Saw some Puppies in v dirty conditions

[Imdoingitnow]

We went to look at some Labrador pups tonight and I felt absolutely disgusted and sick. I'd seen the advert on pets 4homes. Should I report him and if so to who? They were in a big wooden box, the floor was covered in newspapers wet with urine, the pups were wet too and there weren't any blankets or towels for them. The house was a mess, boxes and rubbish all over the place. They had a sold sign outside their house and they said they were waiting to move house. The mum was acting very submissive lying on the floor every time she was stroked by us to have belly rubbed - her teats were swollen and she had crate near to the pups box with no bed or blankets in it just the metal base of the crate. She kept scrabbling around the edges of her crate as if she was looking for food.

We asked the owner how many litters the mum had had and he said 3. I couldn't help thinking that that's all she was for - breedings. She seemed such a lovely girl but so submissive. He looked quite pleased with himself as he told us he'd always bred dogs.

The puppies were lovely but we felt dirty and couldn't wait to get out of this house. I can honestly say, and I've been in some messy untidy houses in my life, that I've never seen anything so bad. I couldn't wait to get out and put antiseptic gel on my hands and then I have them gave them a good wash

I'd like to report him. Does anyone know who I should report him to? Pets4 home? trading standards? RSPCA?

You can report him to the council.

Ask to return for a 2nd viewing of the pups and take pictures or video if possible?

There’s not a huge amount of regulation of ‘hobby’ breeders - trading standards only really deals with licensed breeders, and you don’t need a licence if you breed less than three litters per year.

Pets4homes is notorious for being full of puppies raised in suboptimal conditions so I’m not sure they would have much to say about it...

The RSPCA only really get involved if there’s a welfare issue, you could call them and describe the conditions, they might do a visit and advise the owner (although some of what you’ve described is actually quite common practice with breeding - puppies are often in wooden pens and they wee everywhere, and the owners’ house being dirty/messy isn’t really an issue to the dogs if they’re not roaming freely; but I think the lack of soft bedding would concern me).

Wow that’s awful! It sounds like a job for the RSPCA.

I would also report them to trading standards, the council, HMRC (in case they are not paying tax on the money that they're making from breeding) and Four Paws: www.four-paws.org.uk/campaigns-topics/topics/companion-animals/report-illegal-puppy-traders

That is really sad for the mum and pups. I would ring the rspca and the local council for sure and stress urgency if he's moving as he'll likely move on and breed again (if it's actually even his house, sometimes it's a front!) you can report on pets4homes too, I believe they have got better at acting on reports.

Did he have other dogs in the house as well if he's always bred dogs? I bet the poor mum hasn't had any health tests done. How old were the puppies? Did they seem alert and well and happy apart from wet? How many pups were in the litter and is he charging 3k a pup? Def report him to hmrc as well as doubt he's filling out a tax return!

Do you have an actual name and address? If so, you report to council, HMRC and trading standards.

Were there any KC papers?
You can't sell puppies without a microchip- was there any evidence of this?

It sounds sickening but there's probably very little you can do as they probably didn't give you a real name and it's quite possibly not their house unfortunately.

It might also be worth contacting the estate agent on the sold sign. Just in case it isn't their house and they're using it as a front.

If they claimed to be Kennel Club assured breeders, I would also report to them: www.thekennelclub.org.uk/forms/assured-breeders-scheme-complaint-form/

Did you take any photos of mum and pups (with the breeders in the frame)?

Ps don't buy one from him believing you are rescuing it as you will be paying for it in vets bills. My parents bought two puppies from a similar set up as they felt so bad leaving them there... they are now 7 but have had constant severe health issues, allergies to loads of things, skin issues, behavioural and anxiety issues so although my parents love them to pieces they have cost them ££££ with ongoing issues and they don't expect them to live beyond 9/10 as opposed to 14/15 breed average.

Thanks everyone. There's some good point made
I woke up at 5 thinking about that poor mum in her dirty crate with no bed or blankets and scrabbling around for food. She just wanted to be stroked by us, she was so submissive the poor little thing.
My DH who's sickened by it too has pointed out that we're went early deliberately and that we probably caught them on the hop with no time to clean up the urine soaked newspapers from he puppies box and make it look better.

I'm going to report him to everyone I can't think of rspca the council pets4homes etc. I've his address and postcode and mobile and I was deliberately vague about my own contact details.

It might be worth googling his mobile number to see if he's advertised them on other sites as well. I would report him to every site that he is advertising them on. I would also take screenshots of the adverts to submit along with any reports that I make.