy go.

She was from a puppy farm and had served her purpose

Many tears rescue is full of ex breeders - so sad. You do need a resident dog normally as the dog needs another one to learn from. I will take one at some point, it'll be my biggest challenge yet but no doubt the most rewarding too

Let's be honest here. If people who want to rescue have resorted to bringing in rescues from overseas then it's blatantly obvious that the rescues in the UK aren't doing enough to find homes for their dogs or their dogs aren't rehomeable and should be pts not left to languish in kennels.

Yes, some people may not be suitable to rescue, but let's face it, the criteria applied are far too strict - it's easier to adopt here in the UK than it is to rescue a dog.

Let's be honest here. If people who want to rescue have resorted to bringing in rescues from overseas then it's blatantly obvious that the rescues in the UK aren't doing enough to find homes for their dogs or their dogs aren't rehomeable and should be pts not left to languish in kennels.

I'm afraid I think a lot of that is it's not good enough to just have a rescue these days, to be really 'on trend' you have to have an obscure imported one!

The people importing these rescues should be even more careful than UK ones where they are rehoming, as they are bringing basically feral dogs in and expecting novices to cope with them. That's a whole other thread, though ...

If people weren’t so appallingly bad to dogs either through ignorance or deliberate neglect and cruelty then I imagine the rescues would feel happier to relax their rules but as it stands they have to be strict. Animals aren’t valued as they should be. And I don’t mean animals are like mini humans or as Important as children, (except my dog, he is very important ) I mean they aren’t considered to have actual real feelings of pain and hunger and fear etc. They are accessories to far too many people. There to serve a purpose (fun for the kids, status symbol, breeding etc) and discarded once their purpose Is served.

A man was sentenced here this week for strangling a dog he bought on gumtree before cooking it and feeding it to his other dog. no wonder rescues are strict!

WTF?
I wish I could claim it was beyond belief. But unfortunately it isn't.
Like the KC reg breeder who allowed closely related dogs to breed. Asked the vet to PTS the seemingly healthy pups. When they wouldn't she tried to do the job herself in the most horrific way.
The KC didn't deregister her.

Honestly, you could spend every single day filled with reading new cases of animal cruelty. It never ends.

Oh come on those cases are few and far between in the scheme of things and have absolutely nothing to do with why rescues are so reluctant to rehome to anyone.

The reality is that most rescued dogs just aren't suitable for rehoming because they come from those types of homes in the first place.

But when you have bleeding heart liberals talking about how when a dog bites a child you shouldn't think of having that dog pts but should have it put into rescue instead you are creating yet another situation where a dog is going to be spending the majority of the rest of its life in kennels because no responsible person should rehome any aggressive dog to anyone, and the majority of other rescues are staffies etc which have generally been bought as status symbols and aren't suitable for rehoming either.

Yes re imported dogs IMO importing rescues should be illegal. Make staffies and bull breeds illegal under the dangerous dogs act and then you remove the majority of rescue need in this country.

Re buying dogs from gumtree and similar, there is IMO a bit of a generational issue going on there. As children it was routine to buy a puppy from the papers etc because we didn't have this over-indulged need to have the next designer dog in the mix so the puppy farms were nowhere near as prevalent as they are now. Added to which, due to the changes in the quarantine laws it's become a lot easier to import dogs from abroad.

Although I've read that Brexit is likely to reverse the quarantine lawS but we'll see...

But as people grow up buying a dog from gumtree is going to become less and less attractive to many IMO. But it'll take time...

The KC didn't deregister her.

Deregister is the wrong phrase, but yes they did. There was a bit of hoo-hah at the time calling for the KC to do something, without any understanding that it is standard practice to allow the Court to do their business and give someone a fair trial before the KC will act.

She has been suspended from all KC activities and registrations for a period of 10 years, with an option to extend this time period.

(And in reality, she will never be able to show her face at a show again ... the general dog show community will take a very dim view of her - although I have to say, I do wonder at the vet who turned her away and expected all to be OK, and am amazed they didn't take the pups from her themselves. NOT saying it is their fault, obviously.)

10 years for battering a puppy to death with a tin opener and leaving (I think) 8 to freeze to death in a freezer?!
No wonder people think the KC is a worthless institution.

Oh come on those cases are few and far between in the scheme of things and have absolutely nothing to do with why rescues are so reluctant to rehome to anyone.

Nothing at all?

I don't disagree with you, nor do I think much of a 12 week suspended sentence and costs of £750 from the courts of this land either.

I was just correcting the perception that the KC did nothing.

I would wonder if some mental health issues were perhaps taken in to account? I clearly don't understand or condone her actions, but those who say that breeders are just in it for the money ... 9 pups at c.£500 a shot (as the KC would not have registered them)? Surely if just in it for the money she'd have reared them and sold them, because for all that they were very closely related, there's every chance they would have been fine.

I did wonder what the back story was. Not just horrific but also completely illogical.
Many people will pay even if not KC reg.
Who knows what drives someone like that?

I avoided articles with photos, bad enough reading about it, but I note that some or all of the pups were blue merles.

I wonder if the brother x sister mating was also merle x merle. Such matings are not undertaken by anyone reputable, due to possibility of blindness/deafness and worse. (Also banned by KC, even if relationship of parents wouldn't have removed possibility for registration anyway.)

I wonder if this might be why she had such concerns about them? I would hope the vet might have handled it better if this were the case, though.

Anyway, we digress, but although the KC have many shortcomings they get enough knocking without misinformation. I have never seen a cruelty case where they haven't banned the person after the trial and conviction.

For a short period!
I just wish there was an independent body of some sort committed to developing effective licences for breeders and raising standards and awareness (eg health testing for different breeds.)

I do too, but think the single biggest thing that would make a difference is consumer demand, and unfortunately that's going in the oppposite direction from any requirement for quality.