Is this a puppy farm?

[listsandbudgets]

We recently got a cocker spaniel. She's absolutely gorgeous and though not kennel club we're confident she's from a family home and we've seen her with mother and siblings. We went to see her several times before we brought her home even once turning up unannounced as we were "passing" and found mum had pups playing in kitchen.

However in looking we found an advert for puppies - 4 litters currently 4, 6 and 7 and 9 weeks old. We looked further at the advertisers other listings and 4 months earlier she had an advert for 4 litters all exactly the same ages . DD texted and was told that the 7 and 9 week puppies were available for collection that evening and to let them know which one we wanted from the photos ..She's now advertising puppies currently 3 weeks... It's not right is it? I've reported to Gum Tree but got no reply - can I do anything else?

Not necessarily a puppy farm.Gumtree doesn’t have the best reputation though.

A relative used to have 4 dogs and breed them (well cared for, good conditions, vet checks, fully vetted prospective owners etc) at the family home and was definitely not a puppy farm, it just meant she was able to be a SAHM whilst her DC were small rather than having to send them to childcare and go out to work.
Is now registered & has a license from the council & only has one or two litters per year as she also has a job & her youngest is 14.

You could speak to the council, or HMRC I suppose as you are only allowed to earn a certain amount. There is some info & links on here.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/animal-activities-licensing-guidance-for-local-authorities/dog-breeding-licensing-statutory-guidance-for-local-authorities

Seven week old puppies are too young to leave their mother, so flag that up too.

I wouldn't be so confident she was bred in a family home, if the breeder is consistently producing that volume of puppies where are they and the bitches all being kept?

Is the breeder licensed? Were the puppies microchipped? It's illegal to sell puppies before 8 weeks of age. No KC registration is a more minor red flag.

It's illegal to sell puppies under eight weeks of age under Sarah's Law.

Yes to puppy farm, or at least, a very dodgy backyard breeder.

Not Sarah's Law, Lucy's law! D'oh!

@currahee The breeder I'm talking about is not the one we got our puppy from. Too many alarm bells by far. just worrying about it and wondering what to do since gumtree did nothing

Our puppy was from a licensed breeder and micro chipped. She just lovely

I found a suspected puppy farmer on pets 4 homes. He had about 4 different litters from different bitches and had different usernames for each profile, but it was the same man as he had the same tattoos in every photo! I reported him but didn’t hear anything back. I did email him on a couple of the profiles and his grammar / spelling was the same and he was trying to off the boy pups cheaper. The house looked very run down too, so I don’t think the conditions the poor dogs were kept in were good at all.

@listsandbudgets she is beautiful!

Apologies, I read that as if it was the same breeder.

RSPCA? Would the rub do anything? I’d at least report it.

Poor dogs- rescue centres are bulging.

It's OK I read back and it did seem a bit muddled. We certainly weren't buying a puppy from someone who wanted us to choose from a photo and pick up the same evening - let alone a 7 week old. We only found the earlier adverts when we searched through after getting her text.

Our little bundle of trouble is currently chewing my toes - ouch !!